No Looking Back

Performer: Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown
Artist: Michelle Shocked
Engineer: David Farrell...
Producer: Jim Bateman; Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown...
Distributor: Ryko Distribution

Notes: Personnel: Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown (vocals, guitar, fiddle); Michelle Shocked (vocals); Ron Harris, Tommy Moran (guitar); Bobby Campo (flute, trumpet, flugelhorn); Bill Samuel (alto & baritone saxophones); Dennis Taylor (tenor saxophone); Terry Townson (trumpet); John Touchy (trombone); Michael Holmes (piano, organ); Harold Floyd (acoustic & electric basses); Waldo LaTowsky (drums); Hound Dog Samuel (barking). Recorded at Ultrasonic Studios, New Orleans, Louisiana. Includes liner notes by Jim Nelson. Another installment from the cowboy-hatted, Firebird-sporting "Don't call me a bluesman" bluesman. Brown's correct in insisting that plays beyond the bounds of one genre, and he's been in the business long enough to hold forth on what he does and doesn't do. He learned about country music and fiddle tunes as a kid in Louisiana and fell under the spell of Texas style blues and swing music in the postwar years when T-Bone Walker was the man on electric guitar. Gate's T-Bone-influenced playing is also laced heavily with big-band style chord hits; the horn arrangements his band plays fit hand-in-glove with his guitar, as they are often worked out directly from his six-string parts. NO LOOKING BACK has plenty of straight-up blues, from the shuffling "My Own Prison" and the slow blues "Better Off With The Blues" to the uptempo "Digging New Ground" and "We're Outta Here." But he also cooks on Ellington's "C-Jam Blues," waxes country in a duet with Michelle Shocked, and plays some funky fiddle on the swampy instrumental "Stop Time."

Option (May-June/92, p.93) - "..the heart of this album is Brown's fluid blues guitar...Gatemouth has such a good time with his music it's hardly worth calling it `the blues'.."

The multifaceted Louisiana roots guitarist Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown had a Hollywood start, filling in for the absent T-Bone Walker at a 1947 gig and winning over both the audience and the club's owner, impresario Don Robey. Robey went on to record Brown's Cajun-flavored, bluesy guitar instrumentals and R&B songs, whose fiery intensity presaged rock-&-roll. Not content to stick to one style, Brown also experimented with country and even calypso music, and mastered a wide range of instruments. He was popular overseas and went on many tours sponsored by the U.S. State Department, and even in his later years--his career boosted by some critically acclaimed albums on Rounder Records--he enjoyed a full touring and gigging schedule. The legendary musician died in 2005 of a combination of cancer, emphysema, and heart ailments.

Shipping or Dimension weight in pounds: 0.3

Shipping Options and Policies