With the deepest sadness, we the Baker Brooks family, announce the passing of our Father, Legendary Blues musician Lonnie Brooks at the age of 83 in Chicago, IL. on 4/1/17.
Please respect the family's privacy during this time of grief.
https://youtu.be/QOq35dk83YQ this has been one of my favourite blues performances for a long time. A well covered Jr Parker tune but I found this special anthomp
I saw Lonnie Brooks live several times back in the 90s. I always thought he was a good example of a mid-level blues artist: solidly within the tradition, a good (but not memorable) performer, and a not particularly original instrumentalist.
The DJ on Sirius XM played a track from him yesterday: "Crosscut Saw," from 1975.
His guitar playing here is second-rate. Not bad, just a derivative sound taken from Albert King that is definitely NOT Albert King. (They played King after Brooks and I decided in that moment that King is the greatest electric blues guitarist of all time. A considered judgment, which I'll be happy to argue about in another thread. Only Albert Collins comes close. Neither B.B. nor Freddie comes close.)
Brooks guitar didn't impress me, but his singing did. He has his own way of pushing his voice up to the high octave. It's distinctive, it's feelingful, and it works. He got my respect as a blues vocalist with that one song. I still think he's a talent of the second order, not the first. But a part of the tradition nonetheless, and somebody who earned his place in that tradition.
Last Edited by kudzurunner on Apr 05, 2017 9:06 AM
People always say that you can learn things from every performer. I saw Lonnie Brooks several times from the early 1980's and until he stopped touring. He was a great band leader. He always had really good bands. He was a fine singer and guitarist. He wrote some really cool tunes. He was also a very good showman. I never saw a bad Lonnie Brooks performance. He knew how to work an audience. He always had the audience in the palm of his hand and left them wanting more. He had about ten records released on Alligator Records, which is one of the premier blues labels out of Chicago. Only Lil' Ed and the Blues Imperials and Little Charlie and the Nightcats have more recordings out on the label.
I only had the opportunity to meet him a few times, he was a very nice, cordial and approachable person. I know a lot of people who knew him to varying degrees. Some are his family members, friends, band members. I have never heard anyone that knew him say anything bad or negative about him. He always treated people with respect. He was a father figure to many people on the Chicago Blues scene. There are a lot of people who will miss him. I am one of them.
Last Edited by Joe_L on Apr 05, 2017 2:25 PM
I'm glad you brought all those things up, Joe. They're all a part of the total package. I'm struck, for example, by what you've written about the number of albums he had on Alligator. I respect Bruce Iglauer's judgment very highly. I know from various conversations and emails over the years that he cares a lot about original songs; that's as important to him as any single element that leads him to record a blues artist. (Another is ability as a live performer.) So if he had that kind of respect for Brooks, that in itself says a lot, and is worth investigating. Are there particular songs by Brooks that you think are standouts--and/or that have been covered widely in the Chicago scene?
I should note that when I judge Brooks in the way that I do, I'm doing so with reference to the all-time greats: the big, indelible, irreplaceable performers and recording artists who have an original sound that others imitate; who have a powerful stage presence that leaves people in awe. Buddy Guy and Taj Mahal are that kind of player--two of the best among the living. Bonnie Raitt is that kind of player. But individuals become valuable within blues scenes for a range of reasons, all of them important, and I have no doubt that within the contemporary Chicago blues scene, Lonnie Brooks was a major artist with a heck of a lot of fans and friends, an achieved name, and a deserved reputation. You've helped clarify why that is.
Last Edited by kudzurunner on Apr 05, 2017 4:24 PM
None of the above mentions that Lonnie Brooks had a whole 'nother career, in a sense, as "Guitar Jr." down in Louisiana as a young man, during which his hits "Family Rules" and "Roll, Roll, Roll" became STANDARDS around my part of the world, as BBQ Bob would put it. That swamp blues/swamp pop/swamp R&R sensibility never left him while he absorbed Chicago blues and changed with the times and kept working all along.
There was a blues revival brewing in the late 1970s even before the Blues Brothers movie came out, fomented by Alligator Records and the nationwide emergence of a better class of white blues bands and by Malaco Records too. Lonnie Brooks was one of its avatars, like Albert Collins, and it may surprise people to see how parallel their recording careers were. But Baton Rouge maybe is not possible to pigeonhole instrumentally the way you can hear Collins and say "Texas guitarist" instantly, and Brooks did not project that humorous individual persona as a songwriter that Collins did. Sang better, though.
Brooks seemed like Johnny Copeland to me: maybe not as distinctive a guitarist as Collins, but brought the whole package to the party and had early hits that became standards. All three left their home areas after having been commercially successful there, and succeeded again elsewhere, changing their groove with the times. That's a long and beautiful career arc that isn't strictly about instrumental prowess or innovation or instrumental influence.
To me some blues artists are "beyond category" the way they classify climbs in mountain stages in bicycle racing: they go beyond being first-rate artists by writing more standards, defining vocal or instrumental or band styles, innovating more often. But a first-rate artist is still a first-rate artist, and Lonnie Brooks was a first-rate artist.
I'm just particularly grateful to Lonnie Brooks because he had Billy Branch play on "Breakfast in Bed" on Strikes Like Lightning when the first harmonica I had was a B MB I'd inherited from a brother who'd bought it as a prop; that and a song or two that Slim Harpo did were what I had to play along with, at the start. Songs in F# were even harder to find prior to SRV's emergence.
Last Edited by htownfess on Apr 05, 2017 6:03 PM
I appreciate Lonnie for his licks. He was great at building original songs around licks. All those Louisiana and Texas guys were great at building songs around licks. Try playing along to this song, it's fun:
