------Feature • ------The Family Tree Is Bright Blue By Mark Hunter but never found the right chemistry. “We decided to try it as a three-piece. When it came time for -based We went to Europe and they loved it. I have guitarist Ronnie Baker Brooks to de- to work harder, but that’s okay. The thing cide whether or not he wanted to enter col- with a three-piece is you can overdo it or lege after high school or go to work with his under-do it. You have to have good musi- father, he realized he had already made the cians to make it work.” choice many years earlier. Brooks grew up Good musicians and good songs. When in the family business. He learned the ropes Brooks was growing up, his friends were from his father and his father’s friends and into rap and funk and he listened to the worked hard to find out if following in the blues. But they also listened to each other’s very big footprints his dad made was the music. Brooks saw the way his father and right thing to do. He certainly had the feel- the other second- and third-generation blues ing it was something he should do. greats put their own stamp on the music of “My father left it to me to decide wheth- greats like Son House and Robert Johnson. er or not to go to college,” Brooks told me He learned that to keep the music alive it in a phone interview. “I had already gone needs to be fresh. There has to be new fuel to the Brooks Family School of the Blues, to keep the torch burning. Bluesman College.” “I like to think of how Brooks is the son of , took the Mississippi blues he heard in his the great bluesman discovered by Clifton youth and modernized it for his times by Chenier in Louisiana. Lonnie got to know making it electric and harder,” Brooks said Sam Cooke on a tour of the South, then in his bio. “That’s what I’m trying to do for hitched a ride with Cooke to Chicago where my generation. I want to take what’s authen- he soaked up the blues of Muddy Water and tic and powerful about the music I grew up Otis Rush, eventually becoming a legend in loving and bring in other influences without his own right. losing the heart and conviction of it.” Unlike conventional college, Bluesman Brooks takes that authenticity and adds College students start young. Brooks said funk rhythms and hip-hop style vocals. The he had his first guitar lesson at age six. At Torch includes cameos from not only his age nine he performed on stage with his fa- father Lonnie and Eddie Clearwater, Jimmy ther at Pepper’s in Chicago and joined his Johnson and the late , but also father’s band full-time at 19. Bluesman Col- rapper Al Kapone. Brooks groups himself lege students learn quickly with guys like with Shemekia Copeland and Bernard Al- Muddy Waters, , B.B. King and lison in bringing vitality to the blues. He’s Lonnie Brooks as instructors. He went solo RONNIE BAKER BROOKS convinced this music would be considered in 1998 and still manages to play some gigs with his dad and Friday, June 10 • 9 p.m. as relevant and as powerful as the latest hits by Kanye West his brother, Wayne Baker Brooks, who currently plays in the or Beyonce Knowles if exposed to young listeners. Lonnie Brooks Blues Band. The Philmore on Broadway Brooks has a six-year-old daughter who has been to a Brooks had indeed learned from the best. But following 2441 Broadway Ave., Fort Wayne few gigs and is impressed when her teachers mention having his father’s path had begun to seem less like a choice and seen her father play (“My music teacher knows you, Dad.”) more of an inevitability. Tix: $25-$40, www.philmoreonbroadway.com and ask for his autograph. And though he says he’s not going “It used to feel like an obligation,” he said. “Now it’s an to press her into keeping the family business alive by becom- honor.” something to it.” ing a blues woman, she does like to dance and sing. And it’s an honor Brooks doesn’t take lightly. He called His band, a powerful trio with Carlton Armstrong on “She’s definitely got it in her; she’s got the showmanship his most recent release The Torch, as in the torch being bass and CJ Tucker on drums, tours relentlessly in the van in her,” he said. “But she has to love it first. I’m not going to passed. Great bluesmen don’t retire; they play until they that shares the name with his first album, 1998’s Golddigger. force her into it. She’s got to be serious about it.” can’t play anymore. With each generation there are fewer (He calls the tour van Golddigger because “she takes all my Brooks learned how to play guitar from his father. But he young players stepping into the void. Brooks is aware of that money.”) His band wasn’t always a three-piece. He had a also learned how to be a father from him as well.” and of his place in keeping the blues alive. keyboard player at one time, but he left to spend more time “I’m blessed to have a father like Lonnie Brooks,” he “It’s becoming my turn,” he said. “I hope I can bring with his family. They tried a replacement keyboard player said. “I love my parents.” Fort Wayne Museum of Art Presents female forms & facets: portrayals of women in art June 4-Aug. 21 Pablo Picasso • Lithograph Tete de Femme, 1945 Opening reception June 3, 6:30pm Collection of the Fort Wayne Museum of Art 311 East Main Street, Fort Wayne 260-422-6467 • www.fwmoa.org Hours: Tues.-Sat.,11am-6pm; Thurs., 11am-8pm; Sun., Noon-5pm Free to members; $5 Adults, $3 students (K-College) & $10 Families

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