Lonnie Brooks
| Lonnie Brooks | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Lee Baker, Jr. |
| Born |
December 18, 1933 Dubuisson, St. Landry Parish, Louisiana, United States |
| Died | April 1, 2017 (aged 83) Chicago, Illinois, United States |
| Genres | Chicago blues, electric blues |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, singer |
| Instruments | Vocals, electric guitar |
| Years active | 1953–2017 |
| Labels | Alligator, Delmark, Evidence, Goldband, Capitol, Black & Blue, Black Top |
| Associated acts | Ronnie Baker Brooks, Wayne Baker Brooks, Eddy Clearwater |
| Website | www.lonniebrooks.com |
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, stated, "His music is witty, soulful and ferociously energetic, brimming with novel harmonic turnarounds, committed vocals and simply astonishing guitar work."Jon Pareles, a music critic for the New York Times, 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."Howard Reich, a music critic for the Chicago Tribune, 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."
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, B.B. King, Long John Hunter and others and began to think about making money from music. Clifton Chenier 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. Other Goldband singles included "Made in the Shade" and "The Crawl" (both of which were later recorded by the Fabulous Thunderbirds).
...
Wikipedia