𝗖𝗟𝗔𝗥𝗘𝗡𝗖𝗘 "𝗚𝗔𝗧𝗘𝗠𝗢𝗨𝗧𝗛" 𝗕𝗥𝗢𝗪𝗡, 𝗚𝗨𝗜𝗧𝗔𝗥 𝗜𝗡𝗧𝗢 "𝗢𝗨𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝗦𝗣𝗔𝗖𝗘" 𝗔𝗡𝗗 "𝗔𝗟𝗟𝗜𝗚𝗔𝗧𝗢𝗥-𝗘𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗡' 𝗗𝗢𝗚𝗦"

 

Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown

I never believed that the blues "make you sad" despite B.B. King's lyric.

My personal theory and belief is that the blues reach the exact point of melancholy in your life, then lift you up.

Sometimes, you don't really want to be "cheered up," just have the darkness inside reinforced for the moment. The blues can do that.

Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown was the first bluesman we met and interracted with.  

Mr. Brown had started his career in 1947 while attending a performance by the legendary T-Bone Walker.  When Walker suddenly got sick on stage, Gatemouth jumped on stage and finished the show using T-Bone's guitar.

But, the night we met, Gatemouth had just finished his first set at a tiny Main Street club in Little Rock and walked over to the bar to ask for a Diet Coke.

The wide leather belt that went around his thin waist simply said "GATE" in back.  "Gatemouth" would not have fit.

Nena was well received by bluesmen as she was a very beautiful woman in her 30's typically wearing a "blues" cap on her head, white with blue "notes."

Gate tipped his cowboy hat and said "Thank you, Ma'am!" when Nena told him how much we loved his music.

Gate was one of those musicians with almost too many skills, a multi-instrumentalist he's sometimes called.

He would take his guitar "into outer space" a la Jimi Hendrix, then pull out the fiddle.

The half dozen harmonicas on his belt all played differently and he used each one in his act.

While Gate was a delta blues master, he had a bunch of songs about Louisiana life including his famous one about an "Alligator-Eatin' Dog."

At a very dark time in our lives, Nena and I immersed ourselves in the blues, coming out the other side stronger than ever.

It saddened me to learn that Gate's home in Slidell, Louisiana was completely destroyed in August 2005 by Hurricane Katrina and that he died a month later.