Jimmie Bratcher - Far Enough (2023)

Kansas City guitarist, Jimmie Bratcher, aka The Electric Rev, is a prolific writer, who keeps busy touring a mix of churches, clubs, and prisons, alternately preaching and performing that requires interchangeable audience-grabbing abilities and employs his greatest gift - being a captivating storyteller. He has released a dozen albums, a cookbook and two live DVDs since 2001 and now delivers his 13 th album Far Enough, together with a 117-page companion book for the album “Far Enough Stories & Songs.” Bratcher collaborated fully with keyboardist, engineer and producer Eric Stark to write or co-write the collection of eleven new tracks in a sophisticated presentation that expands the boundaries of “Blues Rock,” employing strings, brass, lap steel, and Irish penny whistle to back up Bratcher’s guitar work and providing a colorful landscape for his expansive tales of faith, discovery, love, loss, and life.

The southern fried gospel infused opener, ”Far Enough,” tells the story of a man delivered into sobriety through grace and a helping hand from a dear friend. The big production continues with hot horns and glorious backing vocals from Charmelle Cofield as Bratcher narrates the life and times of Jim Gaines, Jimmie’s friend and a multiple Grammy-winning record producer and engineer. The slick two-beat funk “Don’t Count Me Out,” features another great horn chart, greasy B3 organ from Aaron Mayfield and sweet backup vocals, to create a very Ray Charles soul-styled track. “My Name Is Sinner” reflects the plight of many a downtrodden soul in a dramatic performance from Bratcher on soaring vocals and guitar. The acoustic driven “The Road That Leads Home” is a homily of hope and redemption.

“Living Here In Babylon” rocks hard and hits topical and timely talking points about our complex world. Stark wrote the expansive power ballad, “Chains ,” that Bratcher embodies the profession of faith with his whole being. He lightens the mood asking the simple question “Why Is It We Don’t Dance Anymore,” with a four-piece horn section punctuating his call for a return to the good times. The tragic tale, “When He Dreams,” tugs at the heartstrings as it portrays the life of someone whose eyesight was taken but his hope and imagination remain. Bratcher emphasizes his point with grinding slide guitar on the fiery rebuke, “Don’t Bring That Evil Round Here.”

The album closer “Save Me From Myself,” is a work of clinical self-evaluation administered as a melancholy blues with cinematic underpinning. Bratcher and Stark have created a heady piece of work on Far Enough that will challenge and enlighten listeners with equal measure. ~Rick J Bowen