Ronnie makes his Alligator Records debut with Blues in my DNA ; the son of Lonnie Baker Brooks, he comes full circle and makes a life statement in song.
Article & photos by Peter Hurley
Photo: Ronnie Baker Brooks & Eddy "The Chief" Clearwater
Imagine a spinning wheel of Blues Fortune with a display of the many descendants of
Chicago’s legendary postwar Blues men and women. If one were to spin this wheel, one could not land on a more significant and talented personage than our own Ronnie Baker Brooks. Born Rodney Dion Baker in 1967, Ronnie is the eldest musical son of the late great Blues man Lonnie Brooks, who mentored him through his musical artistry from the tender age of 6.
“When my brothers, sisters and I were kids, my dad was babysitting one morning because my mom was at work,” Ronnie relates. “Dad had played a gig the night before and it had been a late one. Since he was tired, he made a palette on the floor where we all laid down. Soon enough, he had fallen asleep with his guitar in his hands. As kids will do, my sister and brother began to pull and yank on the strings just to make noise. They’d seen my dad play but didn’t quite know how to play the strings. Now, according to my dad’s story—since I don’t remember—when I touched the strings, my intent was to get a good musical sound from them. And I plucked them just so, with something natural finding a melody. My dad woke up when he heard the notes I was playing and I took to running, thinking he would scold me for messing with his instrument. But Dad said, “No, no, Ronnie, come back. You’re really interested in playing this thing, aren’t you?” From then on, he set me aside and taught me. By the time I reached the age of nine, I was playing on stage with him.”
This is the stuff of legend and demonstrates how deeply the musical connection was between father and son. “I always include a little something of my father on all my albums, including his spoken words on my tribute song, “Lonnie Brook’s Blessing” on my new album, Blues in my DNA. I dropped a clip of him talking from the song “Make These Blues Survive” from my first album Golddigger in front of the DNA song. He’s still with me in all my music.”
Blues in my DNA is a landmark recording. Ronnie’s signing with Bruce Iglauer’s Alligator Records brings him to the very label his father, Lonnie Brooks, recorded on for most of his career. It’s also the same label where young Ronnie played on a record for the first time.
I caught up with R.B.B. shortly after he arrived back home from a fundraising gig in Maui to aid the survivors of the devastating fire that destroyed some of Lahaina. We sat down to discuss the thinking that guided him through the process that produced his brilliant Alligator debut.
Blues in my DNA is due for official release on October 11, 2024 with a CD release show at FitzGerald’s in Berwyn on October 18.
PETER HURLEY: Hey, I’ve been listening to the new CD and it’s filled top-to-bottom with great songs. Can you fill us in on how you signed with Alligator and how this new CD came about?
RONNIE BAKER BROOKS: I have to give credit to J.B., my manager John Boncimino, who facilitated that. All my career I have set goals I wanted to reach and J.B. said to me one day, ‘You know, let’s go talk with Bruce’ (founder and CEO of Alligator Records, Bruce Iglauer). Now, a long time ago, I had a conversation with Bruce about cutting a record but it kind of faded away. So, I continued to record on my own label, Watchdog Records. The pandemic gave me time to think about when I was 20 years old, the first record I played with my dad, was on Bayou Lightning Strikes, Live from Chicago recorded at Blues, Etc. And the first record I sang on was “Like Father Like Son” on dad’s Satisfaction Guaranteed album, both on Alligator. A lot of the tours we were doing, man, I got to rub shoulders with the greats from that platform that Dad and Bruce had built. It was starting to make sense to get with the label.
PH: Like coming full circle?
RBB: Yeah, you know Bruce and Alligator Records are here in Chicago and I’m here in Chicago too. I hold up the Chicago flag man, I’m so proud that we have more blues artists out on the road now because back in the day, there weren’t that many on the road from my generation. We had them in town, but not that many touring. So, it all started to make sense. After several meetings with Bruce, I decided to sign with Alligator.
PH: Any regrets about a deal not being forged earlier in your career?
RBB: No, it’s just how it happened. Having my own label for many years gave me the freedom to do what I wanted to do and put out what I wanted to put out. Now I have a team with a vision that can support what I really want to do creatively. And this album, Blues In My DNA, is what I wanted to do.
PH: You have one of the great voices in the Blues today in my opinion. Did you always sing around the house and on stage with your dad? How do you account for your great voice?
RBB: Thank you Peter, but I’m still learning, man. In my opinion, my dad didn’t get much credit for his voice in particular because he was such a great guitar player and performer. But he was also a great singer. He showed me some breathing techniques. And one time when we were in California, Dad asked Willie Dixon to give me some pointers on singing. I’ll never forget it. Willie said, “You don’t need a great voice to sing, but you must be able to deliver the song. Get inside the song.” I’ve taken that to heart.
PH: Why did you pull the title song “Blues in my DNA” from the CD? To my ears there are so many great songs on the album, so many “hits.” Is “DNA” the most personal?
RBB: Well, it is personal, but I put that in all my material. The beauty of being on a label is that I can concentrate on my creative end; other marketing, radio and publicity decisions can be made by others on your team. That’s always been my dream to do that, to focus on what I do best as an artist.
I wrote the song, “DNA” during the pandemic. It just came to me. I played it for some of my friends and they said, “That’s cool, you should do something with that, man.”
PH: How did you play it for them? Live or demo?
RBB: I cut demos at my home studio. I play all the instruments and used a drum machine for the drums.
PH: All of the songs on “DNA” are original material by you, except one, which is co-written with your friend “Big Head” Todd Park Mohr. How do you go about writing?
RBB: Sometimes song ideas come to me or melodies, word phrases, vocal and guitar riffs. Sometimes I’ll be watching a game and a song idea comes. I had time to develop a lot of material during the pandemic and I would play some of it on my Facebook live podcasts for the viewers who were tuning in. But I have many songs from before then too. JB and I had a meeting with Bruce and Tim at Alligator, I brought in 30 original songs and we picked the 11 songs from that list.
PH: Let’s name-check the tunes and go through them. Each cut has a different groove that deserves individual attention. “I’m Feeling You” is a great opener; it grabs the attention immediately.
RBB: I wrote that one a while ago and I was considering that one for an acoustic album (recorded but not yet released) that I had planned to release during the pandemic. But “Big Head” Todd told me, “Ronnie, man, that groove is so big, you should probably do that with a band!” When I took it down to Tennessee for these sessions with producer Jim Gaines, I kinda had to fight for it because not everyone was familiar the slang term “I’m Feeling You.” But I’ll never forget the moment we finished it and Jim pushed himself away from the soundboard and said, “Whoa! Ronnie, that’s hot. It’s a keeper!” We caught that vibe, man, and I’m happy we got that record done.
PH: Just going through this list, I’m digging all the variations of style and song sources. Seems to me, you draw from the deepest wells, the cutting edge of Blues and Soul music. But it all sounds like now, inspired by the best from then.
RBB: I just try to be authentic and feel what I’m doing and bring something fresh to it. I’ve been influenced by the best—with my father’s music in me and the exposure of his friends’ artistry. My dad would always tell me this which Albert Collins confirmed; he’d say, “Look, man, you’re not gonna be me. But what you can take from me, make it you. And feel it.” That’s what I try to do.
PH: That brings us to “Lonnie Brooks’ Blessing” and “Blues in My DNA.” Those are biographical songs that really cook. They are personal but could be played by another Bluesman with a similar background who is willing to go deep like you. Both songs recall the brilliant gathering of your mentors in “The Torch of the Blues” on your The Torch album.
RBB: I’m glad you brought that up, man. You know I was just recently talking about this to producer/engineer Rick Barnes of Raxtrax Studios. We recorded the vocals on top of the instrumental track, “The Torch of the Blues” at Rick’s studio. I was blessed that my dad, Eddy Clearwater, Jimmy Johnson and Willie Kent agreed to join me on that song. I called them and they did it for nothing after I offered them compensation. They all said, “We love what you are doing, keep doing what you do.” You know often when we Blues guys get together in a large group it’s for a funeral or a fundraiser or something—but this was just creative. This was something special, man, it really was. The vibe just flowed. I don’t get many awards or anything but this was like my own personal Grammy, man.
(Laughs) It was so real and so authentic. These were the men who showed me the way, and they’re all gone now. They had been given the torch by their elders and they were passing it along to me and my generation.
‘We all paved the way so you can do what you do.
Now it’s all up to you to carry the torch of the Blues.’
So, for both “Blues in my DNA” and “Lonnie Brooks Blessing” it comes from the kind of upbringing I had and the elders did too. It was lean and tough, but love could be found and shared in this community.
PH: “My Love Will Make You Do Right,” is different. It has a Soul Disco groove. But funky.
RBB: I’ve had that song for a while also. I’m always writing and I save many. I’m able to put them down and develop them on my own time, whether it’s for me or someone else. JB and Bruce loved that song and Jim Gaines got me that sort of retro sound we were looking for. He knew just what to do with it.
PH: “Accept My Love” is a knockout with that slow-burning Otis Redding-type soul.
RBB: Let me tell you a story about that one. We did the track with a keyboard but no organ in one take with a live vocal and live guitar solo in Tennessee. But then we took it down to Sheffield, Alabama, near Muscle Shoals at Jimmy Nutt’s studio to get organist Clayton Ivey to play on the song. We came in and put the prerecorded track on and Clayton started up with his organ and (pause) - everybody just started feelin’ something. You could see it. Everybody just looked at each other like, whoa. He just took the song to another level. And I immediately felt my mom’s presence. And I’m lookin' around and wondering: “Am I the only one?” But you could tell everyone was feelin’ it too. And I knew my mom was in the room, man. Mom passed just last September but she was there that day. It was just immediate confirmation for me.
PH: That gives this song a whole new and deeper meaning. That’s a blessed event. Then the CD moves into the rocker “All True Man.”
RBB: That’s the one I wrote with Big Head Todd when he was living in Chicago at the time. We did that on the acoustic session I mentioned earlier and he released it as a single. It’s got my Blues roots all up in it for sure. Check out both versions.
PH: Next is this burning Blues shuffle with a great twist on an old phrase, “Robbing Peter to Pay Paul…and still owe John too.” Is that line yours?
RBB: Yes, I’ll tell ya, man, I was on the phone with my manager John (we both laugh) and I owed him some money. Actually, it was a tough time. It was around the time of my dad’s passing and I wasn’t working too much. But thank God, because that allowed me to be home for him when his health was failing. But as the bills were piling up, the phrase came out while I was on the phone with JB and I said “Whoa, that’s a song right there!” Those debts are never quite covered sometimes. And “Still owing John too” can apply to a lot of situations.
PH: “Instant Gratification” is a departure from anything else on the album. It’s a straight up rocker, would you say?
RBB: Yeah. That’s what it is. I came up with rock n’ roll too. Every CD I’ve done has a good rocker. And this one here fills the bill. We had fun doing it and you can tell that.
PH: “I Got To Make You Mine” is next. In it, you mention being in Tennessee but needing to come back to Chicago. Did you write that down there when recording?
RBB: No, I wrote that up here in Chicago but it’s got that Memphis/Al Green vibe to it. And the musicians down there in the studio felt it immediately.
Man, down in Memphis is a great environment for recording. I love it in Chicago and will still record here, but when I get away sometimes, the creativity can flow in a relaxed atmosphere where the pressure is off a little. This was the kind of vibe at Jim Gaines’ Bessie Blue Studios in the little place called Pickwick Dom, Tennessee. I had met Jim while we were working on Dad’s Roadhouse Rules record. We had talked about doin’ something in the future and when I signed with Alligator, it just came together. It’s laid back there in that studio. It’s in a house where Jim’s wife grew up and you’re just there to work. I love it.
PH: “Stuck on Stupid” is an absolute classic and should be considered a Blues standard for ages to come. I’ve got no objectivity here; it has one of the greatest rhyming hook lines in a Blues number ever:
‘If I‘d been hit by Cupid - man, that would’ve been cool.
I think I’m stuck on stupid, I-I-I am your new kind of fool.’
How good is that?
RBB: (Laughs) You know, I re-recorded that song; it was on my very first album Golddigger. I play that one live quite often, it gets me to that place, that real bluesy place. It’s a universal feeling being stuck on stupid for someone you know is not right for you. That’ll give you the blues for certain.
PH: Not to be outdone, “I Found A Dollar Looking For A Dime” is next—another classic that sounds like something Wilson Pickett would’ve had a hit with. Is this a phrase that you coined?
RBB: Well I thought the phrase was catchy and it would be cool for a song, This song is about getting lucky, man, about not haven’t too much expectation but scoring big time. And I mean in the right sense, like finding a relationship. The man in it is out at a Blues club, not looking for much but is gifted with a good and beautiful woman. I was down there at Odyssey East night club on the South Side of Chicago when that one came to me. That’s from a real place and a real feeling, from watching the guys work the club.
PH: Last number on the CD is “My Boo,” a sweet phrase that could be about a girlfriend or wife. It’s got that Willie Dixon/Howlin’ Wolf thumping beat. You can’t not tap your foot to it. Or dance!
RBB: The Blues is the truth. This is something we can relate to and get to the bone about. And even sorrowful songs can have an upbeat rhythm. The Blues can get you out of them by singing them or burrowing deeper down. We wouldn’t have the Blues without the relationships between men and women. So, my songs about men and women can run the gamut, man. This one is about longing, “I’ll fight ten men just to have one of you. I got to make ya my boo.”
PH: Thank you Ronnie for taking the time to do an interview for Chicago Blues Guide and its readers.
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Album release party Fitzgerald’s on Friday, October 18.
For info or to buy and hear the music:
About the Author: Peter M. Hurley is a photographer/writer/artist whose interest in Blues began as a young boy upon first hearing the distinctive and haunting Chess Records sound of Bo Diddley. Exposure to Little Walter, Junior Wells and Howlin' Wolf in later years led him to further discover more Blues originators. After many years as an artist, Mr. Hurley shifted his visual focus, bringing his painterly sensibilities to the art of photographing musicians in the throes of performance on Chicago Blues stages. Combining music and visual art goes to the heart of what he had felt growing up with rock 'n roll and then discovering its source: the Blues.