RONNIE BAKER BROOKS ANNOUNCES
RELEASE OF
TIMES HAVE CHANGED, HIS FIRST
ALBUM IN TEN YEARS
Produced By Steve Jordan,
Featuring Lonnie Brooks, “Big Head” Todd Mohr, Bobby “Blue” Bland,
Steve Cropper, Angie Stone,
Eddie Willis, Al Kapone, Felix Cavaliere, Lee Roy Parnell
Out On Provogue / Mascot
Label Group January 20, 2017
Chicago,
IL --- Brooks, 49, was born in Chicago, and started playing guitar around age
six. At 19, he joined his father, Lonnie Brooks who by then had influenced some
of the most well-known bluesman of our history: Jimmy Reed, the Fabulous
Thunderbirds, Johnny Winter, and Junior Wells. For 12 years, the two would tour
together, putting Ronnie out front with Eric Clapton, B.B. King, Buddy Guy, and
Koko Taylor.
Times
Have Changed,
Brooks’ first album in ten years, carries with it the weight of grown
perspective and time spent perfecting old material. Brooks worked it with Steve
Jordan, whose work runs from Keith Richards to Stevie Wonder, John Mayer and
Eric Clapton. With that comes a lesson in rhythm and blues history. Brooks
refers to the director as “a walking encyclopedia of music detail and
equipment”, a professor through which Brooks could take that next developmental
step. “Once we got the ball rolling, my confidence went higher and higher”, he
says. “I’m a better musician for this experience.”
The
experience Brooks is talking about is that which came together over the course
of a few weeks at Royal Studios in Memphis, the home of Al Green, Syl Johnson
and Bobby “Blue” Bland. Jordan and Brooks brought in a mint press of Memphis
music royalty: Stax Records staple Steve Cropper (Booker T. & the M.G.'s,
Otis Redding, Sam & Dave), Archie Turner (Al Green, Syl Johnson, O.V.
Wright), jazz saxophonist Lannie McMillan, and R&B icon Angie Stone. For
several tracks, Brooks also enlisted brothers Teenie (guitar), Charles (organ)
and Leroy Hodges (bass) of the legendary Hi Rhythm Section, which served as the
house band for hit soul albums by artists like Al Green and Ann Peebles. “We
used the same mics that Al Green used on his record”, says Brooks. “Matter of
fact, we were using much of the same band! It kind of took that vibe.” The
first track recorded was a cover of Curtis Mayfield’s Superfly hit Give Me Your
Love. The second, Twine Time, the instrumental jam from Alvin Cash.
“To
be honest with you, when Steve said ‘Man, we need an instrumental,’ the first
person I thought of was Freddie King. Steve wanted something more appealing to
all people, not just guitar players. He said ‘What about Twine Time?’’ I said,
‘Is he serious?’ Yeah, Twine Time. But that song was a key to this album. Man,
that just lit the fire for this record. It became one of the funnest tracks we
did.”
Several
tracks on Times Have Changed were recorded at the legendary Blackbird Studio in
Nashville. “It had great hospitality, a great vibe, great tone, great
equipment,” Brooks said. “And of course I got to get closer to some of the
musicians who live there, Felix Cavaliere, Steve Cropper - they all live there,
and it just created a great atmosphere. One of the key things for me was that
we got Todd Mohr there, and he was willing to play rhythm guitar along with Lee
Roy Parnell, so we got a nice little chemistry going with the three guitar
parts together.”
‘Times’
also comes laden with original hits. Five of the eleven tracks were penned by
Brooks. Raised on others’ music, he’s always considered the songwriting process
to be as sacred. “It’s like having a baby”, he says. “You see it come to life.
Once you play it live, it grows even more. That was the most fun part of it,
for me: the creative side. Coming up with a song people can relate to, and you
relate to, it just snowballs. It’s almost like therapy for me. Like the song
Times Have Changed: I wrote that song years ago. I sent Steve my songs and he
picked that one. It’s kind of timeless. Every day something’s changing. Now,
when I play it live, you can see the effect of it. Initially, it was just an
idea: just a riff. Now, this song has influence on people. We were just in
Europe this year, after the bombing in Brussels. And we’re playing Brussels. I
played that song; people were in tears. It helped them heal.”
It’s
on that title track that Brooks brandishes what may be his finest songwriting
talent: the ability to humanize social issues and unite different voices into
one cohesive thought. That’s no more evident than in the latter stages of the
song, in which Brooks deploys his longtime friend, Memphis' Al Kapone, to drop
32 bars on what the future holds for our people.
“My
whole intention, when I started with Golddigger (his 1998 debut album) and up
through this one, was to be authentic enough for the older generation but have
something that the younger generation could latch onto,” says Brooks. “I try to
be that bridge. With Take Me Witcha (2001), I’ve got a rapper on that. On The
Torch (2006) we went with Al Kapone. He’s a bridge. He’s a bridge from blues to
hip-hop. With music, it all comes from the heart. It comes from the heart and
from the soul. In blues, it doesn’t matter what you’re talking about, it
relates.
“That
was my intention on this record: to build that bridge.”
The
complete track listing features: “Show Me” (feat. Steve Cropper), “Doing Too
Much” (feat. “Big Head” Todd Mohr, “Twine Time” (feat. Lonnie Brooks), “Times
Have Changed” (feat. Al Kapone), “Long Story Short,” “Give Me Your Love (Love
Song) (feat. Angie Stone), “Give The Baby Anything The Baby Wants” (feat. “Big
Head” Todd Mohr & Eddie Willis), “Old Love” (feat. Bobby “Blue” Bland),
“Come On Up” (feat. Felix Cavaliere & Lee Roy Parnell), “Wham Bam Thank You
Sam,” “When I Was We.”
