Thursday 18 April 2019

Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown born 18 April 1924


Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown (April 18, 1924 – September 10, 2005) was an American musician from Louisiana and Texas known for his work as a blues musician, as well as other styles of music. 

He spent his career fighting purism by synthesizing old blues, country, jazz, Cajun music and R&B styles. His work also encompasses rock and roll, rock music, folk music, electric blues, and Texas blues.

He was an acclaimed multi-instrumentalist, who played an array of musical instruments, including the guitar, fiddle, mandolin, viola, harmonica and drums. He won a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album in 1983 for his album, Alright Again!. He is regarded as one of the most influential exponents of blues fiddle and has had enormous influence in American fiddle circles. Brown's two biggest musical influences were Louis Jordan and T-Bone Walker.


Brown was born in Vinton, Louisiana, and raised in Orange, Texas. His professional music career began in 1945, playing drums in San Antonio, Texas. He was given the nickname "Gatemouth" by a high school teacher who said he had a "voice like a gate”. His career was boosted when he attended a concert by T-Bone Walker in Don Robey's Bronze Peacock Houston nightclub in 1947;Walker became ill, and Brown took up his guitar and quickly wrote and played "Gatemouth Boogie", to the delight of the audience.

In 1949 Robey founded Peacock Records in order to showcase Brown's virtuoso guitar work. Brown's "Mary Is Fine" backed with "My Time Is Expensive" was a hit for Peacock in 1949. A string of Peacock releases in the 1950s were less successful commercially, but were nonetheless pioneering musically. 


                            

Particularly notable was the 1954 instrumental "Okie Dokie Stomp", in which Brown solos continuously over a punchy horn section (other instrumentals from this period include "Boogie Uproar" and "Gate Walks to Board"). "Okie Dokie Stomp" was also recorded by Cornell Dupree in the 1970s, who also had a 
commercial success with it. As for his gutsy violin playing, Robey allowed Brown to record "Just Before Dawn", his final release on the Peacock label, in 1959.

In the 1960s Brown moved to Nashville, Tennessee to participate in a syndicated R&B television show, and while he was there recorded several country singles. He struck up a friendship with Roy Clark and made several appearances on the television show Hee Haw. In 1966, Brown was the musical director for the house band on the short-lived television program, The !!!! Beat.

When Gate began to rebuild his career in the '70s, he was determined to do things his way. Country, jazz, even calypso now played a prominent role in his concerts; he became as likely to launch into an old-time fiddle hoedown as a swinging guitar blues. He turned up on Hee Haw with pickin' and grinnin' pal Roy Clark after they cut a sizzling 1979 duet album for MCA, Makin' Music. In 1979, through his manager at the time, Jim Halsey, Brown embarked on a 6-week, 44 concert tour of the Soviet Union.

In the 1980s, a series of releases on Rounder Records and Alligator Records revitalized his U.S. career,and he toured extensively and internationally, usually playing between 250 and 300 shows a year. He won a Grammy in 1982 for the album Alright Again! and was nominated for five more. Alright Again! is credited with putting Brown back on the musical map. He also won eight W. C. Handy Awards.

In 1999, Brown was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame. In his last years, he maintained a full touring schedule, including Australia, New Zealand, South America, Africa and Eastern Europe. His final record "Timeless" was released in 2004. Acclaimed discs for Rounder, Alligator, Verve, and Blue Thumb in the '80s, '90s, and 2000s have proven that Gatemouth Brown is a steadfastly unclassifiable American original.

In September 2004, Brown was diagnosed with lung cancer. He already had emphysema and heart disease, and he and his doctors decided to forego treatment for the cancer. This greatly affected his musical career.

His home in Slidell, Louisiana, was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in August 2005, although he had been evacuated to his childhood hometown of Orange, Texas before the storm hit. He died there on September 10, 2005, at the apartment of a grandniece, at the age of 81. Brown is buried in the Hollywood Cemetery in Orange. 

(Edited from Wikipedia & AllMusic)

2 comments:

boppinbob said...

For “Clarence ‘Gatemouth’ Brown - Boogie Uproar
– The Complete Aladdin/Peacock Singles As & Bs 1947-1961” go here:

https://www.mediafire.com/file/5wo1yez49v917lq/Clarence_%27Gatemouth%27_Brown-47-61.rar/file

Disc 1

1. GATEMOUTH BOOGIE
2. AFTER SUNSET
3. GUITAR IN MY HAND
4. WITHOUT ME BABY
5. DIDN'T REACH MY GOAL
6. ATOMIC ENERGY
7. MERCY ON ME
8. MY TIME'S EXPENSIVE
9. MARY IS FINE
10. 2'o CLOCK IN THE MORNING
11. BOOGIE RAMBLER
12. I'VE BEEN MISTREATED
13. IT CAN NEVER BE THAT WAY
14. SHE WALKS RIGHT IN
15. WIN WITH ME BABY
16. I LIVE MY LIFE
17. JUSTICE BLUES
18. PALE DRY BOOGIE (Part 1)
19. PALE DRY BOOGIE (Part 2)
20. SHE WINKED HER EYE
21. SAD HOUR
22. TOO LATE BABY
23. TAKING MY CHANCES

Disc 2

1. JUST GOT LUCKY
2. BABY TAKE IT EASY
3. YOU GOT MONEY
4. DIRTY WORK AT THE CROSSROADS
5. BOOGIE UPROAR
6. HURRY BACK, GOOD NEWS
7. PLEASE TELL ME BABY
8. GATE WALKS TO BOARD
9. MIDNIGHT HOUR
10. FOR NOW, SO LONG
11. GOOD LOOKING WOMAN
12. THAT'S YOUR DADDY-YADDY-YO
13. OKIE DOKIE STOMP
14. DEPRESSION BLUES
15. GATE'S SALTY BLUES
16. ROCK MY BLUES AWAY
17. SEPTEMBER SONG
18. AIN'T THAT DANDY
19. JUST BEFORE DAWN
20. SWINGIN' THE GATE
21. SLOP TIME
22. GATE'S TUNE

Clarence 'Gatemouth' Brown was more than just a blues musician; throughout his long career he embraced many of the tributaries of American music. As well as being a superb guitarist, influenced heavily, like B. B. King, on the style of T-Bone Walker, he was also a proficient violin, mandolin, fiddle and harmonica player.

The 2CD set features the A and B side of all his releases between 1947 and 1961, and brings together all of his earliest singles for the Peacock label on one collection.

Despite receiving very little chart success many of his singles were highly original and are now so famous it becomes difficult to understand why, 'Boogie Uproar' 'Okie Dokie Stomp', 'Gate Walks To Board' and many others were staples for bar bands for years to come and were a huge influence over guitarists like Johnny Winter, Anson Funderburgh and Stevie Ray Vaughan.

He didn't like to be called a bluesman but whether he liked it or not he was undeniably a major influence over the genre throughout his lifetime. (Jasmine notes)

Guitarradeplastico,scraping oddities said...

Many thanks