Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown – Pressure Cooker

Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown was just an astonishingly sophisticated musician—capable of so much, with tremendous range and style. And cool beyond belief. I got to open for him once at The Great American Music Hall in San Francisco; that night still ranks as one of my favorite gigs of all time.

This album isn’t the one to start with if you want to really taste the full measure of what Gatemouth was capable of; as but one example, there’s no fiddle on this one. This is pretty much him just swingin’ the fuck out of the electric guitar. But it’s the first record of his that I ever heard, and he hooked me right away, and I still love groovin’ on this LP. He just swung SO hard.

There really was just nothin’ quite like Gatemouth.