Brown, Gatemouth

▪ 2006

Clarence Brown  American musician (b. April 18, 1924, Vinton, La.—d. Sept. 10, 2005, Orange, Texas), synthesized blues, country, zydeco, jazz, and rhythm and blues in a unique style that influenced and won the respect of an assortment of musicians. Brown began his career at the Bronze Peacock nightclub in Houston in 1947, and club manager Don Robey signed Brown to his newly inaugurated Peacock label in 1949. Over the next 20 years, Brown made a number of locally successful recordings, leading big-band blues on guitar and singing. Though his recording career flagged in the 1960s, in 1966 Brown led the house band on a Nashville-based rhythm-and-blues music television show, The !!!! Beat. In the 1970s his career revived, and he performed and recorded in a variety of styles and on a variety of instruments; one of these albums, Makin' Music (1979), was made with country artist Roy Clark. In 1982 his album Alright Again! won a Grammy Award for best traditional blues recording. Brown won eight W.C. Handy Awards, and in 1999 he was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame.

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