Blues in My DNA

Though hes been playing professionally for more than three decades, guitar-slinging singer/songwriter Ronnie Baker Brooks had amassed only four albums since 1998s Goldigger on his own Watchdog Records before releasing Times Have Changed on Provogue in 2017. His fifth album, Blues in My DNA, marks his debut with Chicagos venerable Alligator, the label that hosted his father Lonnie Brooks. Its a great fit, as the younger Brooks is a staple of the Windy City blues scene and an important performer on the world stage, too. Brooks wrote 11 of the sets 12 tracks and co-wrote "All True Man" with Todd Park Mohr (Big Head Todd). The album was recorded in Memphis and produced by veteran Jim Gaines. While the program is welded into the Chicago tradition, he injects balanced doses of soul, R&B, funk, and rock. Opener "Im Feeling You" is a big-beat funky blues in proper Chicago style; though that funky drum/bass/guitar shuffle stays in the 12-bar lane, its played double-time with an infectiously greasy backbeat and biting, economical lead fills. Brooks deserves more credit as a singer despite a somewhat narrow range. His trademark phrasing throughout the album derives its inspiration from the Stax/Volt era. The title cut follows a similar trajectory but equally balances the Chicago tradition with root funk. "My Love Will Make You Do Right" is bumping, bluesy R&B as the band pushes a hypnotic vamp before reining it all in on the soul-drenched chorus. Again, Brooks is much more interested in highlighting the song than in his guitar playing -- his fills are brief yet biting and underscore the emotion in the lyric. "Accept My Love" comes right from the soul school of Otis Redding and Steve Cropper with a glorious, hovering B-3 playing a gospel vamp under a snare shuffle and restrained horns. While his deeply resonant vocal and lyrics are the tunes focus, his lead accents, fills, and solo only add to the songs emotional heft. "All True Man" is a steamy, greasy, minor-key house rocker that choogles. The sets second half kicks off with the classic barroom blues "Robbing Peter to Pay Paul" that swings hard. Its followed by the overdriven hard rock "Instant Gratification," an affirmative answer to the Rolling Stones "Satisfaction," and it sounds a bit like it, from its riff and driving horns to lyrics and punchy guitars. "I Got to Make You Mine" commences as a steamy blues ballad that evolves into a midtempo groover complete with a backing gospel chorus, and ends with a late-night scorching guitar blues. Closer "My Boo" offers a sly tribute to Texas bluesmen Albert King, Albert Collins, and Stevie Ray Vaughan, while Brooks invests his own songwriting style to its grease and grind. While Brooks earlier catalog offers quality, Blues in My DNA is in a class of its own: The guitarist fully embraces the Chicago blues tradition yet seamlessly adds it to other vintage musical styles in a 21st century approach to songwriting and playing, creating a sound that is resonant, sophisticated, and soulful. ~ Thom Jurek