When Ronnie Baker Brooks sings “Blues in My D.N.A.,” he’s telling the truth. The four-time Chicago Blues Festival headliner is the son of the late Lonnie Brooks, a legendary musician who discovered the sweet spot between classic blues and sweet soul music. During their time together, Lonnie taught his son music and life lessons that have carried him through the good times and bad.
“My father has a song called ‘Born With the Blues’ on his ‘Bayou Lightning Strikes’ album,” said Baker Brooks, who spent a lot of time listening to his dad’s records after the bluesman’s 2017 passing. “It was the first record that I played on with him, and when I listened to that song, I started thinking about what he was saying. And I was like, wait a minute I was born with the blues, too.”
The result was “Blues in My D.N.A.,” the title song of his current album, which was released in October of 2024. Produced by Jim Gaines, whose clients have included Stevie Ray Vaughan, Luther Allison, Miles Davis and Santana, it’s Ronnie’s first album for Alligator Records, the storied blues label for which his father recorded nearly a dozen albums. From the Chi-town blues of “I Found a Dollar Looking for a Dime” to the slow, soulful R&B of “Accept My Love,” it’s living proof that his father taught him well.
In addition to being born with the blues, Baker also had the advantage of growing up with it. “Sam Cook brought my father to Chicago and let him stay at his mother and father’s house for six months when he moved here,” Baker Brooks said. “My father has always been around great singers. He gave me what he knew, and then he exposed me to his friends, who gave me what they knew.”
One of the most famous of those friends was the legendary Albert Collins, who watched Baker Brooks perform onstage when he was still trying to live up to his father’s legacy.
“Albert Collins set me right, man,” Baker Brooks said, “because I had the pressure of trying to be the son of Lonnie Brooks, and I was just hitting this wall and frowning every time I’d make a mistake. And he could feel my vibe. He pulled me aside and said, ‘Son, you can play. You’re not going to be Lonnie Brooks. You’re not going to be me, but you take what we have to offer that you like, and you make it yours. When you’re up there frowning, you’re killing your own vibe. That took a ton of bricks off of me. And from that moment, I began to get better, because I was getting out of my own way.”
Today, Baker Brooks is a universally acclaimed guitarist whose singing and songwriting skills are too often overlooked. That’s especially the case on “Blues in my D.N.A,” which is his first album since 2017’s “Times Have Changed,” an album that was released just a few months before his father’s passing. Three years later, the Covid pandemic hit, bringing live performance to a halt.
“This was the first time I didn’t have my dad to go and bounce things off of and find out what he was thinking about something this drastic,” Baker Brooks said. “So I just dove into the music.”
Now he’s back on the road supporting “Blues in My D.N.A.” Through it all, the blues remain a healing force for Baker Brooks when life hits hard. His go-to song, in fact, is John Lee Hooker and Carlos Santana’s “The Healer.”
“My father told me that if something happened to him, to keep on playing, to not stop,” Baker Brooks said. “When he passed, I had gigs booked, and I went on and did them. And it was the best thing for me, because it was therapeutic, a chance to get my emotions out. And then when my mother passed, I found out 30 minutes before I was going onstage, and I had to go and play. And it was the best thing for me as well. So I say from experience that the music can get you through it. And when you hear a song that you can relate to, you find out that you’re not alone.”
Ronnie Baker Brooks will perform at the Fountain Blues & Brews Festival on June 23rd at Plaza de Cesar Chavez.
