Lonnie Brooks

Born in Louisiana, Lee Baker Jr. got his love of the blues from his grandfather, a banjo player. It wasn't, however, until he was in his twenties and moved from Louisiana to Port Arthur, Texas in the early 1950s and was inspired by seeing BB King, T-Bone Walker and Clarence 'Gatemouth' Brown, that he took up music professionally. He got a job playing guitar in the zydeco band of another Louisiana musician Clifton Chenier and started playing solo gigs using the name Guitar Jr., having a small hit with the track 'Family Rules'.

Moving to Chicago, he adopted the stage name Lonnie Brooks (as Guitar Jr was already being used by another artist) and became a popular figure playing clubs in the city. He continued to release singles and played guitar with Jimmy Reed on his live album 'Jimmy Reed at Carnegie Hall'. In 1969 he finally released his debut album 'Broke & Hungry' and his reputation grew when four of his tracks were included on the influential 'Living Chicago Blues' anthology released on Alligator Records. He went on to release seven albums on the label, his mix of blues and R&B styles being tagged 'voodoo blues'.

Touring frequently, he became successful in Europe as well as America and his popularity swelled in 1986 with the release of his 'Wound Up Tight' album, featuring Johnny Winter on guitar. His sons Ronnie Baker Brooks and Wayne Baker Brooks joined his band and he also toured with Buddy Guy and BB King, later going on to appear in the movies 'The Blues Brothers 2000' and 'The Express'. He died in April 2017 at the age of 83.