Lonnie’s band opened his first set with number two son Wayne Baker Brooks handling vocals and lead guitar duties on his Gibson Blues Hawk, along with bass, drums and keys. After several numbers Lonnie headed up on stage, clad in a red shirt sporting his trademark cowboy hat, where his venerable blonde Gibson 335 awaited him.

All the guitars used by the band were fussed over by the pony-tailed guitar tech traveling with the band. Although Lonnie is in his late sixties his voice remains strong and the emotions come across in his vocals. He played a mixture of up- tempo and slow blues, both originals, and standards including “Rock Me Baby” and “Sweet Home Chicago”. Lonnie closed off the first set by switching to a cordless Hamer guitar and doing his customary walkabout in the audience. He headed behind the bar and, while playing the guitar behind his head, drained a wine glass full of coke through two straws, eschewing his favorite Courvoisier tipple on this occasion. He finished off by giving the guitar a thorough teeth and tongue- lashing, coaxing some impressive sounds out of it. In a preview of what was to come, he handed off the guitar to number one son Ronnie Baker Brooks, along for the ride this evening, to close out the set.

Photo Courtesy of J. Balmer

Lonnie Brooks was born in 1933 in Louisiana and first landed a gig with zydeco master Clifton Chenier. Lonnie recorded some rock-oriented sides as Guitar Junior in the 1950s. He came to Chicago, where he settled, with Sam Cooke in the 1960s. During the sixties and seventies Lonnie played blues, rock, and R&B in some of the toughest clubs in Chicago for pimps, hookers, and gangsters, including backing up strippers. Lonnie paid his dues blending all his musical influences into a style he describes as “voodoo blues”. He was rewarded with an Alligator recording contract in 1979, for who he has recorded eight albums.

The eclectic background Lonnie brings to the blues, and his extensive club experience, no doubt has a lot to do with why he is the consummate blues showman. One of the two previous occasions on which I have seen Lonnie Brooks was at the opening mixer of the Annual Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology in Chicago in 1999.Who better than Lonnie Brooks to bring the blues to 14,000 rhythmically challenged science nerds descending on the Blues Capital of the world?

The sting was in the tail of the night when Ronnie Baker Brooks came out for the second set, guitar blazing. He played several songs from his new CD including the title track, “Take Me Witcha”. Ronnie played lead and rhythm guitar in his Dad’s band for thirteen years, and is now establishing a strong career on his own. He dropped by WGLT and visited with our own Delta Blues Doctor Frank Black before heading down to JuuJu’s. Ronnie has a contemporary blues attack and cites Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Albert Collins as influences. However, he clearly appreciates the music of an earlier generation of blues musicians, and was the rhythm guitarist on Jody William’s comeback CD “Return of a Legend”.

As befits an elder statesman of the blues, Lonnie sat out most of the second set. When he did get back up on stage Lonnie and Wayne and the guitar tech engaged in a guitar ménage a trois, where Wayne played Wayne’s, Lonnie played Wayne’s, and the guitar tech played Lonnie’s. Lonnie Brooks and Sons Inc. closed out the set together. They had given the audience a blues show to remember, leaving us to shuffle home early Sunday morning knowing that a great time had been had by all.

Brian J. Wilkinson is a freelance writer based in Bloomington, Illinois.             01/2003