Bluesman Clarence
'Gatemouth' Brown Dies

Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, the
singer and guitarist who built a 50-year
career playing blues, country, jazz and
Cajun music, died yesterday (Sept. 10)
in his hometown of Orange, Texas,
where he had gone to escape
Hurricane Katrina. He was 81.

Brown, who had been battling lung
cancer and heart disease, was in ill
health for the past year, said Rick
Cady, his booking agent.

Cady said the musician was with his
family at his brother's house when he
died. Brown's home in Slidell, La., a
bedroom community of New Orleans,
was destroyed by Katrina, Cady said.

"He was completely devastated," Cady
said. "I'm sure he was heartbroken,
both literally and figuratively. He
evacuated successfully before the
hurricane hit, but I'm sure it weighed
heavily on his soul."

Although his career first took off in the
1940s with blues hits "Okie Dokie
Stomp" and "Ain't That Dandy," Brown
bristled when he was labeled a
bluesman. In the second half of his
career, he became known as a musical
jack-of-all-trades who played a
half-dozen instruments and culled from
jazz, country, Texas blues, and the
zydeco and Cajun music of his native
Louisiana.

By the end of his career, Brown had
more than 30 recordings and won a
Grammy award in 1982. "I'm so
unorthodox, a lot of people can't
handle it," he said in a 2001 interview.

Brown's versatility came partly from a
childhood spent in the musical
mishmash of southwestern Louisiana
and southeastern Texas. He was born
in Vinton, La., and grew up in Orange,
Texas.

Brown often said he learned to love
music from his father, a railroad worker
who sang and played fiddle in a Cajun
band. Brown, who was dismissive of
most of his contemporary blues
players, named his father as his
greatest musical influence.

"If I can make my guitar sound like his
fiddle, then I know I've got it right,"
Brown said.

Brown started playing fiddle by age 5.
At 10, he taught himself an odd guitar
picking style he used all his life,
dragging his long, bony fingers over
the strings. In his teens, Brown toured
as a drummer with swing bands and
was nicknamed "Gatemouth" for his
deep voice. After a brief stint in the
Army, he returned in 1945 to Texas,
where he was inspired by blues
guitarist T-Bone Walker.

Brown's career took off in 1947 when
Walker became ill and had to leave the
stage at a Houston nightclub. The club
owner invited Brown to sing, but Brown
grabbed Walker's guitar and thrilled
the crowd by tearing through
"Gatemouth Boogie" -- a song he
claimed to have made up on the spot.

He made dozens of recordings in the
1940s and '50s, including many
regional hits -- "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.

"He is one of the most underrated
guitarists, musicians and arrangers I've
ever met, an absolute prodigy," said
Colin Walters, who is working on
Brown's biography. "He is truly one of
the most gifted musicians out there.

"He never wanted to be called a
bluesman, but I used to tell him that
though he may not like the blues, he
does the blues better than anyone,"
added Walters. "He inherited the
legacy of great bluesmen like Muddy
Waters and John Lee Hooker, but he
took what they did and made it better."

Brown -- who performed in cowboy
boots, cowboy hat and Western-style
shirts -- lived in Nashville in the early
1960s, hosting an R&B television show
and recording country singles. In 1979,
he and country guitarist Roy Clark
recorded "Makin' Music," an album that
included blues and country songs and
a cover of the Billy Strayhorn-Duke
Ellington classic "Take the A-Train."

Brown recorded with Eric Clapton, Ry
Cooder, Bonnie Raitt and others, but
he took a dim view of most musicians --
and blues guitarists in particular. He
called B.B. King one-dimensional. He
dismissed his famous Texas blues
contemporaries Albert Collins and
Johnny Copeland as clones of T-Bone
Walker, whom many consider the
father of modern Texas blues. "All
those guys always tried to sound like
T-Bone," Brown said.

Survivors include three daughters and
a son.

Billboard Magazine
Texan Blues star
Brown dies at 81

Grammy-award winning guitarist and
singer Clarence 'Gatemouth' Brown
has died in Texas at the age of 81.

Brown, who had been battling lung
cancer and heart disease, was a
versatile jazz and blues artist whose
career took off in the 1940s.

The musician was "devastated " after
his home in Slidell, Louisiana was
destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.

"I'm sure he was heartbroken, both
literally and figuratively," said his
booking agent Rick Cady.

"He evacuated successfully before the
hurricane hit, but I'm sure it weighed
heavily on his soul."

The musician, who recorded with Eric
Clapton, Ry Cooder and Frank Zappa
during a career that spanned 50
years, died surrounded by his family at
his brother's home in Orange, Texas.

Eclectic style

Born in Louisiana, but raised in Texas,
Brown took an eclectic approach to
music drawing influence from jazz,
country and Texas blues, as well as
the Cajun music of his native Louisiana.

Nicknamed "Gatemouth" for his deep
voice, he cited his father, a railway
worker and fiddle player, as his
greatest musical influence. "If I can
make my guitar sound like his fiddle,
then I know I've got it right."

As his career blossomed in the late
'40s, he recorded a string of hits
including Okie Dokie Stomp and Ain't
That Dandy - but later became
frustrated by the limits of the blues
genre and moved into country and jazz.

"He is one of the most underrated
guitarists, musicians and arrangers I've
ever met, an absolute prodigy," said
Colin Walters, who is working on
Brown's biography.

"He never wanted to be called a
bluesman, but I used to tell him that
though he may not like the blues, he
does the blues better than anyone."

BBC News
Live Gatemouth
Brown
streaming audio

recorded in 1986-87
one o'clock jump
st. loius
blues
okey-dokey stomp