"Gate can do more with a guitar than a monkey with a peanut!"
- blues guitarist Lonnie Brooks


Clarence Gatemouth Brown refuses to be pigeonholed. Musically, he is a one-man melting pot; he's explored it all, he's played it all, he's mastered it all. And he's done it with grace and humility. Unlike some limited, talent-deficient 70s icons who make boastful, ill-spoken, and wildly audacious claims, Clarence Gatemouth Brown IS music and he DOES write the songs (I cannot definitively say whether or not he makes the young girls cry, though).

Gatemouth is a virtuoso. He's played the guitar since he was five years old and added the fiddle, mandolin, and harmonica to his repertoire since that time. His talents cover the gamut of musical styles; he's equally in his realm playing blues, big band, jazz, Cajun, or country music. In my mind, Gatemouth doesn't borrow from these styles as much as he defines them. They're all his, he owns them all. When questioned about his musical niche in a 1996 interview with blues disc jockey Mai Cramer, Brown states, "Well, in my case, honey, I'm not a blues player. I'm not a jazz player. I'm not a country player. I'm not a Cajun player. But I'm a musician. I play all the elements of music and simplify my music. I play American and world music -- Texas swing."

Polydor's 1996 release "Long Way Home" was my introduction to Gatemouth Brown. I cannot say how he managed to slip under my radar for so long, but he's probably not the first living legend I've (and, I would wager, you've) never heard of. This stately looking gentleman has been making music for a long, long time - his T-Bone Walker-endorsed debut recording came in 1947 (he's not a young man.)

As with any Gatemouth album, "Long Way Home" serves as a showcase for his musical versatility. From the jazzy, brassy style of "The Blues Walk" to the infectious, fiddle-heavy Cajun tune "Dockside Boogie" to the scaled-down, bluesy acoustic work of "Deep, Deep Water", Brown takes his listeners on a roundabout stylistic journey that has influenced a diverse cast of musicians, including Guitar Slim, Albert Collins, Johnny Watson, Frank Zappa, and Roy Clark.

"Long Way Home" is primarily comprised of original Gatemouth compositions, but he does include several cover tunes from other artists, as well as a new version of one of his older songs ("Deep, Deep Water"). One interesting aspect of his cover music is that he invited the original performers to sit in with him in the recording sessions, and most of them did. Brown's slowed-down, simplified version of Eric Clapton's "Blues Power" is enhanced by genuine Clapton guitarwork (Clapton also backs Brown on "Don't Think Twice" and on the album's title track). Leon Russell's "Mean and Evil" is transformed into a Brown/Russell duet with Gatemouth playing the viola and Russell practicing his electric piano wizardry. Perhaps the strongest cover is of the very old John Loudermilk tune "Tobacco Road", with the vocals provided by the very old John Loudermilk. This is an oft-covered blues standard (the first version I ever heard, oddly enough, was sung by David Lee Roth) and I don't believe I have ever heard it done better or more elegantly than this album's version. Brown also covers Bob Dylan's "Don't Think Twice".

Other contributing musicians include Ry Cooder (best known to me for his stellar work on the "Crossroads" soundtrack), Sonny Landreth, Bobby Charles, and Maria Muldaur. Gatemouth's band includes: Amos Garrett (guitars), George Bitzer (organ, piano), Willie Weeks (bass), Jim Keltner (drums, maracas, tambourine), Bobby Campo (cabasa, guiro, cowbell), and Teddy Jack (gourd). Now stop that snickering. It's not easy to play a gourd.

"Long Way Home" is a very strong album, though somewhat hit-or-miss. When one is as musically adventurous as Gatemouth Brown, it is impossible to maintain universal appeal on every song with every style; but I certainly would discourage anyone from allowing that to be a deterrence to purchasing this album. I think the inclusion of "Deep, Deep Water" and "Underhand Boogie" alone make this a worthwhile purchase. These songs, I believe, are Gatemouth at his very best… just him, an acoustic guitar, and some 72 years of musical experience.

Clarence Gatemouth Brown is a very positive person. He has visibly tried to turn blues music into a less negative genre and has been quoted as saying, "I hate a downer." I think we can overlook the fact that, technically, it is negative "to hate" because since he is focusing his negative hatred at something negative itself ("a downer"), he effectively negates the anti-positiveness through accurate targeting of his anti-negative negativity, or something like that. I guess what I'm trying to say is this: Buy the album.



Recommended: Yes