Delaney Makes Some New Friends : Music: Bramlett, who led bands that included Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix, tells KSBR listeners he’s back with a 10-piece group after a long quiet spell.

“This is the best band I’ve ever had together,” said Delaney Bramlett, sitting in radio station KSBR’s studio Monday night as a recording of one of his new songs faded out.

That’s quite a claim, considering some of the players Bramlett boasted in the revolving lineup of his earlier band, Delaney & Bonnie & Friends, which recorded and toured from 1968 to 1972. The “Friends” along the way included Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Dave Mason, Leon Russell, Rita Coolidge--even Jimi Hendrix, Bramlett said.

“He played with me for about three months,” Bramlett said. “That was at the height of his career.” Hendrix volunteered for the tour after the band’s original guitarist dropped out at the last minute, and played as an unbilled sideman. Bramlett recalled the audience reaction when they saw Hendrix on stage.

“They’d say, ‘Nah, that ain’t him,’ ” Bramlett said. “Then they’d go, ‘Wait a minute, that is him!’ ”

Bramlett shared stories of his glory days live with Aaron Blackwell, host of the weekly blues program “A Blue, Blue Monday” on KSBR (88.5 FM). Blackwell has been doing the show since 1987, and often brings guests into the studio to talk and perform. Local bluesmen who have performed on Blackwell’s show include James Harman, Robert Lucas, Harmonica Fats and Bernie Pearl.

Bramlett has been quiet musically since his breakup with wife and musical partner Bonnie Bramlett in 1973, with the exception of a failed 1977 comeback try and sporadic club shows. He has spent most of his time at his Los Angeles ranch, raising his children and riding horses.

He’s getting serious about music again, though, and has assembled a 10-piece band that has been recording in his home studio and playing regularly at Trancas club in Malibu. The band, named Delaney Bramlett & Friends, will play Nov. 30 at At My Place in Los Angeles; Bramlett’s manager, meanwhile, has been shopping the tapes in search of a record deal.

KSBR disc jockey Marc Ennis caught one of Bramlett’s Malibu shows, which led to his appearance on Blackwell’s show. Bramlett admitted he was a bit rusty at interviews and frequently dropped words that aren’t supposed to be uttered on radio, leading Blackwell to joke about the future of his FCC license.

Blackwell played tapes of Bramlett’s recent music, which recalls the blues-gospel sound of his early ‘70s recordings. He also coaxed the guitarist and songwriter into playing some licks on an acoustic guitar as well as sharing some tales from his rock ‘n’ roll past.

He told of wild times from one Canadian tour that featured--in addition to Delaney & Bonnie & Friends--Janis Joplin, the Band and the Grateful Dead. Joplin had asked Bramlett to write a song for her on the tour, he said, and she was still working on recording it when she died in 1970.

Bramlett played a bit of the song, including lines that seem prescient in hindsight: “Sometimes I get so haunted, I guess I’ll wind up in a graveyard.” After that, Bonnie was so spooked by the song and the circumstance that she “wouldn’t even cut the damn thing,” Bramlett said. The song has never been recorded, he said.

Delaney & Bonnie & Friends once was the opening act for Blind Faith, the short-lived super-group that featured Clapton and Steve Winwood. After Blind Faith’s demise, Clapton toured with Delaney and Bonnie, a partnership that resulted in a 1970 live album and other collaborations.

(After Monday’s show, Blackwell showed Bramlett a copy of the long-out-of-print “Delaney & Bonnie & Friends on Tour with Eric Clapton” album, the cover of which is a picture of a long luxury car with a pair of boots sticking out the window. The car, Bramlett said, was agent Albert Grossman’s; the boots belonged to Bob Dylan, who had fallen asleep in the front seat).

Bramlett went on to produce Clapton’s first solo album (“I talked him into singing,” he said) and co-wrote several songs on the record.

In fact, he claims to have written some 250 songs that have been recorded, and said he’s co-written several well-known songs for which he either received no songwriting credit or royalties. But he said he has been too “lazy” to pursue the matter.

“If I ever get a lawyer who is halfway decent,” he said, “I might get a dime or two.”

* “A Blue, Blue Monday” with Aaron Blackwell airs each Monday from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. on KSBR (88.5 FM).