Lonnie Brooks (Lee Baker Jr., December 18, 1933 - April 1, 2017) was an Ame… Read Full Bio ↴Lonnie Brooks (Lee Baker Jr., December 18, 1933 - April 1, 2017) was an American blues singer and guitarist.
The musicologist Robert Palmer, writing in Rolling Stone, stated, "His music is witty, soulful and ferociously energetic, brimming with novel harmonic turnarounds, committed vocals and simply astonishing guitar work." Jon Pareles, a music critic for the New York Times, wrote, "He sings in a rowdy baritone, sliding and rasping in songs that celebrate lust, fulfilled and unfulfilled; his guitar solos are pointed and unhurried, with a tone that slices cleanly across the beat. Wearing a cowboy hat, he looks like the embodiment of a good-time bluesman."
Brooks was born in Dubuisson, St. Landry Parish, Louisiana. He learned to play blues from his banjo-picking grandfather but did not think about a career in music until he moved to Port Arthur, Texas, in the early 1950s. There he heard live performances by Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, T-Bone Walker, B.B. King, Long John Hunter and others and began to think about making money from music. Clifton Chenier heard Brooks strumming his guitar on his front porch in Port Arthur and offered him a job in his touring band.
Embarking on a solo career, he began calling himself Guitar Jr. and signed with the Goldband label, based in Lake Charles, Louisiana. His singles for the label included the regional hit "Family Rules", which remains a favorite of the swamp pop idiom in southern Louisiana and southeast Texas. Other Goldband singles included "Made in the Shade" and "The Crawl" (both of which were later recorded by the Fabulous Thunderbirds).
In 1960, he moved to Chicago, Illinois, where he adopted the stage name Lonnie Brooks (Luther Johnson was already using the name Guitar Junior there). Brooks found regular work in clubs on the West Side of Chicago, in nearby Gary and East Chicago, Indiana, and occasionally in the Rush Street entertainment area on Chicago's North Side. He recorded numerous singles for various labels, including Chess, Chirrup, Mercury, Midas and USA Records, receiving some local radio airplay. He also supported other artists on record and live, including Jimmy Reed. In 1961 he played guitar on the double album Jimmy Reed at Carnegie Hall.
In 1969, he recorded his first album, Broke an’ Hungry, for Capitol Records. It was produced by Wayne Shuler, son of Eddie Shuler, who had founded Goldband Records in Louisiana.
In 1974, Brooks participated in a multi-artist tour of Europe and recorded an album, Sweet Home Chicago, for the French label Black & Blue. When he returned to Chicago, he began playing regularly at Pepper’s Hideout on the South Side. There he attracted the attention of Bruce Iglauer, head of the fledgling Alligator Records, who had previously seen him at the Avenue Lounge on the city’s West Side.
In 1978, Iglauer included four of Brooks’s songs (including three originals) in the anthology series Living Chicago Blues, released by Alligator. He was signed to the label, which released his album Bayou Lightning the following year. The album won the Grand Prix du Disque Award from the 1980 Montreux Jazz Festival. While in Montreux, Brooks befriended the country music star Roy Clark, who arranged for him to appear on the country music television program Hee Haw.
Since that time, Brooks has recorded exclusively for Alligator, releasing seven albums in his own name and contributing to shared recordings and compilation appearances. His style, sometimes described as "voodoo blues", includes elements of Chicago blues, Louisiana blues, swamp pop and rhythm and blues. Other labels have issued pre-1978 recordings by Brooks and compilations of his singles.
Following the release of Bayou Lightning, Brooks began touring in the U.S. and also returned to Europe. A 1982 trip to Germany resulted in an hour-long live performance on German television. His next album, Hot Shot, was released in 1983. His album Wound Up Tight, released in 1986, featured his most famous fan, Johnny Winter, on guitar. Rolling Stone took notice of the album, running a six-page feature on Brooks. In 1987, BBC Radio broadcast an hour-long live performance by him.
By this time, his teenage son Ronnie Baker Brooks was touring with the band. He made his recording debut on his father's album Live from Chicago—Bayou Lightning Strikes.
Brooks’s 1991 release, Satisfaction Guaranteed, received much coverage in the press, including features and articles in the Washington Post, the Village Voice, the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, Guitar World, Living Blues, Blues Revue, and other publications.
Brooks went on a national concert tour with B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Koko Taylor, Junior Wells and Eric Johnson in the summer of 1993. Eric Clapton, performing in Chicago as part of his "From the Cradle" tour, honored Brooks by inviting the bluesman on stage for an impromptu jam at the blues club Buddy Guy's Legends.
In 1996, Brooks released Roadhouse Rules. The album was produced in Memphis by Jim Gaines, who also produced Luther Allison, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Santana. Ronnie Baker Brooks also played on this album. With fellow Gulf Coast blues veterans Long John Hunter and Phillip Walker (both of whom he had known and played with in the 1950s in Port Arthur), Brooks released Lone Star Shootout in 1999.
Brooks continues to tour in the U.S. and Europe. His sons, Ronnie Baker Brooks and Wayne Baker Brooks, are also full-time blues entertainers, fronting their own bands and touring extensively in the U.S. and abroad. Wayne Baker Brooks also plays in his father's band. The Brookses are frequent guest performers at each other's shows and have booked appearances as the Brooks Family.
Besides his live and recorded performances, Brooks appeared in the films Blues Brothers 2000 and The Express and in two UK television commercials for Heineken beer. His song "Eyeballin'" was used in the film Forever LuLu. "Got Lucky Last Night", featuring Johnny Winter, was used in the film Masters of Menace. Brooks also co-authored the book Blues for Dummies, with Wayne Baker Brooks and the music historian, guitarist, and songwriter Cub Koda.
Brooks was an influence on the soul artist Reggie Sears.
Discography
Lone Star Shootout, with Long John Hunter and Phillip Walker (Alligator, 1999)
Deluxe Edition (Alligator, 1997)
Roadhouse Rules (Alligator, 1996)
Let’s Talk It Over (1977 sessions released by Delmark, 1993)
Satisfaction Guaranteed (Alligator, 1991)
Live from Chicago: Bayou Lightning Strikes (Alligator, 1988)
Wound Up Tight (Alligator, 1986)
Live at Pepper’s (Black Magic, 1985; reissued by Black Top, 1996)
The Crawl, as Guitar Jr. (Goldband singles reissued by Charly, 1984)
Hot Shot (Alligator, 1983)
Turn On the Night (Alligator, 1981)
Blues Deluxe (Alligator/WXRT, 1980)
Bayou Lightning (Alligator, 1979)
Living Chicago Blues, vol. 3 (Alligator, 1978)
Sweet Home Chicago (Black & Blue, 1975; reissued by Evidence Records, 1994)
Broke an' Hungry, as Guitar Jr. (Capitol, 1969)
The musicologist Robert Palmer, writing in Rolling Stone, stated, "His music is witty, soulful and ferociously energetic, brimming with novel harmonic turnarounds, committed vocals and simply astonishing guitar work." Jon Pareles, a music critic for the New York Times, wrote, "He sings in a rowdy baritone, sliding and rasping in songs that celebrate lust, fulfilled and unfulfilled; his guitar solos are pointed and unhurried, with a tone that slices cleanly across the beat. Wearing a cowboy hat, he looks like the embodiment of a good-time bluesman."
Brooks was born in Dubuisson, St. Landry Parish, Louisiana. He learned to play blues from his banjo-picking grandfather but did not think about a career in music until he moved to Port Arthur, Texas, in the early 1950s. There he heard live performances by Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, T-Bone Walker, B.B. King, Long John Hunter and others and began to think about making money from music. Clifton Chenier heard Brooks strumming his guitar on his front porch in Port Arthur and offered him a job in his touring band.
Embarking on a solo career, he began calling himself Guitar Jr. and signed with the Goldband label, based in Lake Charles, Louisiana. His singles for the label included the regional hit "Family Rules", which remains a favorite of the swamp pop idiom in southern Louisiana and southeast Texas. Other Goldband singles included "Made in the Shade" and "The Crawl" (both of which were later recorded by the Fabulous Thunderbirds).
In 1960, he moved to Chicago, Illinois, where he adopted the stage name Lonnie Brooks (Luther Johnson was already using the name Guitar Junior there). Brooks found regular work in clubs on the West Side of Chicago, in nearby Gary and East Chicago, Indiana, and occasionally in the Rush Street entertainment area on Chicago's North Side. He recorded numerous singles for various labels, including Chess, Chirrup, Mercury, Midas and USA Records, receiving some local radio airplay. He also supported other artists on record and live, including Jimmy Reed. In 1961 he played guitar on the double album Jimmy Reed at Carnegie Hall.
In 1969, he recorded his first album, Broke an’ Hungry, for Capitol Records. It was produced by Wayne Shuler, son of Eddie Shuler, who had founded Goldband Records in Louisiana.
In 1974, Brooks participated in a multi-artist tour of Europe and recorded an album, Sweet Home Chicago, for the French label Black & Blue. When he returned to Chicago, he began playing regularly at Pepper’s Hideout on the South Side. There he attracted the attention of Bruce Iglauer, head of the fledgling Alligator Records, who had previously seen him at the Avenue Lounge on the city’s West Side.
In 1978, Iglauer included four of Brooks’s songs (including three originals) in the anthology series Living Chicago Blues, released by Alligator. He was signed to the label, which released his album Bayou Lightning the following year. The album won the Grand Prix du Disque Award from the 1980 Montreux Jazz Festival. While in Montreux, Brooks befriended the country music star Roy Clark, who arranged for him to appear on the country music television program Hee Haw.
Since that time, Brooks has recorded exclusively for Alligator, releasing seven albums in his own name and contributing to shared recordings and compilation appearances. His style, sometimes described as "voodoo blues", includes elements of Chicago blues, Louisiana blues, swamp pop and rhythm and blues. Other labels have issued pre-1978 recordings by Brooks and compilations of his singles.
Following the release of Bayou Lightning, Brooks began touring in the U.S. and also returned to Europe. A 1982 trip to Germany resulted in an hour-long live performance on German television. His next album, Hot Shot, was released in 1983. His album Wound Up Tight, released in 1986, featured his most famous fan, Johnny Winter, on guitar. Rolling Stone took notice of the album, running a six-page feature on Brooks. In 1987, BBC Radio broadcast an hour-long live performance by him.
By this time, his teenage son Ronnie Baker Brooks was touring with the band. He made his recording debut on his father's album Live from Chicago—Bayou Lightning Strikes.
Brooks’s 1991 release, Satisfaction Guaranteed, received much coverage in the press, including features and articles in the Washington Post, the Village Voice, the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, Guitar World, Living Blues, Blues Revue, and other publications.
Brooks went on a national concert tour with B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Koko Taylor, Junior Wells and Eric Johnson in the summer of 1993. Eric Clapton, performing in Chicago as part of his "From the Cradle" tour, honored Brooks by inviting the bluesman on stage for an impromptu jam at the blues club Buddy Guy's Legends.
In 1996, Brooks released Roadhouse Rules. The album was produced in Memphis by Jim Gaines, who also produced Luther Allison, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Santana. Ronnie Baker Brooks also played on this album. With fellow Gulf Coast blues veterans Long John Hunter and Phillip Walker (both of whom he had known and played with in the 1950s in Port Arthur), Brooks released Lone Star Shootout in 1999.
Brooks continues to tour in the U.S. and Europe. His sons, Ronnie Baker Brooks and Wayne Baker Brooks, are also full-time blues entertainers, fronting their own bands and touring extensively in the U.S. and abroad. Wayne Baker Brooks also plays in his father's band. The Brookses are frequent guest performers at each other's shows and have booked appearances as the Brooks Family.
Besides his live and recorded performances, Brooks appeared in the films Blues Brothers 2000 and The Express and in two UK television commercials for Heineken beer. His song "Eyeballin'" was used in the film Forever LuLu. "Got Lucky Last Night", featuring Johnny Winter, was used in the film Masters of Menace. Brooks also co-authored the book Blues for Dummies, with Wayne Baker Brooks and the music historian, guitarist, and songwriter Cub Koda.
Brooks was an influence on the soul artist Reggie Sears.
Discography
Lone Star Shootout, with Long John Hunter and Phillip Walker (Alligator, 1999)
Deluxe Edition (Alligator, 1997)
Roadhouse Rules (Alligator, 1996)
Let’s Talk It Over (1977 sessions released by Delmark, 1993)
Satisfaction Guaranteed (Alligator, 1991)
Live from Chicago: Bayou Lightning Strikes (Alligator, 1988)
Wound Up Tight (Alligator, 1986)
Live at Pepper’s (Black Magic, 1985; reissued by Black Top, 1996)
The Crawl, as Guitar Jr. (Goldband singles reissued by Charly, 1984)
Hot Shot (Alligator, 1983)
Turn On the Night (Alligator, 1981)
Blues Deluxe (Alligator/WXRT, 1980)
Bayou Lightning (Alligator, 1979)
Living Chicago Blues, vol. 3 (Alligator, 1978)
Sweet Home Chicago (Black & Blue, 1975; reissued by Evidence Records, 1994)
Broke an' Hungry, as Guitar Jr. (Capitol, 1969)
Woke Up This Morning
Lonnie Brooks Lyrics
We have lyrics for 'Woke Up This Morning' by these artists:
@ Rock-Weekend: B.B. King Woke up this morning, my baby was gone Woke up this…
A 3 What kind of animal smokes marijuana at his own confirmation…
A-3 I'm gonna take you down Deep down to the front lines You…
a3 What kind of animal smokes marijuana at his own confirmation…
Abner Jay Woke up this morning Just about the break of day Yeah, woke…
Alabama Well, you woke up this morning Got yourself a gun Your mama…
Alabama 3 What kind of animal smokes marijuana at his own confirmation…
Alabama 3 (OST Клан Сопрано) Well, you woke up this morning Got yourself a gun Your mam…
Alabamah 3 You woke up this morning Got yourself a gun, Mama always sai…
b Woke up this morning, my baby was gone Woke up this…
b.b. kiing I woke up this morning, my baby was gone Woke up…
B.B. King Woke up this morning, my baby was gone Woke up this…
B.B.King Woke up this morning, my baby was gone Woke up this…
blues.the-butcher-590213 with James Gadson I woke up this morning, my baby was gone Woke up…
David T. Walker Last night, I turned out the light, lay down and thought…
Doug Martsch Woke up this mornin with my mind Stayin on Jesus Woke up…
Freddie King I woke up this morning, my baby was gone Woke…
Gary Moore Yeah Woke up this morning My baby was gone Woke up this…
I.R.E. Woke up in the morning, you were not there All I…
Ike & Tina Turner I been gettin' to it I'd say sorry but I'm not Rocking…
J.J. Cale I woke up early this morning There wasn't a cloud in…
Jim Guittard Ya woke up this morning with your pants on fire Just…
Jimmy Page & The Black Crowes mailprintvotesmallerlarger Written by: b.b. king I woke up…
Jimmy Page / The Black Crowes I woke up this morning, my baby was gone Woke up…
Jimmy Page/The Black Crowes I woke up this morning, my baby was gone Woke up…
Joe Sample & David T. Walker Last night, I turned out the light, lay down and thought…
John Legend Woke up this morning with my mind Stayed on freedom Woke up…
Kid Ink (Feat. Devin Cruise) Okay I woke up this morning Ready for the evening (It's the…
King B.B. I woke up this morning, my baby was gone Woke up…
Leonard Cohen And after three days of drinkin' with Larry Love, I…
LIVING ROOM - B.B. King Woke up this morning, my baby was gone Woke up this…
Marmalade Mountain I woke up this morning still feeling tired Working so hard…
Mavis Staples Well, woke up this mo'nin With my mind, stayin' on Jesus Wok…
Mind Funk sunshine, goodbye she was lovely give her back so damn l…
Mississippi Fred McDowell Well, woke up this mo'nin with my mind Stayin' on Jesus Woke…
Nashville Pussy Woke up this morning, my dog was dead Someone disliked him…
Nazareth Woke up this morning, my dog was dead, Someone disliked him…
Nickelback I paid my last respects this mornin' on an early…
Original Television Soundtrack You woke up this morning Got yourself a gun Mama always said…
Otis Grand & The Dancekings I woke up this morning, my baby was gone Woke up…
Paul I woke up this morning feeling very strange I woke up…
Roman Candle Well I woke up this morning with love in my…
Roosevelt Graves And Brother I woke up this morning with my mind (don't you…
Ruthie Foster Dont you know that I'm walking and talking with my…
Snowy White's Blues Agency I woke up this morning, my baby was gone Woke up…
Sol K. Bright I woke up with this song in my head this…
Sopranos What kind of animal smokes marijuana at his own confirmation…
Staples Mavis Well, woke up this mo'nin With my mind, stayin' on Jesus Wok…
The Adicts what a lovely atmosphere & it's nearly closing time the ri…
The Alabama Three What kind of animal smokes marijuana at his own confirmation…
The Black Crowes I woke up this morning, my baby was gone Woke up…
The British National T.V. Orchestra Woke up this morning Woke up this morning I don’t believe my…
The Farmer's Boys I got up early, I'm feeling great and on a…
The J.C. Smith Band I woke up early this morning There wasn't a cloud in…
The Nighthawks Woke up this morning Got yourself a gun You mama always said…
The Sopranos What kind of animal smokes marijuana at his own confirmation…
The Weavers I woke up this mornin' with my mind My mind, it…
V.A. Woke up this morning Woke up this morning I don’t believe my…
Weavers The I woke up this mornin' with my mind My mind, it…
[The Sopranos] Alabama 3 I'm gonna take you down deep down to the front lines You…
We have lyrics for these tracks by Lonnie Brooks:
Accident Accident, just an accident Accidentally fell in love with yo…
Backbone Man If you need some help Ain't another good thing left Need lov…
Before You Go Come here baby, have a seat We need to talk, honey We…
Cold Lonely Nights Cold, Lonely Nights (live version) performed by Lonnie Brook…
Don't Answer the Door Woman, I don′t wanna a soul Hangin' around my house when…
Don't Take Advantage of Me Don't take advantage of me 'cause I'm good to you Don't…
Got Lucky Last Night Pretend you're mean as a lion Wild like a tiger cat Made…
Hoodoo She Do From the Alligator Records release Roadhouse Rules (AL 4843)…
I Want All My Money Back You kiss me and you hug me And feild me for…
In The Dark I heard you was out, high as you could be Kissin'…
In the Dark (Live) I heard you was out, high as you could be Kissin'…
Jealous Man Jealous man cannot work Hold a job too long Jealous man cann…
Like Father Like Son Let me tell you about this boy of mine When my…
Maybe Maybe Oh if I could pray and I try, dear You might…
Mother Nature You got ways like mother nature, babe And you don't stand…
Something You Got Something you got, baby Makes me work all day Something you …
Sweet Home Chicago Oh baby, don't you want to go? Oh baby, don't you…
Temporary Insanity Come with me, I see it in your eyes Don't you…
Too Little Too Late Too Little Too Late It′s four a.m., baby, and you been…
Two Headed Man Two Headed Man by the Lonnie Brooks Blues Band Goin′ back…
The lyrics are frequently found in the comments by searching or by filtering for lyric videos
More Genres
No Artists Found
More Artists
Load All
No Albums Found
More Albums
Load All
No Tracks Found
Genre not found
Artist not found
Album not found
Search results not found
Song not found