Doyle Bramhall Sr. died in his sleep last night in Alpine of apparent natural causes. He was 62. Bramhall’s career began in the Chessmen, the blues-rock outfit that brought him and Jimmie Vaughan together. The Chessmen were kings of Dallas in the 1960s, virtual royalty as a band and good enough to land opening gigs with the superstars of the day.

“Breakfast with Jimi Hendrix, lunch with Keith Moon, and dinner with Janis Joplin,” said Bramhall in Margaret Moser’s 2003 cover story on the drummer, “Life By the Drop.”

More on Bramhall in this Thursday’s print edition.

This article appears in November 11 • 2011.

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San Francisco native Raoul Hernandez crossed the border into Texas on July 2, 1992, and began writing about music for the Chronicle that fall, debuting with an album review of Keith Richards’ Main Offender. By virtue of local show previews – first “Recommendeds,” now calendar picks – his writing’s appeared in almost every issue since 1993.