“In Ronnie Baker Brooks’ powerhouse hands, blues-rock never sounded so outrageous. Soul never sounded so delicious. And the blues never sounded so profound… one of today’s top live performers.” –Blues Music Magazine
“A monster guitarist with an ample supply of technique and passion.” –AllMusic
Ronnie Baker Brooks is Blues royalty– the son of Chicago Blues legend Lonnie Brooks– Ronnie has performed with some of the greatest Blues artists of our time, BB King, Buddy Guy, Albert Collins, Koko Taylor as well as Blues rock legend Eric Clapton. Ronnie was the headliner at the Chicago Blues Festival and plays major Festivals around the world. Ronnie recently teamed up with the legendary Chicago Blues label Alligator Records in a licensing deal to market and distribute his future recordings. Ronnie penned all of the songs on the new record and worked with legendary producer Jim Gaines (Santana, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Steve Miller).
With his new Alligator Records debut, Blues In My DNA, Ronnie delivers an up-to-the-minute, organic masterpiece. The album, the fifth of his career, is firmly rooted in the blues with Ronnie incorporating his own brand of rock, funk and soul to the mix. “I just play what I feel,” he says. “It’s all from the heart.” Produced by famed studio wizard Jim Gaines (who has produced Santana, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Lonnie Brooks, Luther Allison and many others), Blues In My DNA is a career-defining statement from Baker Brooks, with each of the 11 original songs its own chapter in his ever-evolving story.
Blues In My DNA effortlessly moves from the funkified rocker I’m Feeling You to the not-quite-sanctified, old-school blues Robbing Peter To Pay Paul to the deep Memphis soul ballad Accept My Love to the epic, crowd-pleasing, guitar-driven Stuck On Stupid. The autobiographical title track, a song Ronnie describes as “a bridge between me and my audience,” is the album’s centerpiece, the passionate guitar solos underlining the lyrics’ story of triumphing over racism, poverty and glass ceilings. “I ain’t complaining,” he sings, “I’m just explaining,” before declaring, “I got love in my blood, the blues in my DNA.”
His history also includes being a special guest member of Big Head Todd & the Monsters on recording and tours over the past several years. They often write and perform together and they released a fantastic video single — “Remedy” as a duet with Big Head Todd & The Monsters.
Ronnie’s 2017 CD, Times Have Changed was produced by Steve Jordan (John Mayer, Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, Stevie Wonder) and was recorded in Memphis at Royal Studios – home of Al Green and Hi Records.
He also is a featured artist on Chicago Plays the Stones – a special ‘answer’ recording to the Rolling Stones‘Blue & Lonesome– that Mick Jagger & Keith Richards liked so much– they joined in the sessions as guests on their own classic songs!
He is among the few contemporary blues artists who learned his craft directly from many of the genre’s icons, including Albert Collins, B.B. King, Willie Dixon, Koko Taylor and, most significantly, his father. “I’m blessed to have played with and learned from the best. I’m carrying them within me,” he says of all the legends he knew growing up and the journey he’s been on.
