29
Jun
2004
Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown will not have the blues when he performs at the Mississippi Valley Blues Festival this weekend and receives the RiverRoad Lifetime Achievement Award. There's too much music in him.
He plays guitar, harmonica, violin, mandolin, viola, and drums, and he simply doesn't abide by any musical boundaries, comfortable in the Cajun music of his birthplace and the Texas blues and country styles of his youth, along with jazz and R&B and calypso and pretty much anything else he can get his hands on.
But he's still known mostly for his blues, and the RiverRoad award will join a load of other honors Brown has received, including winning eight W.C. Handy awards and being inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame.
"I like to mix it," Brown told the River Cities' Reader last week. "Too many of the blues players out there, that's all they can do."
Not Brown. His father was a musician who played in the country, bluegrass, and Cajun idioms - "my first music," Brown said. He also developed an interest in the big-band sound, latching on to Count Basie and Duke Ellington. "I still like my horns," he said.
Brown - whose appropriate nickname was bestowed on him by a teacher because his voice creaks like a gate opening - famously got started in music when he jumped on stage and picked up the guitar of T-Bone Walker, who had left because he was ill.
But he didn't initially enjoy full freedom with his musical career. In the 1950s and '60s, he was pretty much restricted by his manager to playing the blues. For his manager's Peacock label, Brown recorded a series of hits, including "Okie Dokie Stomp," "Boogie Rambler," and "Dirty Work at the Crossroads." When he parted ways with Peacock in 1960, he began to enlarge his repertoire, particularly with country. How many other "blues" musicians can say they showed up to jam on Hee Haw?
Brown, who last appeared at the Mississippi Valley Blues Festival in 1991, was even more influential on the Texas blues scene in the '50s and '60s than his hits would suggest. Still, he said he's made a living from his music and doesn't seem too bothered by the exploitation of African-American blues musicians. "I'm doing fine," Brown said. "I'm not hurting like most musicians, but I felt a little more should have come my way."
At age 80, the multitalented Brown doesn't maintain a busy touring schedule, but he still plays between 60 and 70 dates a year, including through Europe, the United States, and Canada. He'll be traveling to Switzerland next month for some gigs.
A new album is in the works, Brown said, and should be out in a few months. He wouldn't talk about the record much, except to say that it was "a different style of music ... a little jazz, a little country, a little blues."
Well, what else would you expect from the master of so many musical styles?
But he's still known mostly for his blues, and the RiverRoad award will join a load of other honors Brown has received, including winning eight W.C. Handy awards and being inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame.
"I like to mix it," Brown told the River Cities' Reader last week. "Too many of the blues players out there, that's all they can do."
Not Brown. His father was a musician who played in the country, bluegrass, and Cajun idioms - "my first music," Brown said. He also developed an interest in the big-band sound, latching on to Count Basie and Duke Ellington. "I still like my horns," he said.
Brown - whose appropriate nickname was bestowed on him by a teacher because his voice creaks like a gate opening - famously got started in music when he jumped on stage and picked up the guitar of T-Bone Walker, who had left because he was ill.
But he didn't initially enjoy full freedom with his musical career. In the 1950s and '60s, he was pretty much restricted by his manager to playing the blues. For his manager's Peacock label, Brown recorded a series of hits, including "Okie Dokie Stomp," "Boogie Rambler," and "Dirty Work at the Crossroads." When he parted ways with Peacock in 1960, he began to enlarge his repertoire, particularly with country. How many other "blues" musicians can say they showed up to jam on Hee Haw?
Brown, who last appeared at the Mississippi Valley Blues Festival in 1991, was even more influential on the Texas blues scene in the '50s and '60s than his hits would suggest. Still, he said he's made a living from his music and doesn't seem too bothered by the exploitation of African-American blues musicians. "I'm doing fine," Brown said. "I'm not hurting like most musicians, but I felt a little more should have come my way."
At age 80, the multitalented Brown doesn't maintain a busy touring schedule, but he still plays between 60 and 70 dates a year, including through Europe, the United States, and Canada. He'll be traveling to Switzerland next month for some gigs.
A new album is in the works, Brown said, and should be out in a few months. He wouldn't talk about the record much, except to say that it was "a different style of music ... a little jazz, a little country, a little blues."
Well, what else would you expect from the master of so many musical styles?
