Delaney, Bonnie & Friends

Delaney & Bonnie
Delaney & Bonnie in 1970, during the making of their album To Bonnie from Delaney
Background information
Origin	Los Angeles, California, US
Genres	Blues rock, blue-eyed soul
Years active	1967–1972
Labels	Stax, Elektra, Atco, Columbia/CBS, Rhino
Past members	Delaney Bramlett Bonnie Bramlett Duane Allman Gregg Allman Leon Russell Carl Radle Jim Gordon Jim Price Darrell Leonard Dave Mason David Marks Rita Coolidge King Curtis Eric Clapton Bobby Whitlock Jim Keltner Bobby Keys Gram Parsons George Harrison

Delaney & Bonnie were the American musical duo, singers and songwriters Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett. In 1969 and 1970 they fronted a rock/soul ensemble, Delaney & Bonnie and Friends, whose members at different times included Duane Allman, Gregg Allman, George Harrison, Leon Russell, Bobby Whitlock, Dave Mason, Rita Coolidge, King Curtis, and Eric Clapton.

Delaney Bramlett (July 1, 1939, , Mississippi, United States – December 27, 2008, Los Angeles, California, United States) learned the guitar in his youth. He moved to Los Angeles in 1959, where he became a session musician. His most notable early work was as a member of the Shindogs, the house band for the ABC-TV series Shindig! (1964–66), which also included guitarist and keyboardist Leon Russell.

Bonnie Bramlett (née Bonnie Lynn O'Farrell, born November 8, 1944, Alton, Illinois, United States) was an accomplished singer at an early age, performing with blues guitarist Albert King at age 14 and in the Ike & Tina Turner Revue at 19—the first white Ikette, "for three days in a black wig and Man Tan skin darkener." She moved to Los Angeles in 1967 and met and married Bramlett later that year.

Delaney Bramlett and Leon Russell had many connections in the music business through their work in the Shindogs and formed a band of solid, if transient, musicians around Delaney and Bonnie. The band became known as "Delaney & Bonnie and Friends", because of its regular changes of personnel. They secured a recording contract with Stax Records after they had completed work on their first album, Home, in early 1969 at Russell's home studio, Skyhill (named after his address in Skyhill Drive, North Hollywood). In his 2007 autobiography, Eric Clapton claimed that Delaney & Bonnie and Friends were the first white group to sign a contract with Stax. Despite production and session assistance from Donald "Duck" Dunn, Isaac Hayes, and other Stax mainstays of the era, the album was not successful—perhaps because of poor promotion, as it was one of 27 albums simultaneously released by Stax in that label's initial attempt to establish itself in the album market.