Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown No Looking Back CD

Personnel: Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown (vocals, guitar, fiddle); Michelle Shocked (vocals); Ron Harris, Tommy Moran (guitar); Bobby Campo (flute, trumpet, flugelhorn); Bill Samuel (alto & baritone saxophones); Dennis Taylor (tenor saxophone); Terry Townson (trumpet); John Touchy (trombone); Michael Holmes (piano, organ); Harold Floyd (acoustic & electric basses); Waldo LaTowsky (drums); Hound Dog Samuel (barking).
Recorded at Ultrasonic Studios, New Orleans, Louisiana. Includes liner notes by Jim Nelson.
Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown was one of the most jazz-oriented of bluesmen, a colorful guitarist and a primitive but swinging fiddler. On this release he includes many instrumental sections in his performances including four all-out boppish jazz jams ("Digging New Ground," "C-Jam Blues," "The Peeper" and the stomping "We're Outta Here"). Brown's vocals, which feature consistently intelligent lyrics ("Better Off With The Blues" is particularly memorable), are part of the music rather than the entire show; he even gives his obscure backup horns chances to solo. The set is a particularly strong example of Gatemouth Brown's music with each of the 11 selections (except perhaps for "I Will Be Your Friend," a poppish vocal duet with Michelle Shocked) being well worth hearing. ~ Scott Yanow
Another installment from the cowboy-hatted, Firebird-sporting "Don't call me a bluesman" bluesman. Brown's correct in insisting that plays beyond the bounds of one genre, and he's been in the business long enough to hold forth on what he does and doesn't do. He learned about country music and fiddle tunes as a kid in Louisiana and fell under the spell of Texas style blues and swing music in the postwar years when T-Bone Walker was the man on electric guitar.
Gate's T-Bone-influenced playing is also laced heavily with big-band style chord hits; the horn arrangements his band plays fit hand-in-glove with his guitar, as they are often worked out directly from his six-string parts. NO LOOKING BACK has plenty of straight-up blues, from the shuffling "My Own Prison" and the slow blues "Better Off With The Blues" to the uptempo "Digging New Ground" and "We're Outta Here." But he also cooks on Ellington's "C-Jam Blues," waxes country in a duet with Michelle Shocked, and plays some funky fiddle on the swampy instrumental "Stop Time."Option (May-June/92, p.93) - "..the heart of this album is Brown's fluid blues guitar...Gatemouth has such a good time with his music it's hardly worth calling it `the blues'.."