- This topic has 5 replies, 1 voice, and was last updated 6 years, 2 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
-
Since Bryce mentioned Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, I made this week’s Blues Roots about him as a way of saying thank you to Bryce, and in the process learning something about Gatemouth Brown. That’s one of the benefits I get out of assembling these, and I’d definitely recommend anyone with an interest in any musician or song do the same. I think you’ll be surprised by what you learn. Half of the stuff on the Wikipedia page was new to me and was just a joy to read about (that’s the link at beginning of this paragraph).
One of the things that I’d known about Gatemouth Brown just about as long as I’d known about him is that he didn’t like to be thought of as a bluesman; he said he was a musician and he didn’t play the blues, he played “American music, Texas style.”
Found the next three paragraphs with Jonathan Toubin’s YouTube post of “Summertime” (from 1964), below.*
Don Robey started Houston’s Peacock Records in 1949 to put out Gatemouth Brown’s “Mary Is Fine”/“My Time Is Expensive.” The record was a hit and both Brown and Peacock were in business—going on to partner up on “Okie Dokie Stomp” and a number of other amazing sides of the years. While Peacock and its Duke Records imprint had grown into one of the most prolific independent labels out there with a constellation of huge recording stars in its stable, Gatemouth Brown’s record sales had cooled to the point that 1959’s “Just Before Dawn” would be his last for the label.
After five years of studio silence, Jimmy Duncan, a local pop star who made his name by penning country smash “My Special Angel” (and later went on to open the psychedelic rock club The Living Eye), took Brown into Houston’s legendary Gold Star Studios (today still operating as SugarHill Recording Studios) to lay down a couple of sides for release on his Cue label. While this strange and beautiful gem disappeared as quickly as it hit the market, its one of Gatemouth’s finest recorded moments… Here you find the guitarist playing a more restrained style that’s at the same time both more percussive and lyrical than usual. The killer syncopated rhythm section is the other star of this platter and a cool horn section is subtle and spot on. And the real high point here is the break near the end where everything is stripped away and Gatemouth gets weird—tapping polyrhythms against the beat with muted guitar strings, sliding around, and creating cosmic guitar effects that enter talking drum territory. Definitely one of the best of versions of this frequently visited “Porgy and Bess” standard.
A year later Brown would move to Nashville and start a new phase of his career where he would record country records, make cameos on Hee Haw, and lead the house band on the short-lived 1966 r&b go-go TV show The !!!! Beat. And by the 1970s he was well on his way to becoming the Gatemouth Brown I grew up watching in Texas—a Gibson Firebird-wielding, blues-fiddling, joke-telling, cowboy hat-wearing showman who released regular LPs to truckloads of acclaim and played hundreds of road dates a year up until his 2005 death in the aftermath of Katrina.
I found several comments about him online. Everyone who worked with him said he was among the most talented musicians they’d ever encountered. I found a few comments online from some of the same people, who also said he had a huge ego; one example someone gave was that he once introduced “Frosty” as his own song (it famously belongs to Albert Collins). He must have felt a strong attachment to the song; also wrote lyrics for “Frosty,” and performed it on Austin City Limits in the late ’70s (I wasn’t able to find this episode; if anyone stumbles on it, please post it here).
His old stuff…
“Mary Is Fine” with His Guitar and Orchestra (1949)
“My Time Is Expensive” with His Guitar and Orchestra (1949)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_p2wLJbx3DU“Boogie Uproar” with the Al Grey All Stars (1953)
“Okie Dokie Stomp,” the original single, 1954
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVHUdyXOEZY“Midnight Hour” (1954)
Vintage Texas Blues and Boogie (songs are listed at YouTube)
The Duke Peacock Story Vol. 1 (originally recorded 1949-1951, songs are listed at YouTube, compilation released 1986)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IIM9Csqvz8San Antonio Ballbuster (songs are listed at YouTube, compilation released 1974)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5f9ulHo7gQThe ’60s and ’70s, including on The !!!! Beat
*“Summertime” (1964, described in quote above)
Gatemouth Brown was the musical director on The !!!! Beat, and the bandleader of the show’s Beat Boys (the first four videos below are from the show, with its distinctive lavender and lime color scheme). The Beat Boys played one or two tunes on every episode as well as backing up most of the guest artists. His duets with Freddie King are… (that whole show is one of the peaks of our culture, and Freddie King’s performances the best part of the show, so you can see why I’m beyond words).
His 1966 remake of his hit from 1954, kind of his theme song, “Okie Dokie Stomp”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wq_2A7sDAkFreddie King & Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, “Shuffle”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0M4l3tsdKEFreddie King & Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, “Funky Mama”
Barbara Lynn Ozen & Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown and the Beat Boys, “You’ll Lose a Good Thing”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vT4ORU3CjIUThe Blues Ain’t Nothing (1972)
With Jimmy Dawkins (guitar), Mac Thompson (bass, Magic Sam’s regular bassist), Ted Harvey (drums, Hound Dog Taylor and the House Rockers), live on French TV, 1972
Later on…
A master class with…
At home with with…
Talking blues with…
With Little Guitar Jake Andrews, 1991 (you might recognize one of the online guitar instructors in grown-up Jake).
“Okie Dokie Stomp,” here’s where he says he plays “American and world music.. Texas style”
This is the video that Bryce got this started with, “Got My Mojo Working.” He’s so rhythmically fluent he can play the tune and not play the tune at the same time. Note the American Music Shop sign in reverse on the window of the set; this show ran from 1990-1993 and generally featured country artists. With its name, it signaled a good fit for Mr. Brown. This isn’t the only cross-genre stuff that Gatemouth Brown participated in…
…here he is with Roy Clark on Austin City Limits in 1981, playing a relentless version of Count Basie’s “One O’Clock Jump”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoeBEFDrnZsThey made an album together in 1979 called Makin’ Music. Here’ a good’n from it.
“Just Before Dawn,” Gatemouth Brown on violin
Just a great song, “I Hate These Doggone Blues”
Another great song, “Heat Wave” with Lloyd Glenn on piano (his distinctive playing “made” many of T-Bone Walker’s records, they were an integral part of his sound at any rate)—with Milt Hinton (bass), J.C. Heard (drums), recorded in Nice, France, Nice, July 15, 1977.
Alright Again! (1981, personnel and songs are listed at YouTube).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDCcF-r2FIk***************************** A LITTLE SOMETHIN’ EXTRA *****************************
Texas blues guitarist Up Wilson demonstrates how to play and smoke at the same time. There are so many ways this could go wrong, but he managed to pull it off. I don’t know if anyone else could.
I’m sorry for the delay in getting out this week’s Blues Roots, I was delayed because of the holiday. Back to Thursday next week.
Don D.
-
-
Hi Bryce, my pleasure! Thank you for your suggestion and thanks for checking this out. Adding a little bit more below.
I welcome suggestions, by the way, and if I can do something with one, I will be happy to.
CORRECTION: The “bonus video” is of Huary Perry “U.P.” Wilson, not as I spelled it (I spelled it how people say it).
Not to be confused with anther great Texas guitarist, Hop Wilson, who wrote “Black Cat Bone.” Johnny Clyde Copeland and Albert Collins talk about Hop on their version of that song on the Showdown album they made with Robert Cray.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiYLIMwOVlUThis leads back to Gatemouth Brown because while I was looking up stuff for this OBR, I read that he was one of the first people considered for that album. He said he refused the offer, but there’s more to it, because he thought it would be a showcase for him, but that wasn’t the concept, when he found out it wasn’t is when he quit (this is all hearsay). Too bad for the ego business, because as fine of an album as that is, he would have made it better.
Here’s Gatemouth Brown’s “Ventilator Blues” from the 1997 Stones blues tribute, Paint It Blue. Sonny Landreth plays slide.
Here he is from the Austin City Limits show, same as
With Carlos Santana at Montreux, 2004, “The Drifter.”
With Canned Heat at Montreux, 1973, “Please, Mr. Nixon.”
A full set with Canned Heat, haven’t had the chance to check this out, but there isn’t any live video, just sound and stills (“Please, Mr. Nixon” may be the same version as directly above—if so, that tells us time and place, song list is at the video).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgGsEgSDdDcFinishing up with a great episode from The !!!! Beat. Don’t forget he can be heard on most of the episodes (starting with the first one), and most of them are on YouTube thanks to Rachel Cummings. At some point during 1966, he left the show.
Don D.
-
Hey Bryce, you know the sound-only file with Canned Heat? Don’t know why I settled for that when this was available. It’s funny the way things turn up on YouTube and when you check the date, they’ve been around for years.
Don D.
-
Here’s a much improved Gatemouth Brown playlist, separated out from the T-Bone Walker, Pee Wee Crayton, et al., playlist it was previously a part of. Each of those musicians are now represented by a separate playlist, with the Saunders King/Zuzu Bollin playlist going to be a catch-all for any other Texas guitarists that don’t have a unique playlist (mostly people like themselves with a smaller recorded output).
T-Bone Walker
Lowell Fulson
Pee Wee Crayton
Saunders King, Zuzu Bollin, et al.
Don D.
-
Here’s a record I wasn’t aware of when I made this post, and it’s one of my favorites now—very mellow, mostly instrumentals, its mostly a conversation between pianist Lloyd Glenn and vocalist/violinist/guitarist Gatemouth Brown (backed by swing/jazz veterans Milt Hinton on bass and J.C. Heard on drums). Heat Wave, recorded at Black and Blue studio in Nice, France, on July 15, 1977, was first released that same year (link to Discogs for more info and purchase).
Grab your favorite beverage and relax!
Don D.
-
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
