Lonnie Brooks (born Lee Baker Jr., December 18, 1933 – April 1, 2017) was an American blues singer and guitarist. The musicologist Robert Palmer, writing in ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...

'', stated, "His music is witty, soulful and ferociously energetic, brimming with novel harmonic turnarounds, committed vocals and simply astonishing guitar work."Palmer, Robert. ''

'', May 31, 1979.

Jon Pareles Jon Pareles (born October 25, 1953) is an American journalist who is the chief popular music critic in the arts section of ''The New York Times''.New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', wrote, "He sings in a rowdy baritone, sliding and rasping in songs that celebrate lust, fulfilled and unfulfilled; his guitar solos are pointed and unhurried, with a tone that slices cleanly across the beat. Wearing a cowboy hat, he looks like the embodiment of a good-time bluesman."Pareles, Jon. ''New York Times'', March 16, 1992.

Howard Reich Howard is an English-language given name originating from Old French Huard (or Houard) from a Germanic source similar to Old High German ''*Hugihard'' "heart-brave", or ''*Hoh-ward'', literally "high defender; chief guardian". It is also probabl ...

, a music critic for the ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television a ...

'', wrote, "...the music that thundered from Brooks' instrument and voice...shook the room. His sound was so huge and delivery so ferocious as to make everything alongside him seem a little smaller."

Career

Brooks was born in Dubuisson, St. Landry Parish, Louisiana. He learned to play blues from his banjo-picking grandfather but did not think about a career in music until he moved to Port Arthur, Texas, in the early 1950s. There he heard live performances by Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown,

T-Bone Walker Aaron Thibeaux "T-Bone" Walker (May 28, 1910 – March 16, 1975) was an American blues musician, composer, songwriter and bandleader, who was a pioneer and innovator of the jump blues, West Coast blues, and electric blues sounds. In 2018 ''R ...

B.B. King Riley B. King (September 16, 1925 – May 14, 2015), known professionally as B.B. King, was an American blues singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer. He introduced a sophisticated style of soloing based on fluid string bending, shi ...

, Long John Hunter and others and began to think about making money from music.

Clifton Chenier Clifton Chenier (June 25, 1925 – December 12, 1987), was an American Creole musician known as a pioneer of zydeco, a style of music which arose from Creole music, with R&B, blues, and Cajun influences. He sang and played the accordion and w ...

heard Brooks strumming his guitar on his front porch in Port Arthur and offered him a job in his touring band. Embarking on a solo career, he began calling himself Guitar Jr. and signed with the Goldband label, based in Lake Charles, Louisiana. His singles for the label included the regional hit "Family Rules", which remains a favorite of the swamp pop idiom in southern Louisiana and

southeast Texas Southeast Texas is a cultural and geographic region in the U.S. state of Texas, bordering Southwest Louisiana and its greater Acadiana region to the east. Being a part of East Texas, the region is geographically centered on the Greater Houston ...

.Bernard, Shane K. (1996). ''Swamp Pop: Cajun and Creole Rhythm and Blues''. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. p. 58. Other Goldband singles included "Made in the Shade" and "The Crawl" (both of which were later recorded by the Fabulous Thunderbirds). In 1960, he moved to

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, Illinois, where he adopted the stage name Lonnie Brooks ( Luther Johnson was already using the name Guitar Junior there). Brooks found regular work in clubs on the West Side of Chicago, in nearby Gary and

East Chicago East Chicago is a city in Lake County, Indiana, United States. The population was 29,698 at the 2010 census. The city is home of the Indiana Harbor and Ship Canal, an artificial freshwater harbor characterized by industrial and manufacturing act ...

, Indiana, and occasionally in the Rush Street entertainment area on Chicago's North Side. He recorded numerous singles for various labels, including

Chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to dist ...

, Chirrup, Mercury,

Midas Midas (; grc-gre, Μίδας) was the name of a king in Phrygia with whom several myths became associated, as well as two later members of the Phrygian royal house. The most famous King Midas is popularly remembered in Greek mythology for his ...

and USA Records, receiving some local radio airplay. He also supported other artists on record and in live performances, including

Jimmy Reed Mathis James Reed (September 6, 1925 – August 29, 1976) was an American blues musician and songwriter. His particular style of electric blues was popular with blues as well as non-blues audiences. Reed's songs such as "Honest I Do" (1957), " ...

. In 1961, he played guitar on the double album '' Jimmy Reed at Carnegie Hall''. In 1969, he recorded his first album, ''Broke an’ Hungry'', for Capitol Records. It was produced by Wayne Shuler, son of Eddie Shuler, who had founded Goldband Records in Louisiana. In 1974, Brooks participated in a multi-artist tour of Europe and recorded an album, ''Sweet Home Chicago'', for the French label Black & Blue. When he returned to Chicago, he began playing regularly at Pepper’s Hideout on the South Side. There he attracted the attention of

Bruce Iglauer Bruce Iglauer (born July 10, 1947) is an American businessman and record producer who founded Alligator Records as an independent record label featuring blues music. Early life and career Iglauer was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States ...

, the head of the fledgling

Alligator Records Alligator Records is an American, Chicago-based independent blues record label founded by Bruce Iglauer in 1971. Iglauer was also one of the founders of the '' Living Blues'' magazine in Chicago in 1970. History Iglauer started the label using ...

, who had previously seen him at the Avenue Lounge on the city’s West Side. In 1978, Iglauer included four of Brooks’s songs (including three originals) in the anthology series ''Living Chicago Blues'', released by Alligator. Brooks signed a contract with the label, which released his album ''Bayou Lightning'' the following year. The album won the Grand Prix du Disque Award from the 1980

Montreux Jazz Festival The Montreux Jazz Festival (formerly Festival de Jazz Montreux and Festival International de Jazz Montreux) is a music festival in Switzerland, held annually in early July in Montreux on the Lake Geneva shoreline. It is the second-largest annual ...

. While in Montreux, Brooks befriended the country music star Roy Clark, who arranged for him to appear on the country music television program ''

Hee Haw ''Hee Haw'' is an American television variety show featuring country music and humor with the fictional rural "Kornfield Kounty" as the backdrop. It aired first-run on CBS from 1969 to 1971, in syndication from 1971 to 1993, and on TNN from 1 ...

''. After that time, Brooks recorded exclusively for Alligator, releasing seven albums in his own name and contributing to shared recordings and compilation appearances. His style, sometimes described as "voodoo blues", included elements of

Chicago blues Chicago blues is a form of blues music developed in Chicago, Illinois. It is based on earlier blues idioms, such as Delta blues, but performed in an urban style. It developed alongside the Great Migration of the first half of the twentieth cent ...

, Louisiana blues, swamp pop and

rhythm and blues Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a genre of popular music that originated in African-American communities in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly ...

. Other labels issued pre-1978 recordings by Brooks and compilations of his singles. Following the release of ''Bayou Lightning'', Brooks began touring in the U.S. and also returned to Europe. A 1982 trip to Germany resulted in an hour-long live performance on German television. His next album, ''Hot Shot'', was released in 1983. His album ''Wound Up Tight'', released in 1986, featured his most famous fan,

Johnny Winter John Dawson Winter III (February 23, 1944 – July 16, 2014) was an American singer and guitarist. Winter was known for his high-energy blues rock albums and live performances in the late 1960s and 1970s. He also produced three Grammy Award-win ...

, on guitar. ''

'' took notice of the album, running a six-page feature on Brooks. In 1987,

BBC Radio BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927). The service provides national radio stations covering ...

broadcast an hour-long live performance by him. By this time, his teenage son Ronnie Baker Brooks was touring with the band. He made his recording debut on his father's album ''Live from Chicago—Bayou Lightning Strikes''. Brooks’s 1991 release, ''Satisfaction Guaranteed'', received much coverage in the press, including features and articles in the ''

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large na ...

'', the ''

Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the cr ...

'', the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...

'', '' Guitar World'', ''

Living Blues ''Living Blues: The Magazine of the African American Blues Tradition'' is a bi-monthly magazine focused on blues music, and America's oldest blues periodical. The magazine was founded as a quarterly in Chicago in 1970 by Jim O'Neal and Amy van ...

'', ''Blues Revue'', and other publications. Brooks went on a national concert tour with

Buddy Guy George "Buddy" Guy (born July 30, 1936) is an American blues guitarist and singer. He is an exponent of Chicago blues who has influenced generations of guitarists including Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Keith Richards, Stevie Ray Vaugh ...

Koko Taylor Koko Taylor (born Cora Anna Walton, September 28, 1928 – June 3, 2009) was an American singer whose style encompassed Chicago blues, electric blues, rhythm and blues and soul blues. Sometimes called "The Queen of the Blues", she was known f ...

Junior Wells Junior Wells (born Amos Wells Blakemore Jr., December 9, 1934January 15, 1998) was an American singer, harmonica player, and recording artist. He is best known for his signature song " Messin' with the Kid" and his 1965 album '' Hoodoo Man Blues ...

and Eric Johnson in the summer of 1993. Eric Clapton, performing in Chicago as part of his "From the Cradle" tour, honored Brooks by inviting the bluesman on stage for an impromptu jam at the blues club Buddy Guy's Legends. In 1996, Brooks released ''Roadhouse Rules''. The album was produced in Memphis by Jim Gaines, who also produced recordings by

Luther Allison Luther Allison (August 17, 1939 – August 12, 1997) was an American blues singer-songwriter and guitarist. He was born in Widener, Arkansas, although some accounts suggest his actual place of birth was Mayflower, Arkansas. Allison was intereste ...

, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Santana. Ronnie Baker Brooks also played on this album. With fellow Gulf Coast blues veterans Long John Hunter and Phillip Walker (both of whom he had known and played with in the 1950s in Port Arthur), Brooks released ''Lone Star Shootout'' in 1999. Brooks continued to tour in the United States and Europe. His sons, Ronnie Baker Brooks and Wayne Baker Brooks, are also full-time blues musicians, fronting their own bands and touring extensively in the United States and abroad. Wayne Baker Brooks also played in his father's band. The Brookses are frequent guest performers at each other's shows and have booked appearances as the Brooks Family. Besides his live and recorded performances, Brooks appeared in the films '' Blues Brothers 2000'' and '' The Express: The Ernie Davis Story'' and in two UK television commercials for

Heineken Heineken Lager Beer ( nl, Heineken Pilsener), or simply Heineken () is a pale lager beer with 5% alcohol by volume produced by the Dutch brewing company Heineken N.V. Heineken beer is sold in a green bottle with a red star. History On 15 Feb ...

beer. His song "Eyeballin'" was used in the film ''Forever LuLu''. "Got Lucky Last Night", featuring Johnny Winter, was used in the film ''

Masters of Menace ''Masters of Menace'' is a 1990 comedy film about a motorcycle gang. Plot The Masters of Menace are a motorcycle club. When one of their own dies while testing his top fuel Harley, they decide to cross the country to go bury him. With the coffi ...

''. Brooks was an influence on the soul artist Reggie Sears.

Death

Brooks died in Chicago, Illinois, United States, on April 1, 2017, at the age of 83.

Author

Brooks co-authored the 1998 book ''Blues for Dummies'', with Wayne Baker Brooks and the music historian, guitarist, and songwriter

Cub Koda Michael "Cub" Koda (born October 1, 1948 – July 1, 2000) was an American rock and roll singer, guitarist, songwriter, disc jockey, music critic, and record compiler. ''Rolling Stone'' magazine considered him best known for writing the song " ...

."Blues for Dummies". Lonnie Brooks, Kub Coda, & Wayne Baker Brooks. IDG Books Worldwide. 1998. . it is still in print.

Discography

* ''Broke an' Hungry'', as Guitar Jr. (

Capitol A capitol, named after the Capitoline Hill in Rome, is usually a legislative building where a legislature meets and makes laws for its respective political entity. Specific capitols include: * United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. * Numerous ...

, 1969) * ''Sweet Home Chicago'' (Black & Blue, 1975; reissued by Evidence Records, 1994) * ''Living Chicago Blues'', vol. 3 (Alligator, 1978) * ''Bayou Lightning'' (Alligator, 1979) * ''Blues Deluxe'' (Alligator/

WXRT WXRT (93.1 FM), also known as XRT and 93-XRT is an adult album alternative (AAA) radio station in Chicago, Illinois. For many years, their slogan has been "Chicago's Finest Rock". "Chicago's Home For Music Lovers" has been used as its slogan si ...

, 1980) * ''Turn On the Night'' (Alligator, 1981) * ''Hot Shot'' (Alligator, 1983) * ''The Crawl'', as Guitar Jr. (Goldband singles reissued by Charly, 1984) * ''Live at Pepper’s 1968'' (Black Magic, 1985; reissued by Black Top, 1996) * ''Wound Up Tight'' (Alligator, 1986) * ''Live from Chicago: Bayou Lightning Strikes'' (Alligator, 1988) * ''Satisfaction Guaranteed'' (Alligator, 1991) * ''Let’s Talk It Over'' (1977 sessions released by Delmark, 1993) * ''Roadhouse Rules'' (Alligator, 1996) * ''Deluxe Edition'' (Alligator, 1997) * ''Lone Star Shootout'', with Long John Hunter and Phillip Walker (

Alligator An alligator is a large reptile in the Crocodilia order in the genus ''Alligator'' of the family Alligatoridae. The two extant species are the American alligator (''A. mississippiensis'') and the Chinese alligator (''A. sinensis''). Additiona ...

, 1999)

References

External links