Product Description
RONNIE BAKER BROOKS
Blues In My DNA
Alligator
Audacious: The 800-pound slabs of concrete dropping out of the sky from a guitar with overwhelming mass fit the bill. Those notes come crashing and crushing down moments after a particularly hardened riff just barged its way in with a harsh stomp. Another audacious act. At this midpoint though, the solo has yet to lash out, which then only inflates the magnitude of audacity even more. Lyrically, “All True Man” keeps thumping its chest throughout to drum up business, rolling the attitudes of “Hoochie Coochie Man” and “I’m A King Bee” into one colossal pounding.
Swag? Oh yeah, Ronnie Baker Brooks has it by the kilos. He also has a valid point with Blues In My DNA. After all, the high-powered blues-rock guitarist is the son of Chicago’s late, cowboy-hatted bluesman Lonnie Brooks. So, venting a heap of grief amid fits of string-bending comes embedded in his genes – just as hurtling “Instant Gratification” and the serpentine title track’s amp-battering case for inherited hardship forcefully imbed themselves into your walls. And idolmaker Jim Gaines’ production makes sure of that by having Brooks’ guitar loom large, just as he did in the past with Bernard Allison’s, George Thorogood’s, and Stevie Ray Vaughan’s.
DNA is Brooks’ first album with Alligator Records, the home of his father’s honored output. By also being the first set of new music since 2017, these 11 originals discharge much bottled-up energy. “I’m Feeling You” pops the cork. “Robbing Peter To Pay Paul” literally pulses with stresses of living on a shoestring. “I Got To Make You Mine,” like a prospector seeking out gold, feverishly searches for treasure of a different kind. Both, despite being on opposite sides of life’s spectrum, keep sending up screaming, skyward guitar volleys as if signal flares.
“Accept My Love” tries a little tenderness. The bended-knee plea for a second chance is an Otis Redding move. Heavily sighing horns likewise converse in soul. Clayton Ivey’s purring Hammond B-3 organ speaks their same language, learned from playing sessions on hallowed Muscle Shoals ground inside FAME Studios. The guitar’s aria leashes its roar accordingly: contoured and lyrical, graceful and tortured.
Not so for “Stuck On Stupid,” eight minutes of unleashed, combustible drama. As when first unveiled on Brooks’ debut, 1998’s self-released Golddigger, the slow blues prevails as a knock-down, drag-out showcase for how an intensely bellyaching guitar can brilliantly compound an already distressed situation. In the right hands, genetics can sure be thrillingly audacious.
– Dennis Rozanski
The son of legendary bluesman Lonnie Brooks steps into the spotlight with his Alligator debut, a fiery blast of guitar-stoked blues rock guaranteed to singe your whiskers.
1. I'm Feeling You
2. Lonnie Brooks' Blessing
3. Blues In My DNA
4. My Love Will Make You Do Right
5. Accept My Love
6. All True Man
7. Robbing Peter To Pay Paul
8. Instant Gratification
9. I Got To Make You Mine
10. Stuck On Stupid
11. I Found A Dollar Looking For A Dime
12. My Boo