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Welcome to the official Robert Bradley's Blackwater Surprise Channel. We hope you enjoy the media gathered here for the true Robert Bradley fan.
Robert Bradley's story has become a music myth - born blind in Evergreen, Alabama - toured the country by Greyhound playing music at every stop as a young adult - signed to labels like Motown before busking in the Eastern Market in Detroit to audiences so large the businesses complained and shut him down...
It was his first RCA recordings as Robert Bradley's Blackwater Surprise that first captured more of the mainstream audience's attention, followed by appearances on MTV, Carson Daly, Conan O'Brien, etc. Then, the ultimate musician's dream - a role in a major Hollywood film executive produced by Halle Berry called "Lackawanna Blues."
Now, Robert Bradley has entered a new chapter. Five years after the last studio record, Robert Bradley's Blackwater Surprise delivered Out of the Wilderness. The long-awaited album is the fifth major release from the blind artist who illuminates his listeners with his lyrical and musical vision.
"This record brings me back to the time when I started out wanting to be a singer-songwriter, where the music did not need the New York Philharmonic to make it real. It's just me at the piano with the musicians around me finding my groove. I wanted to do a record and just be Robert and sing straight like Jim Reeves on 'Put Your Sweet Lips a Little Closer to the Phone.' I wanted to do a record that was innocent. That's why I say Out of the Wilderness because it is like I've just been born," explains Bradley.
Across an intriguing selection of new material, Robert performs with a passionate sincerity whether the subject is his daughter leaving home for the first time in the unusually up-tempo "Beautiful Girl," or his yearning for true love in the achingly romantic "Gotta Find a Woman," or his heartfelt longing for his home in the ballad to his state "Alabama," or just a brother living in "Americaland." The ten song emotional journey exposes Robert doing what he does best - captivate with his unmistakable soulfully expressive voice that is deepened by a sense of his hard-won personal life experience.
A year in the making, Out of the Wilderness showcases a brilliant collaboration between artist and producer with Bradley's raw authentic spirit equally matched by one of music production's purists. Producer Bruce Robb's vintage analog recording techniques and a musician's soul create the sublime sonic landscape that pairs the rich gospel-honed vocals and bluesman's undressed piano style with superlative musicianship by guitarists Matthew J. Ruffino and Zachary Throne, bassist Larry "Bones" Dennison, drummer Oscar Seaton, percussionists Craig Krampf and Scot "Little" Bihlman, and Robb himself on B3 and Wurlitzer.
"What makes this record really unique is that it is coming from a place that is pure feel and that is not easy to do. Otis Redding, Sam Cooke, Ray Charles there just aren't that many of them. It takes a special kind of artist, and that's what makes this record so honest. It's that irresistible groove," describes Robb.
With the added magic of being one of the final recordings from the famous Cherokee Studios, the resulting album is best described as classic Rhythm and Blues that is remarkably contemporary, and everything a listener and fan can hope for.
