Blues BBQ Cooks at Music Haven

Review: Ronnie Baker Brooks, Misty Blues, and Mulebone Sunday

Ronnie Baker Brooks claimed “I’ve got blues in my DNA” Sunday at Music Haven and made us believe.

His blues DNA came from father Lonnie Brooks who brought the younger Brooks onstage at nine. Brooks also claimed B.B. King, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Jimi Hendrix, Buddy Guy, Hubert Sumlin and more as mentors and models. Brooks knows all the blues guitar tricks and where they came from, and showed a bit of where they’re going.

Ronnie Baker Brooks

Brooks mostly represented tradition in Music Haven’s annual three-act Blues BBQ; Misty Blues showed how that tradition has expanded while opener Mulebone stripped it way down and added some mischievous noise.

A duo of guitarist-singer-harmonica player Hugh Pool and former Albanian John Ragusa with flutes, fife, cornet and conch shell, Mulebone played primal and powerful; simplicity their strength. Soon after a fairly conventional “Candy Man,” their own “Long Winding Road” featured jagged, alternating flute and harmonica riffs welded together in tight conversation. Shuffle beats carried tunes old and new as Pool played solos or rhythm support, a thin-body Gibson bookending around several mid-set songs on a steel-body slide dobro while Ragusa switched off like a (virtuoso) kid loose in a music store.

Mulebone: John Ragusa at left, with Hugh Pool

Promising “some weird stuff up here,” they delivered in “How Many More Days” a blues classic mutated by Ragusa’s conch-shell screams and Pool singing through a harmonica. They landed gently with “Come Back Baby,” but detoured into “Low Rider” before taking things home.

Misty Blues from the Berkshires touted their new Ida Cox tribute album with “Bama Bound Blues” as a rocking-railroad glide, then shifted from Alabama to Memphis in the soul groove “Up All Night,” leader-singer Gina Coleman’s raspy growl framed in (left-handed) Seth Fleischmann’s fiery guitar, hard-honking sax from Aaron Dean, secret-weapon Hammond by David Vittone and linked-up beats of bassist Diego Morgue and drummer Rob Tatten.

Misty Blues, above, from left: Seth Fleischmann, guitar; Gina Coleman, leader and vocals; Aaron Dean, alto and tenor saxophones; Rob Tatten, drums; Diego Mongue, bass; David Vittone, keyboards. Gina Coleman, below

Rocking shuffles dominated until “Señor Blues” dove deep into funky reggae; they revisited island beats later in “Travelin’ Man.” Their straight-up blues, notably Cox’s spirited, funky “Blues Ain’t Nothing But” crackled and popped; but they were most rewarding insisting, as Coleman said like a mission statement, “the blues are not static.” Their big finish one-two of “Sinner Man” – faster than most, and fierce – and “Hold On” with Dean injecting ‘Trane’s post-bop hymn “A Love Supreme” into a blistering alto break over surging beat waves were knock-outs deluxe.

Brooks took full advantage of the blues’ unparalleled power as autobiography. Revving up nice and loud, he took us on a breakneck tour of Chicago with drag races of guitar overdrive, poignant chapters of family-nourished aspiration and achievement, all adding up to the irresistibly joyous tale of a seven-year old who adapted his father’s fame as the framework of his own.

Ronnie Baker Brooks, above, at left, with Chris Singleton, drums; Phil Castleberry, bass; Daryl Coutts, keyboards

Brooks works the crowd, late in Sunday’s show

Eager to strut his stuff, Brooks sidestepped the blues cliche of delaying entry until the band had cooked a groove; he was quick to join bassist Phil Castleberry, drummer Chris Singleton and keyboardist Daryl Coutts – on the same synth-and-Hammond rig Vittone played in Misty Blues.

A complete make-it-look-easy master, Brooks set up a righteous ruckus in “I Had My Chance.” Pain and power fought it out and both won this tooth-and-claw opener. Drenched in regret, Brooks seemed likely to bounce back from it, and revisited that rueful-resilient neighborhood in “Stuck on Stupid” later.

Proclaiming the crowd “our boss tonight,” Brooks promised “what you give to us, we’ll give you back 10 times.”

This proved a bargain on both sides of the stage as fans slowly filled the dance-space up front and increasingly shouted out, starting with a fervent “Amen!” early on and “Hold that NOTE!” in “Stuck on Stupid” as Brooks blasted a protracted feedback burst. Brooks gave plenty, roaming the front of the stage while showing off a loud library of fiery blues licks in an engaging, confident flow, effortless-looking but strong. He also uncorked stagy tricks likely learned in Southside blues bars no bigger than the Music Haven stage. He flipped his guitar backward to rub notes from it across his vest, crediting the move to Buddy Guy. Coutts caught the spirit and played piano with his face in the plaintive “My Boo,” arms flailing.

Early on, Brooks tugged the whole place back into yesterday with “I Just Want to Make Love to You,” citing Muddy Waters and Willy Dixon, then John Lee Hooker – whom he praised as “cool as the other side of the pillow” – and Howlin’ Wolf, echoing Wolf’s trademark vocal trick of deep growl and falsetto in the same phrase. “How Many More Years” wrapped neatly around “Sweet Home Chicago,” evoking Hubert Sumlin, Howlin’ Wolf’s longtime guitarist.

Brooks also sang of love’s sometimes painful, sometimes hopeful here and how: “Accept My Love,” crooned “for the ladies,” then “My Love Will Make You Do Right” directed to “the fellas;” and “I Gotta Make You Mine,” volatile with dynamic desperation.

Then, briefly, Brooks turned topical, contemporary. “Times Have Changed” began in weary fatalism; but when he swapped abrupt rapping cadences for smooth singing, he changed up the mood to encourage hope as inevitable. This felt like church, but Brooks detoured again, closing with the jaunty juke-joint number “Ready for Me.”

Instead of just “one more,” Brooks stretched the encore with the tale of his earliest days onstage to set up “Blues in My DNA” – spiced with some Hendrix-y “Voodoo Chile” in a free-wheeling jam. He roamed the crowd and kept playing, led the band in a recap onstage and ended with his arms wide as feedback clawed the sky.

His agile, incendiary guitar – revved and rocking like B.B. King, uptempo; subtle and sweet like Buddy Guy when quiet – and soulful voice mark Brooks among the top traditional Chicago artists of his time.

Food-and-drinks service and music both began just past five p.m.; long lines forming fast and re-forming during breaks between acts. Several vendors ran out, but the music didn’t as Brooks stretched things longer than usual to nearly 10.

The Music Haven free summer concert series continues Thursday with the SUNY Schenectady Jazz Faculty Combo with guest Jon Faddis, then Sunday with Kaleta & Super Yamba Band on Sunday.

Music Haven’s film series begins Friday with “Michael,” “Saturday Night Fever” on Friday, Aug. 21 and “Song Sung Blue” Friday, Aug. 28. Rochmon Record Club supplies music until showtime at dusk for all three.

The Lost Bayou Ramblers and Cecilia close the live concert season on Sunday, Aug. 23.

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