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Clarence Gatemouth Brown

A true musician's musician, Clarence Gatemouth Brown mastered the guitar, fiddle, drums, viola, harmonica, piano, mandolin and bass. Gatemouth's smooth blend of Texas style swing with Jazz, Country and Cajun music has altered the definition of the Blues. His versatility singles him out as an architect of modern Blues sounds. Although primarily known as a rhythm & blues artist, Brown's music truly defied any simple description. Influenced by big bands and horn players, his work on the guitar and fiddle exhibited the music he grew up hearing along the Gulf Coast. Brown was born in Vinton, Louisiana, and raised not far from the Gulf Coast in Orange, Texas. He learned guitar and fiddle from his father who played and sang the tunes of the region, including French traditional songs and even German polkas. He reminds us that: "Everybody played music in those days." He began working professionally as a drummer during World War II. After a stint in the U.S. Army, Gatemouth made his debut as a guitarist in 1947 by simply walking on stage at Don Robey’s famed Peacock Club in Houston and picking up an electric Gibson guitar that an ailing T-Bone Walker had put down mid-show. Gate so wowed the audience, playing his own "Gatemouth Boogie," that within a few minutes he had been showered with $600 in tips - a large haul in those cash-strapped days. Robey soon had Brown fronting a 23-piece orchestra on a tour across the South and Southwest. The manager then formed Peacock Records, the first successful post- war, black-owned record label, to take Gate’s sound to a national audience. Dozens of hits soon followed, including "Okie Dokie Stomp," "Boogie Rambler," and "Dirty Work at the Crossroads." But he became frustrated by the limitations of the blues and began carving a new career by recording albums that featured jazz and country songs mixed in with the blues numbers. After splitting with Robey, Brown moved to Nashville, where he hosted a television show and began adding country music to his repertoire, even recording with Roy Clark and appearing on Hee Haw. Heavy touring in the 1970s established new audiences in Europe, East Africa, and the Soviet Union, where Gate toured as a musical ambassador for the U.S. State Department. He recorded in his hometown of Bogalusa with Professor Longhair, for the 1974 Barclay session “Rock n’ Roll Gumbo.” In recent years, he cut a string of four-star albums for such record labels as Rounder, Alligator, Verve, and Blue Thumb.

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Film Review

The Blues of Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown

Read "The Blues of Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey


The Blues of Clarence “Gatemouth" Brown Storyville Films Blues Legends 2007

What a DVD of a 1984 Clarence “Gatemouth Brown concert proves is how timeless, ageless, and transcendent both this artist and his craft are. Brown's final recordings, mere months before his death from lung cancer in September 2005, sound no less fresh, vital, and beyond categorization than the music of this performance of more than twenty years ago.

Tempted at ...

397
Album Review

Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown: Back to Bogalusa

Read "Back to Bogalusa" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey


Why Clarence “Gatemouth" Brown is a National Treasure.

Louisiana born, Texas bred Clarence “Gatemouth" Brown is a trans-genre, journeyman, multi-instrumentalist Renaissance man. Equally at home with Texas Blues, Cajun Zydeco, Western Swing, Rhythm and Blues, Country and Western, and Jazz, Brown spread his influence around generously. In this respect, one could see him as a rural Ray Charles. Brown is every bit the National Treasure that Charles is for no other reason than he, like Charles, possesses a fearlessly inquisitive ...

206
Album Review

Clarence Gatemouth Brown: Gate Swings

Read "Gate Swings" reviewed by Karen Angela Moore


Clarence Gatemouth Brown is a musical icon. A modern day authority - who lived and grew up during the birth of most of what is being studied, milked and copied today. Although he's most revered by the blues folks, Gatemouth's musical chops are strong in many directions, because he's lived it. From the first cut on this album - Gate's own “Midnite Hour" - you know what a treat you're in for. A guitar tone that swings and sings over ...

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Back to Bogalusa

Blue Thumb Records
2001

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Gate Swings

Verve Music Group
1998

buy

Allright Again

Alligator Records
1982

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