Clarence Gatemouth Brown Biography
, Brown was raised in Orange, Texas. His professional musical
career began in 1945, playing drums in San Antonio. He was
nicknamed "Gatemouth" for his deep voice. He received
note, and his fame took off, during a 1947 concert by T-Bone
Walker in a Houston nightclub. When Walker became ill, Brown
took up his guitar and played "Gatemouth Boogie,"
to the delight of the audience. He soon played guitar and
other instruments, living primarily in Texas.
In the 1960s he moved to Nashville to participate in a syndicated
R & B television show, and while he was there recorded
several country singles. He struck up a friendship with
Roy Clark and made several appearances on the television
show Hee Haw. By the late 60s he had decided to leave the
music business and he moved to New Mexico and became a deputy
sheriff.
However, in the early 1970s several countries in Europe
had developed an appreciation for American roots music,
especially blues, and Brown was a popular and well-respected
artist there. He toured Europe twelve times, beginning in
1971 and continuing throughout the 1970s. He also became
an official ambassador for American music, and participated
in several tours sponsored by the U.S. State Department,
including an extensive tour of Eastern Africa. He moved
to New Orleans in the late 1970s.
In the 1980s, a series of releases on Rounder Records and
Alligator Records revitalized his U.S. career, and he toured
extensively and internationally, usually playing between
250 and 300 shows a year. He won a blues Grammy in 1982
for the album Alright Again! and was nominated for five
more. He was also awarded eight W. C. Handy Awards and the
National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences Heroes Award.
In his last few years, he maintained a full touring schedule,
including Australia, New Zealand, and countries with political
conflicts in Central America, Africa, and the former Soviet
Union. "People can't come to me, so I go to them,"
he explained.
In September 2004, Brown was diagnosed with lung cancer.
Already suffering from emphysema and heart disease, he and
his doctors decided to forgo treatment. His home in Slidell,
Louisiana, was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and
he was evacuated to his childhood home town of Orange, Texas,
where he died September 10 at his brother's home at the
age of 81.
During his career, he played a wide variety of guitars,
including Gibson L-5s and Fender Telecasters, but his trademark
guitar was a mid-60s 'non-reverse' Gibson Firebird, customized
with an embossed-leather cover featuring a rose and "Gatemouth,"
amongst other designs. His guitar style influenced many
other blues guitarists such as Albert Collins, Guitar Slim,
J.J.Cale, and Johnny "Guitar" Watson. Frank Zappa
named Brown as his all-time favorite guitarist. He is also
considered as one of the first guitarists to use a capo
in his guitar technique. Although well-known in the American
South and Southwest, Brown had trouble reaching a national
audience, and recorded for several different small labels
in the early part of his career. His most recent album,
Timeless, was released in late 2004.
Discography
* San Antonio Ballbuster (1948)
* The Blues Ain't Nothin' (1972)
* Just Got Lucky (1973)
* Cold Strange (1973)
* Sings Louis Jordan (1973)
* Black Jack (1975)
* Down South in Bayou County (1975)
* Gate's on the Heat (1975)
* Bogalusa Boogie Man (1976)
* Makin' Music (with Roy Clark) (1979)
* Alright Again! (1981)
* One More Mile (1982)
* Atomic Energy (1984)
* Pressure Cooker (1985)
* More Stuff (1985)
* Real Life (Live) (1987)
* Texas Swing (1988)
* Standing My Ground (1989)
* The Original Peacock Recordings (1990)
* No Looking Back (1992)
* Live 1980 (1994)
* The Best of Clarence Gatemouth Brown, A Blues Legend (1995)
* Man (1995)
* A Long Way Home (1996)
* Gate Swings (1997)
* Okie Dokie Stomp (1999)
* American Music, Texas Style (1999)
* Guitar in My Hand (2000)
* Okie Dokie (2000)
* The Definitive Black & Blue Sessions: Sings Louis
Jordan (2001)
* Back to Bogalusa (2001)
* His First Recordings: 1947-1951 (2002)
* 1947-1951 (2002)
* Hot Club Drive (2003)
* Timeless (2004)
* 1952-1954 (2005)
Versatile musician Clarence "Gatemouth"
Brown dies in Texas at 81
BATON ROUGE, La. Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, the
singer and guitarist who became famous with juke-joint stomp
numbers and built a 50-year career playing blues, country,
jazz and Cajun music, died today in his hometown of Orange,
Texas, where he'd 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, in a telephone interview.
Cady, who received a call earlier Saturday from Brown's
manager Jim Bateman, said the musician was with his family
at his brother's house when he passed away.
Brown's home in Slidell, La., a bedroom community of New
Orleans, was destroyed by the Katrina, which wiped out much
of the Mississippi Gulf Coast and New Orleans, Cady said.
