Personnel:
Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown (vocals, guitar, violin);
Red Lane (guitar); Tommy Moran (electric & pedal steel guitars);
Bobby Campo (flute, trumpet);
Bill "Foots" Samuel (alto, tenor & baritone saxophones);
Alvin "Red" Tyler, Homer Brown (tenor saxophone);
Joe "Champagnski" Sunseri (baritone saxophone);
Stanton Davis, Jr. (trumpet);
Ernie Gautreau (trombone);
David "Fingers" Fender (piano, organ);
Larry Sieberth (piano);
Myron Dove,
Miles Kevin Wright (bass);
Lloyd Herman,
Robert Shipley (drums).
Producers:
Scott Billington, Jim Bateman, Clarence Brown.
Recorded in 1981-82.
Includes liner notes by Scott Billington.
TEXAS SWING is an appropriate title for the hard-driving roots music melange that is singer, songwriter, violinist, and axe-slinger extraordinaire Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown's oeuvre. This album is a superlative compilation of tracks from two of Brown's early '80s sessions, the Grammy-winning ALRIGHT AGAIN! and the Grammy-nominated ONE MORE MILE. Brown is backed by a hair-raising big band throughout. The powerhouse rhythm section and wildly swinging horn section lend fat backing to originals such as the rolling "Ain't That Dandy" and the funk-inflected "Dollar Got the Blues," as well as well-honed covers such as T Bone Walker's "Strollin' With Bones." In addition to his blistering guitar leads and rough and ragged vocals (which always sound like an incitement to have a good time, no matter what he's singing), Brown blows a mean harmonica, and saws a dazzling fiddle (check out "Baby Take It Easy"). It's impossible to go wrong with this 17-song selection from this musical legend.
Amazon.com essential recording
These 17 tracks compose two of Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown's albums from the early 1980s, the Grammy Award-winning Alright Again! and the Grammy-nominated One More Mile. As the preceding suggests, this is Gate at his best, winding his way through blues, jazz, country, and all points in between with a surety that puts many a non-genre-crossing artist to shame. Whether he's taking the lead with guitar (highlights include "Alligator Boogaloo" and "Frosty"), vocals (listen to him growl on "Stranded"), or especially violin (head right for "Song for Renee"), Gate never misses a step--and sometimes he steps back to let others take the lead, as with Bill Samuel's gorgeous tenor sax solo on "Gate Walks to Board." Overall, it's a great blend of Texas blues and swing, the latter done with enough sincerity and aplomb to leave the swing revivalists of the late '90s in the dust. --Genevieve Williams
From Grove Press Guide to Blues on CD
Here are good-sized portions of Brown's Rounder albums Alright Again! (1982) and One More Mile (1983). The Lone Star State sage scourges lyrics with conviction, and he carves his intelligent solos on guitar and fiddle with the effortless surety of a master woodcutter. He's the show as two different horn sections and rhythm teams codify the ostensibly special Texas grooves with a stilted propriety. -- © Frank John Hadley 1993