Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown's Last Interview (May 12, 2005)

Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown (April 18, 1924 – September 10, 2005) was an American singer and multi-instrumentalist from Louisiana.[1] He won a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album in 1983 for his album, Alright Again!.[2]

Early life
Brown was born in Vinton, Louisiana, and raised near Orange, Texas.[3] His father was a railroad worker and local musician who taught him several musical instruments, including fiddle by age 5; as well as piano and guitar.[3] He had at least one brother.[4]

Career
Brown was performing guitar by age ten. He also played drums in swing bands as a teenager.[3]

1940s and 1950s
Brown served in the military during World War II.[3] His professional music career began in 1945, playing drums in San Antonio, Texas.[5] He was given the nickname "Gatemouth" by a high school teacher who said he had a "voice like a gate".[1] His career was boosted when he attended a concert by T-Bone Walker in Don Robey's Bronze Peacock Houston nightclub in 1947;[1] Walker became ill, and Brown took up his guitar and quickly wrote and played "Gatemouth Boogie", to the delight of the audience.[6]

In 1949 Robey founded Peacock Records in order to showcase Brown's virtuoso guitar work.[1] Brown's "Mary Is Fine" backed with "My Time Is Expensive" was a hit for Peacock in 1949.[6] A string of Peacock releases in the 1950s were less successful commercially, but were nonetheless pioneering musically. Particularly notable was the 1954 instrumental "Okie Dokie Stomp",[6] in which Brown solos continuously over a punchy horn section (other instrumentals from this period include "Boogie Uproar" and "Gate Walks to Board").[1] "Okie Dokie Stomp" was also recorded by Cornell Dupree in the 1970s, who also had a commercial success with it. As for his gutsy violin playing, Robey allowed Brown to record "Just Before Dawn", his final release on the Peacock label, in 1959.

1960s and 1970s
In the 1960s Brown moved to Nashville, Tennessee, to participate in a syndicated R&B television show, and while he was there recorded several country singles.[5] He struck up a friendship with Roy Clark and made several appearances on the television show Hee Haw.[1] In 1966, Brown was the musical director for the house band on the short-lived television program, The !!!! Beat.[6] Later in the decade, he worked as a deputy sheriff in New Mexico.[3]

In 1999, Brown was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame.[7]

In his last years, he maintained a full touring schedule, including Australia, New Zealand, South America, Africa and Eastern Europe. His final record Timeless was released in 2004.

Personal life

Performance at the Bronze Peacock Dinner Club in 1947 or1948
Brown was married and divorced three times. He had four children: three daughters, Ursula Brown of Houston, Celeste Biles of Vista, California, and Renée Brown of New Orleans, and a son, Dwayne Brown, of Oklahoma City.[8]

Brown smoked a pipe.[9] In September 2004, Brown was diagnosed with lung cancer. He already had emphysema and heart disease, and he and his doctors decided to forego treatment for the cancer.[7] His home in Slidell, Louisiana, was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in August 2005, although he had been evacuated to his childhood hometown of Orange, Texas, and lived with his brother before the storm hit.[4]

He died in Orange on September 10, 2005, at the apartment of a grandniece, at the age of 81. Brown is buried in the Hollywood Cemetery in Orange. Flooding caused by Hurricane Ike in September 2008 damaged his grave.[10] His grave has since been refurbished and through the estate funds, a headstone has been erected in his honor.[11] A marker honoring Brown was placed by the Texas Historical Commission next to the flagpole at Hollywood Cemetery.[12]

Musical style and influences
Known for his work as a blues musician, Brown spent his career fighting purism by synthesizing traditional blues and country, jazz, Cajun music and rhythm and blues.[8]

Brown was acclaimed for his skills on multiple instruments, including the guitar, mandolin, viola, violin, harmonica and drums. He is regarded as one of the most influential exponents of the blues fiddle and has had enormous influence in American fiddle circles.

Brown's biggest musical influences were Louis Jordan, T-Bone Walker, and Count Basie.[6][13] His highly original electric guitar style influenced many blues and rock guitarists, including Guitar Slim, Albert Collins, and Johnny "Guitar" Watson.[13]

Composer Frank Zappa, in his autobiography, The Real Frank Zappa Book (1989), credited Brown, along with Guitar Slim and Johnny "Guitar" Watson, as important influences on his guitar playing.[14]