Blues guitarist Mel Brown, a long-time staple of R&B singer Bobby "Blue" Bland's band, passed away on Friday, March 20th, 2009 from complications of emphysema. Brown was admitted to the hospital on March 1st with a collapsed lung and, sadly, never went back home. He was 69 years old.
Brown enjoyed a lengthy and successful career as an artist and a sideman. Born in October 1939 in Jackson, Mississippi, a childhood bout with meningitis left Brown bedridden for several months. His father, a musician himself, bought young Mel a Gibson Les Paul guitar and he taught himself to play by studying the work of artists like B.B. King, Hank Williams, and T-Bone Walker.
After playing several gigs as a teen with the legendary Sonny Boy Williamson, Brown moved to Los Angeles to look for work as a musician. He found early success touring as part of the bands of Johnny Otis and Etta James, and launched his own recording career in earnest with a series of albums during the late-1960s and early-70s.
In 1971, Brown joined Bobby "Blue" Bland's band as a guitarist, a relationship that would continue, on and off, for over a decade. During this time Brown also lent his six-string talents to blues artists like John Lee Hooker, Lightnin' Hopkins, Earl Hooker, and B.B. King.
In 1976, Brown moved to Nashville, where he would become an in-demand session player, and toured as part of Tompall Glaser's Outlaw Band. He would later relocate to Austin, Texas to become part of the house band at the renowned club Antone's, playing behind legends like Junior Wells, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Snooky Pryor, and James Cotton, among others.
Brown and his wife, Miss Angel, performed a 1989 gig at The Pop-The-Gator Club in Kitchener, Ontario, and decided to stay. They became part of a thriving Canadian blues scene, and Mel would renew his solo career with the 2000 Electro-Fi Records release Neck Bones & Caviar. The album would win Brown a W.C. Handy Award for "Comeback Album of the Year," while an album recorded with his friend Snooky Pryor, titled Double Shot!, would also receive a W.C. Handy Award nomination.
Beloved by the Canadian blues community that welcomed him with open arms, Brown will be missed by his family, friends, and fans worldwide.
Photo courtesy Price Grabber
Comments
I was Tompall’s personal manager when Mel was in the band. In addition to his fantastic musical abilities, Mel could walk through an airport and, in minutes, would have a beautiful woman on each arm.
Mel and Angel are friends of mine…and his service of his passing was phenomenal !!…his pastor from Mississippi came to Kitchener and gave an uplifting speech