Yes, these are two separate releases coming out on the same day as New West Records releases Albert Collins and Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown from the acclaimed Austin City Limits TV show sessions. Each clock in at over 60 minutes and the recordings capture the definitive unique nature of each performer. These are issued with exquisite packing for the 180 gram vinyl with Collins having four LP sides and Brown three.
They called him the “The Ice Man” and “The Master of the Telecaster,” but above all else, Albert Collins had his roots in deep Texas blues. He was born in the tiny east Texas town of Leona, but he grew up in the infamous inner-city Third Ward of Houston, where he picked a little acoustic guitar around his cousin Lightnin’ Hopkins and fellow future guitarists Johnny Copeland (Blues Hall of Fame) and Johnny “Guitar” Watson. He cites John Lee Hooker as his major influence, who along with T-Bone Walker and Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown convinced the young Albert to go electric.
Certainly, we’ve become familiar with the late Collins’ guitar tone, hence his nickname. In the mid-1950’s he was playing Houston clubs with a 10-piece jump band called “The Rhythm Rockers.” He soon cut a series of blues-funk instrumentals with names like “The Freeze,” ”Sno-Cone,” ”Icy Blue,” and “De-Frost,” finally hitting it big with a million-seller called “Frosty,” offered as an extended 12-minute, wandering into the crowd version as the closing cut on this recording dating back to October 28, 1991.
Jimi Hendrix was once quoted, “There’s one cat I’m still trying to get across to people … his name is Albert Collins … he’s good … really good.” This live performance has him fronting a nine-piece unit with long-time bassist Johnny B. Gayden and Texans Derek O’Brien (guitar), Reese Wynans (organ) and saxophonist Mark “Kaz” Kazanoff along with three other horns. Among the Collins’ hits captured are “Iceman,” “Lights Are On But Nobody’s Home” and “My Woman Has a Black Cat Bone.”
The ever unique, cantankerous (when not performing) Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown follows. In recalling a conversation this writer had with Johnny “Clyde” Copeland and Gatemouth, the latter chastised Copeland for playing blues, claiming that his style was “American music.” Similarly, in the liners he’s quoted, “I never wanted to sound like nobody. I just play the kind of stuff that got into my blood and I’m still the only person I know who plays it.”
Recalling a night hearing Gatemouth with a small combo when he sounded like the 18-piece Duke Ellington Orchestra ( on “Take the “A” Train) just on his guitar, with his lightning fingers, it’s easy to relate to this recording. Although this time, he is indeed surrounded by a nine-piece band, including five horns, notably featuring the late Dennis Taylor on tenor. This is so refreshing – there was only one Gatemouth and no one else has come remotely close since his passing.
Gatemouth, of course, was equally adept with his fiddle as he was with his guitar and we hear both in all their glory here. He was playful. You’ll hear the nursery rhymes of “Old McDonald Had a Farm” and “Yankee Doodle Dandy,” among others in the middle of his solos. Given his bringing up on the Louisiana-Texas border, elements of blues, jazz, Cajun, R&B, and country all color his repertoire. His father taught him to play piano and guitar, but he was also listening intently to T-Bone Walker, Count Basie, Woody Herman, and Texas Playboy steel guitarist Leon McAuliffe. Gate borrowed heavily from the Big Band sound, and his music could swing with the best of them, as he demonstrates in this show, recorded on February 6, 1996 (the last of his four appearances on Austin City Limits®). One minute you have a big band sound (“Things Ain’t What They Used to Be”), then you’re into the blues (“Born in Louisiana), then the swamp (“Up Jumped the Devil”), and then in the country (“The Dark End of the Hallway”) in whatever order you choose. The versatile Gatemouth toured constantly until he finally dropped in 2005 at age 81.
As stated previously, we have seen no entertainer remotely like Gatemouth since his passing and similar statements can be made about the “Iceman’s signature guitar tone and incendiary live shows. Treasure these recordings. They are some of music’s finest moments.\
