Lonnie Brooks
Encyclopedia
Lonnie Brooks is an American blues
singer and guitarist. He was born in Dubuisson, Louisiana
, United States
. Rolling Stone
stated, "His music is witty, soulful and ferociously energetic, brimming with novel harmonic turnarounds, committed vocals and simply astonishing guitar work." The New York Times
added, "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."
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 his music. One day, while Brooks was strumming his guitar on his front porch in Port Arthur, Clifton Chenier
heard him and offered him a job in his touring band.
Embarking on a solo career, he adopted the moniker of Guitar Junior and signed with Lake Charles's Goldband label. His singles for the label included regional hit "Family Rules", which remains a favorite of the swamp pop
idiom in south Louisiana
and southeast Texas
. Other Goldband singles included "Made In The Shade" and "The Crawl" (later recorded by The Fabulous Thunderbirds
).
In 1960, he moved to Chicago
, Illinois. Luther Johnson
was already using the name 'Guitar Junior' there, so he adopted the alternative stage name, Lonnie Brooks.
In Chicago, he found regular work in the West Side clubs as well as in Gary
and East Chicago, Indiana and occasionally in the Rush Street North Side entertainment area. He cut a series of 45s for a variety of labels, including Chess
, Chirrup, Mercury
, Midas and USA Records, achieving some local radio airplay. He also supported other artists on record and live, including Jimmy Reed
. In 1961 he played guitar on the double album, Jimmy Reed at Carnegie Hall
.
In 1969, he recorded his first album, Broke An’ Hungry, for the Capitol
label. It was produced by Wayne Shuler, son of Eddie Shuler, who had founded Goldband Records in Louisiana.
In 1974, Brooks participated in a multi-artist tour of Europe, and cut an album entitled Sweet Home Chicago for the French label Black & Blue
. When he returned to Chicago, he began playing regularly at Pepper’s Hideout on the Chicago's South Side. There he attracted the attention of Bruce Iglauer
, head of the fledgling Alligator Records
label, who had previously seen him a number of times at the Avenue Lounge on the city’s West Side.
In 1978, Iglauer included four of Brooks’ songs (including three originals) on an anthology series entitled Living Chicago Blues, released by Alligator Records. He was signed to the label, and the following year, he released his album Bayou Lightning on the Alligator label. The album won the 'Grand Prix du Disque Award' from the 1980 Montreux Jazz Festival
. While in Montreux, Brooks befriended country star Roy Clark
. Clark was impressed with Brooks, and he arranged for an appearance on the country music television program Hee Haw
.
Since that time, Brooks has recorded exclusively for the Alligator, releasing seven albums as well as shared recordings and compilation appearances. Brooks' style, sometimes described as "voodoo blues", includes elements of Chicago blues
, Louisiana blues
, swamp pop
and rhythm and blues
. Other labels have issued pre-1978 recordings by Brooks as well as compilations of Brooks' singles.
Following the release of Bayou Lightning, Brooks began touring nationwide as well as returning to Europe. A 1982 trip to Germany resulted in an hour-long Brooks live performance on German television. His 1983 follow-up album was Hot Shot. 1986's Wound Up Tight featured a guest appearance by Brooks' most famous fan, Johnny Winter
, on guitar. Rolling Stone
took notice of the album, running a six-page feature on Brooks. And in 1987, BBC Radio
broadcast an hour-long live performance.
By this time, Brooks' teenage son, Ronnie Baker Brooks, was touring with the band. He made his recording debut on his father's Live From Chicago—Bayou Lightning Strikes. Brooks’ 1991 release, Satisfaction Guaranteed, received major media coverage, including features and articles in The Washington Post
, The Village Voice
, Chicago Tribune
, Los Angeles Times
, Guitar World
, Living Blues
, Blues Revue, and many other publications.
Brooks spent the summer of 1993 on a national concert tour with B.B. King, Buddy Guy
, Koko Taylor
, Junior Wells
and Eric Johnson
. During the Chicago stop of his 1995 “From The Cradle” club tour, Eric Clapton
honored Brooks by inviting the bluesman on stage for an impromptu jam at Buddy Guy's Legends club.
In 1996, Brooks released Roadhouse Rules. The album was produced in Memphis by Jim Gaines, who also produced Luther Allison
, Stevie Ray Vaughan
and Santana
, and his son Ronnie Baker Brooks appeared again. In 1999, along with fellow Gulf Coast blues veterans Long John Hunter
and Phillip Walker
(both of whom he had known and played with in the 1950s in Port Arthur), Brooks released Lone Star Shootout.
Brooks continues to tour in the U.S. and Europe. His sons, Ronnie Baker Brooks and Wayne Baker Brooks
, are also full-time blues entertainers, fronting their own bands and touring extensively in the U.S. and abroad. Wayne Baker Brooks continues to play in his father's band as well. The Brooks' are frequent guest performers at each other's shows and have booked appearances as 'The Brooks Family'.
Besides his live and recorded performances, Brooks appeared in the films Blues Brothers 2000
and The Express
and in two UK television commercials for Heineken
beer. His song "Eyeballin'" was heard in Forever LuLu, and "Got Lucky Last Night" featuring Johnny Winter
appeared in John Candy
's Masters of Menace
. He also co-authored the book Blues for Dummies, along with son Wayne Baker Brooks and music historian, guitarist, and songwriter, Cub Koda
.
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
singer and guitarist. He was born in Dubuisson, Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
stated, "His music is witty, soulful and ferociously energetic, brimming with novel harmonic turnarounds, committed vocals and simply astonishing guitar work." The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
added, "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."
Career
He learned to play blues from his banjo-picking grandfather, but did not think about a professional career until he moved to Port Arthur, TexasPort Arthur, Texas
-Demographics:As of the 2000 census, there were 57,755 people, 21,839 households, and 14,675 families residing in the city. The population density was 696.5 people per square mile . There were 24,713 housing units at an average density of 298.0 per square mile...
in the early 1950s. There he heard live performances by Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, T-Bone Walker
T-Bone Walker
Aaron Thibeaux "T-Bone" Walker was a critically acclaimed American blues guitarist, singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, who was one of the most influential pioneers and innovators of the jump blues and electric blues sound. He is the first musician recorded playing blues with the...
, B.B. King, Long John Hunter
Long John Hunter
Long John Hunter is an American Texas blues and electric blues guitarist, singer and songwriter. He has released seven albums in his own name, and in his later years found critical acknowledgement outside of his homeland...
and others and began to think about making money from his music. One day, while Brooks was strumming his guitar on his front porch in Port Arthur, Clifton Chenier
Clifton Chenier
Clifton Chenier , a Creole French-speaking native of Opelousas, Louisiana, was an eminent performer and recording artist of Zydeco, which arose from Cajun and Creole music, with R&B, jazz, and blues influences. He played the accordion and won a Grammy Award in 1983...
heard him and offered him a job in his touring band.
Embarking on a solo career, he adopted the moniker of Guitar Junior and signed with Lake Charles's Goldband label. His singles for the label included regional hit "Family Rules", which remains a favorite of the swamp pop
Swamp pop
Swamp rock is a musical genre indigenous to the Acadiana region of south Louisiana and an adjoining section of southeast Texas. Created in the 1950s and early 1960s by teenaged Cajuns and black Creoles, it combines New Orleans-style rhythm and blues, country and western, and traditional French...
idiom in south Louisiana
Acadiana
Acadiana, or The Heart of Acadiana, is the official name given to the French Louisiana region that is home to a large Francophone population. Of the 64 parishes that make up Louisiana, 22 named parishes and other parishes of similar cultural environment, make up the intrastate...
and southeast Texas
Southeast Texas
Southeast Texas is a subregion of East Texas located in the southeast corner of the U.S. state of Texas. The subregion is geographically centered around the Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown and Beaumont–Port Arthur metropolitan areas...
. Other Goldband singles included "Made In The Shade" and "The Crawl" (later recorded by The Fabulous Thunderbirds
The Fabulous Thunderbirds
The Fabulous Thunderbirds are an American, Grammy-nominated Blues rock band, formed in 1974.-Career:After performing for several years in the Austin, Texas blues scene, the band won a recording contract with Takoma/Chrysalis Records, and later on signed with Epic Records.Their first two albums,...
).
In 1960, he moved to Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Illinois. Luther Johnson
Luther Johnson (Guitar Junior)
Luther Johnson is an American Chicago blues singer and guitarist, who performs under the name Luther "Guitar Junior" Johnson....
was already using the name 'Guitar Junior' there, so he adopted the alternative stage name, Lonnie Brooks.
In Chicago, he found regular work in the West Side clubs as well as in Gary
Gary, Indiana
Gary is a city in Lake County, Indiana, United States. The city is in the southeastern portion of the Chicago metropolitan area and is 25 miles from downtown Chicago. The population is 80,294 at the 2010 census, making it the seventh-largest city in the state. It borders Lake Michigan and is known...
and East Chicago, Indiana and occasionally in the Rush Street North Side entertainment area. He cut a series of 45s for a variety of labels, including Chess
Chess Records
Chess Records was an American record label based in Chicago, Illinois. It specialized in blues, R&B, soul, gospel music, early rock and roll, and occasional jazz releases....
, Chirrup, Mercury
Mercury Records
Mercury Records is a record label operating as a standalone company in the UK and as part of the Island Def Jam Motown Music Group in the US; both are subsidiaries of Universal Music Group. There is also a Mercury Records in Australia, which is a local artist and repertoire division of Universal...
, Midas and USA Records, achieving some local radio airplay. He also supported other artists on record and live, including Jimmy Reed
Jimmy Reed
Mathis James "Jimmy" Reed was an American blues musician and songwriter, notable for bringing his distinctive style of blues to mainstream audiences. Reed was a major player in the field of electric blues, as opposed to the more acoustic-based sound of many of his contemporaries...
. In 1961 he played guitar on the double album, Jimmy Reed at Carnegie Hall
Jimmy Reed at Carnegie Hall
Jimmy Reed at Carnegie Hall is a double LP album by Jimmy Reed, released in 1961. Though the title suggests that the record was recorded live, it consists of a studio recreation of a Carnegie Hall performance on one disc and a second disc that is identical to an LP released separately as The Best...
.
In 1969, he recorded his first album, Broke An’ Hungry, for the Capitol
Capitol Records
Capitol Records is a major United States based record label, formerly located in Los Angeles, but operating in New York City as part of Capitol Music Group. Its former headquarters building, the Capitol Tower, is a major landmark near the corner of Hollywood and Vine...
label. It was produced by Wayne Shuler, son of Eddie Shuler, who had founded Goldband Records in Louisiana.
In 1974, Brooks participated in a multi-artist tour of Europe, and cut an album entitled Sweet Home Chicago for the French label Black & Blue
Black & Blue Records
Black & Blue Records is a French record label specializing in swing jazz and blues.Black & Blue was founded in 1968, and in its early years concentrated on reissuing jazz that had been previously released on American labels. The label recorded Blues and Jazz musicians both in America and France and...
. When he returned to Chicago, he began playing regularly at Pepper’s Hideout on the Chicago's South Side. There he attracted the attention of Bruce Iglauer
Bruce Iglauer
Bruce Iglauer is the American founder and head of the independent blues record label Alligator Records in Chicago.Iglauer was born in Ann Arbor and grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan and Cincinnati, Ohio...
, head of the fledgling Alligator Records
Alligator Records
Alligator Records is a Chicago-based independent blues record label founded by Bruce Iglauer in 1971.Iglauer started the label with his own savings to record and produce his favorite band Hound Dog Taylor & The HouseRockers, whom his employer, Bob Koester of Delmark Records, declined to record...
label, who had previously seen him a number of times at the Avenue Lounge on the city’s West Side.
In 1978, Iglauer included four of Brooks’ songs (including three originals) on an anthology series entitled Living Chicago Blues, released by Alligator Records. He was signed to the label, and the following year, he released his album Bayou Lightning on the Alligator label. The album won the 'Grand Prix du Disque Award' from the 1980 Montreux Jazz Festival
Montreux Jazz Festival
The Montreux Jazz Festival is the best-known music festival in Switzerland and one of the most prestigious in Europe; it is held annually in early July in Montreux on the shores of Lake Geneva...
. While in Montreux, Brooks befriended country star Roy Clark
Roy Clark
Roy Linwood Clark is an American country music musician and performer. He is best known for hosting Hee Haw, a nationally televised country variety show, from 1969–1992. Clark has been an important and influential figure in country music, both as a performer and helping to popularize the genre...
. Clark was impressed with Brooks, and he arranged for an appearance on the country music television program Hee Haw
Hee Haw
Hee Haw is an American television variety show featuring country music and humor with fictional rural Kornfield Kounty as a backdrop. It aired on CBS-TV from 1969–1971 before a 20-year run in local syndication. The show was inspired by Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, the major difference being...
.
Since that time, Brooks has recorded exclusively for the Alligator, releasing seven albums as well as shared recordings and compilation appearances. Brooks' style, sometimes described as "voodoo blues", includes elements of Chicago blues
Chicago blues
The Chicago blues is a form of blues music that developed in Chicago, Illinois, by taking the basic acoustic guitar and harmonica-based Delta blues, making the harmonica louder with a microphone and an instrument amplifier, and adding electrically amplified guitar, amplified bass guitar, drums,...
, Louisiana blues
Louisiana blues
Louisiana blues is a genre of blues music that developed in the period after World War II in the state of Louisiana. It is generally divided into two major sub-genres, with the jazz-influenced New Orleans blues based around the city and the slower tempo swamp blues incorporating influences from...
, swamp pop
Swamp pop
Swamp rock is a musical genre indigenous to the Acadiana region of south Louisiana and an adjoining section of southeast Texas. Created in the 1950s and early 1960s by teenaged Cajuns and black Creoles, it combines New Orleans-style rhythm and blues, country and western, and traditional French...
and rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
. Other labels have issued pre-1978 recordings by Brooks as well as compilations of Brooks' singles.
Following the release of Bayou Lightning, Brooks began touring nationwide as well as returning to Europe. A 1982 trip to Germany resulted in an hour-long Brooks live performance on German television. His 1983 follow-up album was Hot Shot. 1986's Wound Up Tight featured a guest appearance by Brooks' most famous fan, Johnny Winter
Johnny Winter
John Dawson "Johnny" Winter III is an American blues guitarist, singer, and producer. Best known for his late 1960s and 1970s high-energy blues-rock albums and live performances, Winter also produced three Grammy Award-winning albums for blues legend Muddy Waters...
, on guitar. Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
took notice of the album, running a six-page feature on Brooks. And in 1987, BBC Radio
BBC Radio
BBC Radio is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927. For a history of BBC radio prior to 1927 see British Broadcasting Company...
broadcast an hour-long live performance.
By this time, Brooks' teenage son, Ronnie Baker Brooks, was touring with the band. He made his recording debut on his father's Live From Chicago—Bayou Lightning Strikes. Brooks’ 1991 release, Satisfaction Guaranteed, received major media coverage, including features and articles in The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
, The Village Voice
The Village Voice
The Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper and news and features website in New York City that features investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts and music coverage, and events listings for New York City...
, Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
, Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
, Guitar World
Guitar World
Guitar World is a monthly music magazine devoted to guitarists. It contains original interviews, album and gear reviews and guitar and bass tablature of approximately five songs each month. The magazine is published 13 times per year...
, Living Blues
Living Blues
Living Blues is a bi-monthly magazine focused on covering the African American blues tradition, and America's oldest blues periodical. The magazine was founded as a quarterly in Chicago in 1970 by Jim O'Neal and Amy van Singel. Alligator Records owner and founder Bruce Iglauer was also one of the...
, Blues Revue, and many other publications.
Brooks spent the summer of 1993 on a national concert tour with B.B. King, Buddy Guy
Buddy Guy
George "Buddy" Guy is an American blues and jazz guitarist and singer. He is a critically acclaimed artist who has established himself as a pioneer of the Chicago blues sound, and has served as an influence to some of the most notable musicians of his generation...
, Koko Taylor
Koko Taylor
Koko Taylor sometimes spelled KoKo Taylor was an American Chicago blues musician, popularly known as the "Queen of the Blues." She was known primarily for her rough, powerful vocals and traditional blues stylings....
, Junior Wells
Junior Wells
Junior Wells , born Amos Wells Blakemore Jr., was an American Chicago blues vocalist, harmonica player, and recording artist...
and Eric Johnson
Eric Johnson
Eric Johnson is an American guitarist. Though he is best known for his success in the instrumental rock format, Johnson regularly incorporates jazz, fusion, gospel and country and western music into his recordings...
. During the Chicago stop of his 1995 “From The Cradle” club tour, Eric Clapton
Eric Clapton
Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE, is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and...
honored Brooks by inviting the bluesman on stage for an impromptu jam at Buddy Guy's Legends club.
In 1996, Brooks released Roadhouse Rules. The album was produced in Memphis by Jim Gaines, who also produced Luther Allison
Luther Allison
Luther Allison was an American blues guitarist. He was born in Widener, Arkansas and moved with his family, at age twelve, to Chicago in 1951. He taught himself guitar and began listening to blues extensively. Three years later he began hanging outside blues nightclubs with the hopes of being...
, Stevie Ray Vaughan
Stevie Ray Vaughan
Stephen Ray "Stevie Ray" Vaughan was an American electric blues guitarist and singer. He was the younger brother of Jimmie Vaughan and frontman for Double Trouble, a band that included bassist Tommy Shannon and drummer Chris Layton. Born in Dallas, Vaughan moved to Austin at the age of 17 and...
and Santana
Santana (band)
Santana is a rock band based around guitarist Carlos Santana and founded in the late 1960s. It first came to public attention after their performing the song "Soul Sacrifice" at the Woodstock Festival in 1969, when their Latin rock provided a contrast to other acts on the bill...
, and his son Ronnie Baker Brooks appeared again. In 1999, along with fellow Gulf Coast blues veterans Long John Hunter
Long John Hunter
Long John Hunter is an American Texas blues and electric blues guitarist, singer and songwriter. He has released seven albums in his own name, and in his later years found critical acknowledgement outside of his homeland...
and Phillip Walker
Phillip Walker
Phillip Walker was an American electric blues guitarist, most noted for his 1959 hit single, "Hello My Darling", produced by J. R. Fulbright. Although Walker continued playing throughout his life, he recorded more sparsely.-Career:Walker grew up on the Texas Gulf Coast, and by his mid-teens was...
(both of whom he had known and played with in the 1950s in Port Arthur), Brooks released Lone Star Shootout.
Brooks continues to tour in the U.S. and Europe. His sons, Ronnie Baker Brooks and Wayne Baker Brooks
Wayne Baker Brooks
Wayne Baker Brooks is an American blues and blues-rock guitarist and singer.-Biography:...
, are also full-time blues entertainers, fronting their own bands and touring extensively in the U.S. and abroad. Wayne Baker Brooks continues to play in his father's band as well. The Brooks' are frequent guest performers at each other's shows and have booked appearances as 'The Brooks Family'.
Besides his live and recorded performances, Brooks appeared in the films Blues Brothers 2000
Blues Brothers 2000
Blues Brothers 2000 is a 1998 American musical comedy film that is a sequel to the 1980 film The Blues Brothers. Directed by John Landis, the film featured Dan Aykroyd and John Goodman, with cameos by many musicians.-Plot:...
and The Express
The Express
The Express is a 2008 American sports film produced by John Davis and directed by Gary Fleder. The storyline was conceived from a screenplay written by Charles Leavitt from a book titled Ernie Davis: The Elmira Express, authored by Robert C. Gallagher...
and in two UK television commercials for Heineken
Heineken
Heineken is a Dutch beer which has been brewed by Heineken International since 1873. It is available in a 4.6% alcohol variety in countries such as Ireland. It is the flagship product of the Heineken company and is made of purified water, malted barley, hops, and yeast. In 1886 H...
beer. His song "Eyeballin'" was heard in Forever LuLu, and "Got Lucky Last Night" featuring Johnny Winter
Johnny Winter
John Dawson "Johnny" Winter III is an American blues guitarist, singer, and producer. Best known for his late 1960s and 1970s high-energy blues-rock albums and live performances, Winter also produced three Grammy Award-winning albums for blues legend Muddy Waters...
appeared in John Candy
John Candy
John Franklin Candy was a Canadian actor and comedian. He rose to fame as a member of the Toronto branch of The Second City and its related Second City Television series, and through his appearances in comedy films such as Stripes, Splash, Cool Runnings, The Great Outdoors, Spaceballs, and Uncle...
's Masters of Menace
Masters of Menace
-Plot:The Masters of Menace are a motorcycle club. When one of their own dies while testing his top fuel Harley, they decide to cross the country to go bury him...
. He also co-authored the book Blues for Dummies, along with son Wayne Baker Brooks and music historian, guitarist, and songwriter, Cub Koda
Cub Koda
Michael "Cub" Koda was an American rock and roll singer, guitarist, songwriter, disc jockey, music critic, and record compiler. Rolling Stone magazine felt that Koda was best known for writing the song "Smokin' in the Boys' Room", which reached #3 on the 1974 Billboard charts as performed by...
.
Quotation
"If my hands could get what my eyes see" he sang in "Eyeballin'", "then my whole mind and body would be trouble-free."Discography
- 1999 Lone Star Shootout (with Long John Hunter and Phillip Walker) (AlligatorAlligator RecordsAlligator Records is a Chicago-based independent blues record label founded by Bruce Iglauer in 1971.Iglauer started the label with his own savings to record and produce his favorite band Hound Dog Taylor & The HouseRockers, whom his employer, Bob Koester of Delmark Records, declined to record...
) - 1997 Deluxe Edition (Alligator)
- 1996 Roadhouse Rules (Alligator)
- 1993 Let’s Talk It Over (1977 session), (DelmarkDelmark RecordsDelmark Records is an independent American jazz and blues record label, based in Chicago since 1958. The label originated in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1953 when owner Bob Koester released a recording of the Windy City Six, a traditional jazz group, under the "Delmar" imprint.-History:Born in 1932 in...
) - 1991 Satisfaction Guaranteed (Alligator)
- 1988 Live From Chicago-Bayou Lightning Strikes (Alligator)
- 1986 Wound Up Tight (Alligator)
- 1985 Live at Pepper’s (Black Magic) (reissued on Black TopBlack Top RecordsBlack Top Records was a New Orleans, Louisiana based independent record label founded in 1981 by brothers Nauman S. Scott, III and Hammond Scott. The label specialized in blues and R&B music. The first release was "Talk To You By Hand" by Anson Funderburgh & The Rockets...
, 1996) - 1984 The Crawl (Charly) (reissue of Goldband singles)
- 1983 Hot Shot (Alligator)
- 1981 Turn On The Night (Alligator)
- 1980 Blues Deluxe (Alligator/WXRTWXRTWXRT, also known as WXRT 93.1, XRT, and 93-XRT is a AAA radio station in Chicago, Illinois. For many years their slogan has been "Chicago's Finest Rock". WXRT is a primary sponsor of the Chicago nonprofit Rock For Kids.-History:...
) - 1979 Bayou Lightning (Alligator)
- 1978 Living Chicago Blues, Vol.3 (Alligator)
- 1975 Sweet Home Chicago (Black & Blue) (reissued on Evidence Records, 1994)
- 1969 Broke An' Hungry (CapitolCapitol RecordsCapitol Records is a major United States based record label, formerly located in Los Angeles, but operating in New York City as part of Capitol Music Group. Its former headquarters building, the Capitol Tower, is a major landmark near the corner of Hollywood and Vine...
)
See also
- Blues Hall of FameBlues Hall of FameThe Blues Hall of Fame is a listing of people who have significantly contributed to blues music. Started in 1980 by the Blues Foundation, it honors those who have performed, recorded, or documented blues.-1980:*Big Bill Broonzy*Willie Dixon*John Lee Hooker...
- List of blues musicians
- Excello RecordsExcello RecordsExcello Records was an American blues record label, started by Ernie Young in Nashville, Tennessee in 1953 as a subsidiary of Nashboro, a gospel label...
- Long Beach Blues FestivalLong Beach Blues FestivalThe Long Beach Blues Festival, in Long Beach, California, was established in full in 1980, and is one of the largest Blues festivals and is the second oldest on the West Coast . It is held on Saturday and Sunday of Labor Day weekend. For many years it was held on the athletic field on the...
- San Francisco Blues FestivalSan Francisco Blues FestivalDebuting in 1973, the San Francisco Blues Festival is the longest running blues festival in the United States. Tom Mazzolini, the event's producer, founded the blues festival to educate the public about the history and evolution of the blues...
- Chicago Blues FestivalChicago Blues FestivalThe Chicago Blues Festival is an annual event held in June that features three days of performances by top-tier blues musicians, both old favorites and the up-and-coming. It is hosted by the City of Chicago Mayor's Office of Special Events, and always occurs in early June...