Clarence 'Gatemouth' Brown dies after Katrina evacuation

[devilmaster]

http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/Music/09/11/gatemouthbrown.obit.ap/index.html

A true music virtuoso, he played multiple instruments and could easily play different styles of music....

:(

[pineapple]

:( truly sad. His forthright opinions on contemporary musicians were both eye-opening and entertaining. RIP.

[Ziggy]

Gate was great. A very talented musician. Our blues society had him come to town quite often. One time I was setting up our table when Gatemouth arrived. There were like four or five people in this room, a couple of the house sound guys, myself and one other blues society member. Gatemouth talking to the waitress "I want everybody out of here, NOW!" So she comes over and tells us she's sorry but we all have to leave...... We go out in the hall, I went outside for a cigarette. Looking into the window into the room I just left.... Gatemouth pushes a couple of tables together and proceeds to lie down and take a nap!

Those were the days!

Dude was a hell of an entertainer. A top flight guitarist, and the guy could just throw down a concert. He had a ton of songs in his head. Always smoking his pipe on stage, no always using tobacco :cool:

If you dont have a Gatemouth album, get yourself a copy of "Pressure Cooker" , it's on Alligator records and should still be available. IMO Gate was the heir apparent to T-Bone, he had all those licks in his bag of tricks. Every one of them.





PS - One time when I saw him (I saw him play alot, maybe six times) some drunk from the audience yelled "play some stevie ray vaughn" to which Gate goes "put some strings on him and get him up here"!!!

An American Treasure for sure.

RIP Gatemouth, your music will stand the test of time

[JohnHKart]

Thanks for posting this....I was thinking of posting this here but then i was thinking nobody would know who he was. None of my bandmembers did.....and that is a shame. Well at least another guitarist I know knew of him and I was the first to inform him of Gate's passing. This is very sad, I knew a few months ago he had been diagnosed with terminal cancer....So he only had a few months to live at best and it's so tragic he had to die broken hearted as I heard the storm really devasted him emotionally.....as he lost instruments as well as his home. What an incredible musician he really did do it all, blues, jazz, zydeco, funk and randb....I even saw him do a rap song!!! He wasn't some three chord blues guitar player, but a virtuoso. I got to see him in at the Long Beach Blues festival in 1987 and again at a club in Long Beach in 1989...I said hi to him briefly in 89 he was also a nice guy. In fact come to think of it he was outside the venue smoking that pipe you mention. I remember now that he was playing violin at the 89 show also. Wow. I don't live in Long Beach...but it was quite ironic to be at my gig in Long Beach last Sat night, turn on the radio and learn of his passing, and I was only two miles from the locations I saw him in LB.

John