Lonnie Brooks

Having forged a distinctive Louisiana/Chicago blues synthesis unlike anyone else’s around the competitive Windy City scene, charismatic guitarist Lonnie Brooks lengthy reigned among the town’s best bluesmen. A masterful showman, the good-natured Brooks placed on a display add up to his recordings (and that is saying a whole lot, considering you can find four-plus years of wax to select from). Given birth to Lee Baker, Jr. in Louisiana, Brooks required his time whenever choosing his vocation; he didn’t play electric guitar significantly until he was in his early twenties and surviving in Interface Arthur, Texas. Quickly assimilating the licks of B.B. Ruler and Long John Hunter, he arrived a gig with zydeco pioneer Clifton Chenier (not really a bad method to break into the business enterprise) before inaugurating his very own recording profession in 1957 using the important swamp pop ballad “Family members Guidelines” for Eddie Shuler’s Lake Charles, Louisiana-based Goldband Information. The young rock and roll & roller — after that billed as Electric guitar Junior — appreciated more regional achievement on Goldband using the rocking dance quantity “The Crawl” (protected much later from the Fantastic Thunderbirds). Mercury also released two 45s by Acoustic guitar Junior. When Sam Cooke provided the youthful rocker an opportunity to accompany him to Chicago, he gladly approved. But two complications confronted him once he showed up: there is another Acoustic guitar Junior around (precipitating the delivery of Lonnie Brooks), as well as the bayou blues that therefore enthralled Gulf Coastline crowds didn’t cut it up north. Spread session function (he performed on Jimmy Reed’s Vee-Jay traditional “Big Boss Guy”) and some R&B-oriented 45s for Midas, USA, Chirrup, and Chess ensued through the ’60s, as Brooks discovered a new design of blues. YOUR GUITAR Junior sobriquet was briefly dusted off in 1969 for his Capitol recording debut, Broke & Hungry, but its insufficient achievement buried the alias once and for all. By the past due ’70s, Brooks was getting a deserved status as an exceedingly powerful Chicago bluesman with a brand new perspective. He cut four exceptional edges for Alligator’s first batch of Living Chicago Blues anthologies in 1978 that quickly resulted in his personal Alligator debut LP, Bayou Lightning, another year. Five even more albums of his personal for the company and considerable touring cemented Brooks’ standing up like a Chicago blues huge. Child Ronnie Baker Brooks is really a chip from the proverbial stop, playing rhythm acoustic guitar in his aged man’s music group and duetting on “Like Dad, Like Child” on Lonnie’s 1991 recording, Fulfillment Guaranteed. Brooks’ lengthy association with Alligator Information continued in to the past due ’90s using the launch of Roadhouse Guidelines in 1996, which concentrated even more on R&B than down-home blues, and Lone Celebrity Shootout in 1999. The disk presented Brooks with fellow acoustic guitar slingers Longer John Hunter and Phillip Walker playing jointly and single in varied combos of blues power. Lonnie Brooks passed away in Chicago on Apr 1, 2017 at age 83.