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A visit to Chicago for the purpose of
meeting a young generation of blues artists is a mission which seems doomed to fail,
because you don't encounter musicians in their early 20's which give a fresh injection
into the pioneering work of the previous 2 generations. When the mid 30's born generation
- Luther Allison, Otis Rush, Magic Sam, Buddy Guy, Freddie King - were turning the South
and West Side upside down in the 50's, one could talk about a trend being set. Their
styles of singing and playing shows lots of similarities. You could talk about Chicago
Blues, produced by the local heroes who were just in their 20's. The music has not yet
died out. Still it doesn't seem like there is going to be a sequel. In Chicago there are
white bands usually playing covers from the classic repertoire. Young black musicians
making their own music, are usually inspired by the soul, funk and bluesrock direction.
There is a generation of musicians in their 30's active in the blues circuit of Chicago
but we can't talk about a trend being set here. Ronnie Baker Brooks, son of Lee Baker
a.k.a. Lonnie Brooks, belongs to that generation (he's 31). He has already started the
battle for recognition. With his style, influenced by both Stevie Ray and his father, he
is impressing the local club circuit. He's taking care of his own merchandise, has got an
impressive website and has just released his own controlled debut CD
"Golddigger". At the moment he is still playing in his fathers band but starting
from January he is going to try to make it on his own. It's time for an interview.
With his guitar in a backpack, Ronnie enters the Blackstone Hotel
on the Chicago South Side where we are waiting for him in the lobby. Having a Tex-Mex
outfit (belt, shirt, hat) he looks very much like his hero Stevie Ray Vaughan. His facial
expression makes it clear to me that he is going to answer my questions carefully. In no
time the conversation begins...
"My brother Wayne -who is also playing in my fathers
band- and I, are the only ones who really have the intention to live from the music we
make. The others are just playing for fun, like a hobby. I've got another brother who
plays the guitar, one sister that plays the piano, the other sisters sing and then there
is another brother who is a DJ in California. I come from a family with nine children. My
father has been married twice, so the kids come from two marriages but I claim that all of
them are brothers and sisters (laughs). So my father has got as many kids as he's got
albums, but hopefully he'll have more albums than kids eventually. He is incredibly
important for me. He's my major influence. He taught me how to play and how to deal with
the career. He also taught me how to learn by listening to other musicians. As a six year
old I was sitting on his knee learning chords. In the beginning I always played his style
but lately there has been a change in that. I have been picking up alot of Albert Collins,
Freddy King, B.B. King, Muddy Waters, Lightnin' Hopkins, John Lee Hooker. I've been able
to see some of them live but my father was always playing their records. I went to see
Albert Collins and Buddy Guy alot. My father used to take me to Theresa's, The
Checkerboard Lounge and Pepper's Lounge. I've even seen Muddy but I can barely remember
anything from it except that I had goosebumps. I was nine at the time. But I grew up with
Buddy's records so I can feel the spirit of his music. After that I started listening to
Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix. I also met Johnny Winter, for whom my
dad was a serious influence. I met Stevie Ray in '88. He was a big fan of my dad and he
came to Kansas City to jam with him in a club called The Grand Emporium. He and his
brother Jimmie knew my fathers songs from the time that he was still playing in Texas
under the name 'Guitar Junior'. I only know Hendrix from the videos which I studied very
thoroughly."
"Currently I'm still playing in my fathers band but
my first CD has just been released and I'm planning to go on a tour with my own band. That
doesn't mean I can't go back to my fathers band though. He always says: There's always a
home. I play about fifty times a year with my own band, and work with my dad for about one
hundred and twenty times. We are preparing ourselves for the moment on which I'll go my
own way. There's not that much that's going to change. My dad wants to play a little less
and some of his band members are also playing in my band. It's a four man band. It's
pretty difficult to describe the difference in musical approach. It's up to the public to
categorize. I can only say that it sounds more like rock. It's not easy to get gigs in
Chicago if you are asking your normal prices. If you want to play for free, you can do it
everywhere. But like the other band members, I have to make a living. My debut CD is
recorded in Memphis and is produced by a friend, Jellybean Johnson. He has been producing
alot of R&B: Janet Jackson, Patti LaBelle and others. He plays the drums and the
guitar and he always loved blues guitar. I met him when I was touring with my dad, Koko
Taylor, B.B. King. and some others. He came up to me and said he wanted to produce a CD
with me. We recorded the CD in Cotton Row, near the Ardent Studio's on Beale Street. We
recorded sixteen songs in twelve days. Twelve of them have landed on the CD. My CD doesn't
sound like an old blues record. We followed a more contemporary approach, with a few
overdubs on guitar. Some of the musicians have also cooperated on records with Jonny Lang,
Buddy Guy, Luther Allison and my father. It was an experienced studio team. Steve Potts,
the drummer, plays in the new Blues Brothers Band. The experience of working in Memphis
with musicians from Memphis has been very good. You see, I've only been busy in Chicago. I
was born on 21 January '67 while there was a big snowstorm going on (laughs). I've always
wanted to play the guitar. Occasionally I use a bass when I'm writing new songs. Billy
Branch wants to teach me how to play the blues harp. I've always wanted to do that. Last
night I got goosebumps when I saw Sugar Blue playing in Buddy Guy's Legends. Oh man, he
really tore it down. I played along with a couple of songs. I also cooperated in the
writing of some songs on the Alligator-CD's of my dad. And at the moment I'm also working
for Blues Heaven, the brain-child of Shirli Dixon, daughter of Willie. I know several
people from the Dixon family, however I've never really known Willie that well. Shirli
helps me get some gigs from time to time and sometimes I work with Blues Heaven. So, we're
helping each other. We are some kind of family and talk alot about the old days when
Willie Dixon, Muddy, Little Walter, Walter Horton and Wolf were still here. If those
people were never around, we wouldn't have been able to play the blues like we do now. I
still enjoy their records. I've got alot of that old stuff on video. I've even got a video
of Howlin' Wolf, a private recording from a collector in Chicago."
"At the same time it is remarkable that I don't know
many guys my age that play the blues. Billy Branch, J.W. Williams, my brother Wayne,
Bernard Allison -with whom I hung out alot-, The Kinsey Report and just a few younger guys
like Jimmy Lane, son of Jimmy Rogers. The others, like Lucky Peterson, are all older
than me. We always keep in touch and exchange experiences. And we jam alot. Jamming is
extremely fun! We would go to clubs like Artis on the South Side or The Checkerboard. I
also jammed with Albert Collins and Luther Allison. Junior Wells gave me the necessary
worldly wisdom. But still, playing with my dad is the most spiritual experience of my
live. The Alligator 25th anniversary tour in '92 in which I participated together with my
dad, Albert Collins, Elvin Bishop, Lil' Ed and Koko Taylor gave me a kick. I even jammed
with Stevie Ray once.... man, that was the experience of my life!"
"Actually we are all good friends. Did you know that
my brother and my father both helped writing the book 'Blues for Dummies'?"
"I know how hard it still is for Bernard to cope with
his fathers death. I can project myself into that. Because for me, living without my
father is hardly imaginable. He's working on a record now in which I won't play. And we
are talking alot about doing a sort of Father&Son album. Maybe it'll be something
acoustic."
"Right now I'm looking into the possibility of
playing in Europe and distributing my first CD. For now I released it under my own label,
Watchdog, which I named after one of my dads songs. Anyway, I want to keep the blues alive
in my own personal way. I don't want to be a clone of one of my old heroes. My blues is a
reflection of the present life and that's the way I write my songs. I look around, see
what's happening, write it down and make songs out of it. Writing is one thing I
definitely love to do. I keep doing this because I have to. I used to do some clerical
work but I felt so unhappy I quit. Thank god I could be part of my dads band pretty quick.
And now I'm trying on my own. It's not that simple, you know. The health insurance costs,
keeping the band on the road, the website, the mail order service for my merchandise. It
takes alot of time, energy and money. Luckily I'm single and I don't have to support a
family."
"But OK, I made that choice and I don't even want to
think of choosing another profession."
Ronnie's website: HYPERLINK
http://www.RonnieBakerBrooks.com
email: Ronnie@RonnieBakerBrooks.com
You can order the CD 'Golddigger' by sending $18.00 to:
Watchdog Records
P.O. Box 68
Worth, Illinois 60482
USA
*Special thanks to Jan Helsen for
translation assistance.* |
