Hurricane took away guitarist's will to live

By Jeff Franks
September 13, 2005
Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, who died on Saturday.

Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, who died on Saturday.
Photo: AP

Weakened by lung cancer and devastated by the destruction of his beloved New Orleans, guitarist Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown died in Texas on Saturday.

Brown, 81, won a blues Grammy in 1982 for his album Alright Again! and was a pioneering electric guitar player who helped make the instrument a centrepiece of popular American music. Early in his 60-year career, he was a drummer for blues legend T-Bone Walker and a friend of Lightnin' Hopkins, but he also played jazz, country, big band, rhythm-and-blues and Cajun.

His longtime keyboard player, Joe Krown, said Brown had evacuated to his brother's home in Orange, Texas, just before Hurricane Katrina struck.

Brown was diagnosed with cancer last year but news that Katrina had ruined New Orleans and destroyed his home in Slidell was the final blow, Krown said. "There was nothing to go back to. He lost the will to live."

Brown, born in 1924 in Vinton, Louisiana, but raised in Orange, came from a musical family and played guitar, fiddle, mandolin, viola, harmonica and drums. A teacher said his deep voice sounded like a swinging gate, which led to the nickname "Gatemouth".

His most popular album was Standing My Ground (1989).

Most of Brown's career memorabilia was lost."The only thing they saved was his legendary Firebird guitar," said Krown.

