Lonnie Mack

Lonnie Mack
Mack performing at Rising Sun, Indiana, in 2003
Background information
Birth name Lonnie McIntosh
Born (1941-07-18)July 18, 1941
West Harrison, Indiana, U.S.
Died April 21, 2016(2016-04-21) (aged 74)
Smithville, Tennessee, U.S.
Genres Rock, Blues, Country, Soul, Rockabilly, Gospel, Bluegrass.
Occupation(s) Musician, singer-songwriter
Instruments Vocals, guitar
Years active 1954–2004
Labels Alligator, Elektra, Fraternity, Capitol, Flying V Records, Jewel, King, Ace, Epic, Sage Records, Dobbs Records

Lonnie McIntosh (July 18, 1941 – April 21, 2016), known by his stage name Lonnie Mack, was an American rock musician whose recordings drew from a wide variety of Southern roots music genres.[1] Although he spent much of his career in "semi-obscurity",[2] he is considered "one of the most important and influential" guitarists of early rock,[3] a founder of blues-rock,[4] and one of the great singers of blue-eyed soul.[5]

He made his mark in 1963, with his hit-single electric guitar instrumentals, Memphis and Wham!, and his debut singer-guitarist album, The Wham of that Memphis Man.[6] In these recordings, Mack infused the prevailing chords-and-riffs form of early rock guitar[7] with "edgy, aggressive, loud, and fast" blues solos.[8] These records have been credited with raising the bar for rock guitar proficiency[9] and pushing the electric guitar to the forefront of soloing instruments in rock.[10] Mack's fast-but-bluesy guitar style soon became a "model"[11] for many lead guitarists of two new genres: blues-rock (inception: mid-1960s) and Southern rock (inception: late 1960s).[12]

In early 1964, however, the sudden and massively popular "British Invasion" displaced many American artists, including Mack, from the pop music charts.[13] Mack marked time until 1968, the height of the blues-rock era, when the newly-founded Rolling Stone magazine spotlighted his trail-blazing 1963 blues-rock recordings. He soon landed a three-album contract with Los Angeles' Elektra Records and began performing in major venues. However, the multi-genre formula of his Elektra recordings downplayed his guitar and diluted his blues-rock appeal. Record sales were tepid, leaving Mack disillusioned with the rock music business and disappointed with his own efforts.[14] In 1971, he left Elektra, Los Angeles, and commercial rock. He spent the next fourteen years as a low-profile country recording artist, roadhouse performer, sideman, and music-venue proprietor.[15]

In 1985, with encouragement from his blues-rock disciple, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Mack re-emerged with a five-year "full-fledged comeback"[16] in rock, including four albums, celebrity guitarist sit-ins, and a concert at Carnegie Hall.[17] He released his final album in 1990, but continued to perform in smaller venues as an independent artist until 2004.[18]

Early life and musical influences

Shortly before Mack's birth, his family moved from Owsley County, Kentucky in the coal-mining region of central Appalachia to Dearborn County, Indiana.[19] One of five children, he was born to parents Robert and Sarah Sizemore McIntosh on July 18, 1941, in West Harrison, Indiana.[20] He was raised nearby on sharecropping farms along the Ohio River.

Using a floor-model radio powered by a truck battery, his family routinely listened to the Grand Ole Opry country music show. Continuing to listen after the rest of the family had retired for the night, Mack became a fan of rhythm and blues and traditional black gospel music.[21]

He began playing guitar at the age of seven, after trading his bicycle for a "Lone Ranger" model acoustic guitar.[22] His mother taught him basic chords,[23] and he was soon playing bluegrass guitar in the family band.[24] When Mack was about ten years of age, an "old black man" named Wayne Clark introduced him to "Robert Johnson style guitar"; he soon taught himself to merge finger-picking country guitar with acoustic blues-picking, to produce a hybrid style resembling, but prefiguring, rockabilly guitar.[25] About this time, he was also mentored by a local country gospel singer-guitarist, Ralph Trotto.[26]

His musical influences remained diverse as he refined his playing and singing styles. He considered country picker Merle Travis, pop/jazz guitarist Les Paul, and electric blues guitarist T-Bone Walker the most significant influences on his mature guitar style.[27] Significant vocal influences included R&B singers Jimmy Reed, Ray Charles, Bobby "Blue" Bland, and Hank Ballard, country singer George Jones, country-gospel singer Martha Carson and traditional black gospel singer Archie Brownlee.[28] As an adult, he recorded tunes associated with each of these artists.

Career chronology

Mack is remembered for the leadership and impact of his guitar innovations and the quality of his blue-eyed soul vocals,[29] but he never became a major commercial star. He enjoyed measures of commercial success and popular acclaim as a blues-rock artist during portions of the 1960s and 1980s; otherwise, his pattern of switching and mixing within the entire range of white and black Southern roots music genres[30] made him "as difficult to market as he was to describe."[31] In addition, he disappeared from the spotlight several times, seemingly content to spend long stretches of his career as a highly-regarded but low-profile "cult figure".[32]

Mack dropped out of school in the sixth grade, after a fight with a teacher. In 1954, at age thirteen, he obtained a counterfeit ID and began performing professionally in bars around Cincinnati.[33] He played guitar on several low-circulation recordings in the late 1950s.[34]

In the early 1960s he became a session guitarist with Fraternity Records, a small Cincinnati label. In 1963, he recorded two hit singles for Fraternity, the proto-blues-rock guitar instrumentals "Memphis" and "Wham!"[35] He soon recorded additional tunes to flesh out his debut album, The Wham of that Memphis Man (1963). Mack made some notable recordings later, particularly in the 1980s,[36] but his 1963 debut album is widely considered the centerpiece of his career:

  • 1968: "...in a class by himself" (guitar) and "...primarily a gospel singer...sincerity and intensity that's hard to find anywhere." (vocals)[37] - Rolling Stone, calling for re-issuance of Mack's discontinued 1963 debut album.
  • 1987: "With so many trying to copy this same style, this album sounds surprisingly modern. Not many have done it this well, though.[38] - Gregory Himes, The Washington Post
  • 1992: "The first of the guitar-hero [albums] is also one of the best, and for perhaps the last time, the singing on such a disc is worthy of the guitar histrionics."[39] - Jimmy Guterman, ranking the album No. 16 in The 100 Best Rock 'n' Roll Records of All Time
  • 2016: "Of all the Mack material available this is the one [album] I’d regard as absolutely essential."[40] - Dave Stephens, Toppermost

He recorded many additional sides for Fraternity between 1963 and 1967, but only a few were released and none charted.[41] Their commercial prospects (and Mack's career, generally) were stymied during this period by Fraternity's persistent financial problems[42] and, even more, by the arrival of the overwhelmingly popular British Invasion only two months after release of The Wham of that Memphis Man. "It looked like the guitar wizard was ready to bust out when the music world was turned on its ear. [In] February 1964, The Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show, and Mack's career withered on the vine."[43] Most of Mack's recordings from the mid-'60s weren't released until Ace Records (UK) packaged the entirety of Mack's Fraternity output (previously released, unreleased, alternate takes, and demos) in a series of compilations beginning in 1992.[44] Meanwhile, in the mid-'60s, with his own recording career stalled out, he took on session work with James Brown, Freddie King, Joe Simon, and other R&B/soul artists.[45]

In 1968, at the height of the blues-rock era, Elektra Records bought out Mack's dormant Fraternity contract and moved him to Los Angeles to record three albums.[46] The newly-founded Rolling Stone magazine helped with a rave review of his discontinued debut album, calling on Elektra to re-issue it.[47] He was soon performing in major rock venues, including the Fillmore East, the Fillmore West, and the Cow Palace. He opened for The Doors[48] and Crosby, Stills & Nash and shared the stage with Johnny Winter, Elvin Bishop and other popular rock and blues artists of the time.[49]

It was the hippie era, however, and Mack's rustic, blue-collar persona was an awkward fit with commercial rock's target demographic. John Morthland wrote: "[All] the superior chops in the world couldn't hide the fact that chubby, country Mack probably had more in common with Kentucky truck drivers than he did with the new rock audience."[50] In addition, after two multi-genre Elektra albums (both recorded in 1969) that downplayed his blues-rock strengths, including his guitar, Mack himself was dissatisfied: "My music wasn’t working that good then. I ain’t really happy with a lot of the stuff I did there."[51] He temporarily set aside his own career to help recruit and develop other artists for Elektra.[52]

In 1971, Mack moved to Nashville to record his final Elektra album, The Hills of Indiana. It began with Asphalt Outlaw Hero, a Don Nix-penned Southern rock number, played at a blistering pace. It was the only tune on the album showcasing Mack's rock guitar virtuosity. The rest of the album was "country through and through",[53] with a vocal emphasis. Hills attracted little attention. Mack then went home to southern Indiana, where, for more than a decade, he was a mostly-unnoticed country/bluegrass recording artist, roadhouse performer, and sideman.[54] During this period, he also owned and operated a nightclub in Covington, Kentucky and an outdoor country music venue in Friendship, Indiana.[55] In 1977, Mack was shot during an altercation with a drunken off-duty police officer. The experience inspired Mack's tune, Cincinnati Jail, a rowdy, guitar-and-vocal rock number that he favored in live performances later in his career.

Years after he left Los Angeles, Mack was asked why he had traded rock celebrity for country anonymity at the age of twenty-nine. Mack said: "Seems like every time I get close to really making it, to climbing to the top of the mountain, that's when I pull out. I just pull up and run."[56] Later still, Mack said: "[It had] a lot to do with how much value you put on money as opposed to what makes you happy. I wasn't happy. So one of the best-feeling moments I ever had was when that L.A. sign was in my rear-view mirror and I was free again."[57] Upon Mack's death in 2016, Music historian Dick Shurman observed that Mack's country-boy temperament "wasn't suited to stardom. I think he’d rather have been hunting and fishing. He didn’t like cities or the (music) business."[58][59]

Many years later, in 1983, Mack's blues-rock disciple, Stevie Ray Vaughan, persuaded him to relocate to Austin, Texas for a collaboration.[60] Vaughan convinced Mack to return to the studio (with Vaughan in production and backup roles), but his return was delayed by a lengthy illness requiring several hospitalizations.[61] In 1985, after a decade-and-a-half of near-anonymity, Mack staged a "full-fledged comeback"[62] with the blues-rock album, Strike Like Lightning, a tour featuring guest appearances by Vaughan, Ry Cooder, Keith Richards, and Ronnie Wood, and a concert at Carnegie Hall.[63]

He released three more albums over the next four years, including his last, in 1990, Lonnie Mack Live – Attack of the Killer V!. Then, worn from the constant touring required to sell records,[64] he ended his recording career.[65] However, he continued to perform as an independent artist, mostly on the roadhouse and festival circuits, until 2004.

"Memphis" and "Wham!"

On March 12, 1963,[66] at the end of a recording session backing up The Charmaines, Mack was offered the remaining twenty minutes of studio-rental time.[26] Not expecting it to be released, he recorded an energetic instrumental take-off on Chuck Berry's "Memphis, Tennessee".[67] He had improvised it a few years earlier, when the audience called for Berry's tune, but the band-member who normally performed it during Mack's rest-break hadn't shown. He didn't know the song's lyrics, but, recalling the basic melody, he transformed it into a greatly-embellished electric guitar instrumental. The audience liked it, so he kept it as part of his live act. He shortened the title to Memphis.

As recorded in 1963, Memphis featured a brisk melodic blues solo within a rockabilly framework, augmented by a rock drum-beat.[68] It represented a quantum leap in rock guitar virtuosity, beyond both the chords-and-riffs standard of the 1950s (epitomized by Chuck Berry) and the "inherently simple" melodic solos of the early 1960s (epitomized by Duane Eddy).[69]

Memphis was first broadcast in the spring of 1963. By late June, it had risen to No. 4 on Billboard's R&B chart and No. 5 on Billboard's pop chart.[70] According to The Book of Golden Discs, it sold over one million copies.[71] The popularity of "Memphis" led to bookings at larger venues, at least one tour in the UK, and performances with Chuck Berry.[72]

Still in 1963, Mack released Wham!, another guitar instrumental. It reached No. 24 on Billboard's Pop chart in September.[67] Although Memphis was Mack's biggest hit, many associate the faster-paced Wham! (and the lesser-known, but lightning-fast Chicken-Pickin' [73] from 1964) with his stylistic leadership.[74] From Legends of Rock Guitar:[75]

[In Wham!, Mack] can be heard using the chordal licks of early rock guitar greats, but he infuses his breaks with string bends, pentatonic runs, and mature blues chops, all of which eventually became trademarks of Eric Clapton, Mike Bloomfield and Stevie Ray Vaughan...A tight chordal riff laid over a fast boogie-woogie rhythm sets the tone for the cut, which contains guitar breaks, vibrato arm highlights, echoey single-note lines, and the repetitive string-pushing licks that eventually became so prevalent in Jeff Beck's guitar style.

Many consider Memphis and Wham! the first genuine hit recordings of the virtuoso blues-rock guitar genre.[76]

Guitar style and technique

By his late teens, Mack was well-versed in country and bluegrass guitar,[77] blues guitar, rockabilly guitar, and the percussive chordal riffing of early rock's most influential guitarist, Chuck Berry.[78]

Mack's technical proficiency, including his ability to rapidly "exploit the entire range of the instrument",[79] has been attributed to his childhood mastery of fleet-fingered bluegrass and country guitar styles.[80] In Memphis, Wham!, Chicken Pickin' and other early-'60s instrumentals, he augmented rock guitar's then-prevailing chords-and-riffs accompaniment style with solos containing unusually brisk blues melodies and runs, performance elements sometimes found in early rock saxophone and keyboard solos, but essentially unheard in rock guitar before Mack.[81] He repeatedly switched back-and-forth between agile melodic blues leads and rhythmic chordal riffs, a pattern later adopted by Jeff Beck, Stevie Ray Vaughan and others.[82] The vibrato arm figured prominently in most of his solos. Guitarists typically toggle the pitch-bending device with the picking hand while sustaining the last note or chord of a passage. Mack, however, customarily cradled it in the fourth finger of his picking hand, toggling it while continuing to pick.[83] He often fanned it rapidly to the tempo of his simultaneous tremolo picking, to produce a machine-gunned, single-note, "shuddering" sound.[84] Guitarists nick-named the device “whammy bar” in honor of Mack’s early demonstration of skill with it in Wham!.[85] Finally, Mack used a '50s-era Magnatone amplifier to produce a liquid tremolo effect similar to that first produced by guitarist Robert Ward (blues musician).[86]

Mack combined these diverse elements for an overall sound described as "highly distinctive, dare I say, unique; in the early rock era only Link Wray and Duane Eddy could match him for instant recognition."[87]

Mack's role in the evolution of rock guitar

Although Mack never became a major commercial star in his own right, he made a significant impact on the evolution of rock guitar through his stylistic leadership role and influence on many guitar stars who followed. His recordings of the early 1960s raised the bar for rock guitar proficiency, helped propel the electric guitar to the top of soloing instruments in rock, and are credited with a pioneering role in the genres of blues-rock and Southern rock:

Interviewed for the book, Skydog: The Duane Allman Story, guitarist Mike Johnstone recalled the impact of Mack's proficiency on other rock guitarists:[88]

Now, at that time, there was a popular song on the radio called 'Memphis'—an instrumental by Lonnie Mack. It was the best guitar-playing I'd ever heard. All the guitar-players were [saying] 'How could anyone ever play that good? That's the new bar. That's how good you have to be now.'

Mack's "edgy, aggressive, loud, and fast" style is also credited with a key role in the electric guitar's rise to the top of soloing instruments in rock. Blues critic Shawn Hagood wrote:[8]

His playing was faster, louder, more aggressive than anything people were used to hearing. He essentially paved the way for the electric guitar to become a soloing instrument in rock music. A true blues-rock pioneer, the genre would not have been the same – indeed, much of rock music might not have been the same – without his innovative way of treating the electric guitar as a lead soloing instrument in rock – edgy, aggressive, loud and fast.

Former Elektra A&R executive James Webber agrees:[89]

Lonnie took rock guitar playing to a whole different level. You had to really play now. [B]efore Lonnie, the sax guys did all of the lead work. He made the guitar the preeminent lead instrument.

Many consider Mack the father, or grandfather, of blues-rock guitar. Legends of Rock Guitar author Pete Brown explained:[90]

For all his obscurity, [Mack] is one of the most important and influential rock guitarists of the pre-Yardbirds 1960s. This is because he is essentially the missing guitar link between the twangy, multi-string riffing of rockabilly and the bluesy, string-pushing players of the mid-sixties. He also made the crucial bridge between the black blues and white hillbilly music via his lead work...In all, it is not an exaggeration to say that Lonnie Mack was well ahead of his time in 1963. His bluesy solos predated the pioneering blues-rock guitar work of Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, and Mike Bloomfield by nearly two years. [Since] they are considered "before their time", the chronological significance of Lonnie Mack for the world of rock guitar is that much more remarkable.

Southern rock (Allman Brothers) lead guitarist Warren Haynes expressed a similar assessment:[91]

Guitar players, true musicians, and real music fans realize that Lonnie was the Jimi Hendrix of his time. Between the era of Chuck Berry and the era of Hendrix there were a handful of guitar players like Lonnie Mack who were making ground-breaking music that paved the way for the Revolution. People like Dickey Betts and Stevie Ray Vaughan would tell you that without Lonnie they wouldn’t be who they were. That goes for all of us.

Mack has been called the founder of rock's "modern" guitar era for the stylistic impact of his early-'60s solos.[92] In 1980, Memphis topped Guitar World magazine's list of rock guitar's "landmark" recordings, ahead of entire albums by popular guitar heroes Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Elvin Bishop, and Mike Bloomfield,[93] whose own blues-infused solos exemplified the rock guitar "revolution"[94] of the late 1960s.

The guitar style Mack pioneered in the early 1960s is said to have been "a seminal influence on a long list of British and American" rock guitarists[95] from the mid-1960s and beyond, including: Joe Bonamassa (blues-rock), Eric Clapton (blues-rock), Stevie Ray Vaughan (blues-rock), Jeff Beck (blues-rock; jazz-rock), Duane Allman (Southern rock), Steve Gaines (Southern rock), Mike Bloomfield (blues-rock), Jerry Garcia (psychedelic rock), Jimi Hendrix (psychedelic blues-rock), Keith Richards (blues-rock), Jimmy Page (blues-rock), Ted Nugent (hard rock), and Danny Gatton (blues rock; jazz rock).[96] Vaughan, Beck, and Nugent have spoken of Mack's influence, as have guitarists Dickey Betts (Southern rock), Warren Haynes (Southern rock), Ray Benson (Western swing), Bootsy Collins (funk), Adrian Belew (progressive rock), and Tyler Morris (multi-genre).[97]

Mack was proud of his role in the evolution of rock guitar. "It's a great honor to be able to [inspire other artists]. What you do in this business, your whole thing is givin' stuff away. But that makes you feel good, makes you feel like you've really done something."[98]

Mack's 1958 Gibson Flying V Guitar, "Number 7"

Mack was closely identified with the distinctive, arrow-shaped Gibson Flying V guitar that first appeared in 1958. When he was seventeen, he bought the seventh Flying V off the first-year production line, naming it "Number 7". He became one of the Flying V's earliest players, and played it exclusively throughout his career.[99] Mack's final album, Attack of the Killer V, was named for it. Early in Mack's career, he added a Bigsy tremolo bar to the guitar. It required mounting a steel crossbeam approximately six inches below the apex of the "V", giving the guitar a unique appearance.

In 1993, Gibson Guitar Corporation issued a limited-run "Lonnie Mack Signature Edition" of Number 7.[100] In 2010, it was featured in Star Guitars: 101 Guitars That Rocked The World.[101] In 2011, Walter Carter, author of The Guitar Collection, named Number 7 one of the worlds "150 most elite guitars".[102] In 2012, Rolling Stone magazine named it one of "20 iconic guitars".[103]

"Blue-eyed soul" vocals

Mack was a convincing country vocalist,[104] but is remembered more for the singular intensity of his "blue-eyed soul" vocals. Most of these appeared only on albums, and just one early single, "Baby, What's Wrong?", charted.[105] However, they consistently drew high praise:[106]

  • 1968: "It is truly the voice of Lonnie Mack that sets him apart. Lonnie's songs have a sincerity and intensity that's hard to find anywhere."[107] - Alec Dubro, Rolling Stone
  • 1983: "Ultimately—for consistency and depth of feeling—the best blue-eyed soul is defined by Lonnie Mack's ballads and virtually everything The Righteous Brothers recorded. Lonnie Mack wailed a soul ballad as gutsily as any black gospel singer. The anguished inflections which stamped his best songs had a directness which would have been wholly embarrassing in the hands of almost any other white vocalist."[108] - Bill Millar, History of Rock
  • 1992: "The first of the guitar-hero records is also one of the best. And for perhaps the last time, the singing on such a disc was worthy of the guitar."[109] - Jimmy Guterman, The 100 Best Rock 'n' Roll Records Of All Time
  • 2001: ""Why?", Mack wails, transforming it into a word of three syllables. "Why-y-y?" It's sweaty slow-dance stuff, with an organ intro, a stinging guitar solo, and, after the last emotional chorus, four simple notes on the guitar as a coda. There's no sadder, dustier, beerier song in all of Rock".[110] - James Curtis, Fortune
  • 2009: "[Mack's "Why?" (1963) is] the greatest deep soul record ever made ... you can feel the ground shaking under [Mack's] feet ... a cry of anguish so extreme you have to close your eyes in shame over witnessing it ... Mack's scream at the end has never been matched. God help us if anyone ever tops it.[111] - Greil Marcus, The Ballad of Sexual Dependency
  • 2016: "Up to April the 21st 2016, the day he died, Lonnie Mack was the best living white soul singer in the world, so good that he could even be mentioned in the same sentence as some of the all-time great black stars of what is essentially a black genre, and yes, I’m talking about the likes of Bobby Bland, Wilson Pickett and others."[112] - Dave Stephens, Toppermost

Representative blues/soul vocals from his catalog include:

  • Why ("The Wham of that Memphis Man", 1963)
  • Where There's A Will ("The Wham of that Memphis Man", 1963)
  • She Don't Come Here Anymore ("Glad I'm in the Band", 1969)
  • My Babe ("Whatever's Right", 1969)
  • Gotta Be An Answer ("Whatever's Right", 1969)
  • Stormy Monday (live, "Live at Coco's", rec. 1983, rel. 1999)
  • Why (live, "Live at Coco's", rec. 1983, rel. 1999)
  • The Things I Used To Do (live, "Live at Coco's", rec. 1983, rel. 1999)
  • Stop ("Strike Like Lightning", 1985)
  • I Found A Love (live, "Attack of the Killer V", 1990)
  • Stop (live, "Attack of the Killer V", 1990)

Final years

Mack's last commercial performances were in the 2003-2004 touring season.[113] Although he soon found that he "miss[ed] the stage, performing, and making people happy",[114] he remained retired except for a handful of unpaid special appearances over the next few years:

On February 17, 2007, he performed at a benefit concert for Pure Prairie League singer-bassist Michael Reilly.[115]

On November 15, 2008, he performed Wham! at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 93rd birthday salute to one of his own guitar heroes, Les Paul.[116]

On April 4, 2009, at age 67, he spontaneously performed Cincinnati Jail at a rural Tennessee roadhouse, using an electric guitar borrowed from the house band's lead player:[117]

[He] officially tore the roof off the place. His (my?) guitar was smoking. Sounded like the breathing of a very large, wild animal. His band leading skills were also awesome. Lots of pointing at people to change dynamics and cue solos. He owned the stage and had everybody doing exactly what he wanted. Crowd went nuts, people were taking pics with their camera phones. People were screaming, everybody started dancing, it was great. He cut my other lead player's head clean off when they were swapping licks. Bottom line - His playing is still awesome. Tone is very much in the fingers. He made my rig absolutely come alive in ways I've never heard.

In 2010, again with a borrowed a guitar, he performed Memphis for a small gathering of friends and family at the final reunion of his Memphis-era band.[118]

There is no account of Mack performing in public after 2010.

In 2011, he released a handful of kitchen-table acoustic recordings via the internet.[119] About that time, he was also reportedly working on a memoir[120] and engaged in a songwriting collaboration with award-winning country and blues tunesmith Bobby Boyd.[121]

In 2012, guitarist Travis Wammack invited Mack to join him for a tour to be billed as "Double Mack Attack". Mack declined, saying that he “...wasn’t in good shape. He said he can’t play standing up any more [and] it’s hard to hold a Flying V sitting down.”[122]

Mack died from "natural causes" on April 21, 2016 (age 74) near the Tennessee log-cabin home he had occupied for over twenty years.[123] Burial was in Aurora, Indiana, a few miles from his birthplace.[124] Married and divorced three times, he was survived by five children, two sisters, a brother, eight grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren.[125]

Discography

Original Studio albums

Live albums

  • 1990: Lonnie Mack Live: Attack of the Killer V (recorded December, 1989)
  • 1998: Live At Coco's (recorded 1983)

Re-issues and compilations

  • 1970: "For Collectors Only" (Re-issue of "The Wham of that Memphis Man" with two additional tunes from 1964)


Session work (guitar)

Year Artist Album
1965 Freddie King Freddie King Sings Again
1967 James Brown James Brown Sings Raw Soul
1970 The Doors Morrison Hotel
1974 Dobie Gray Hey, Dixie
1981 Ronnie Hawkins Legend In His Spare Time
1986 Tim Krekel/The Sluggers Over The Fence
1996 Wayne Perkins Mendo Hotel
1998 Jack Holland The Pressure's All Mine
1999 Albert Washington Albert Washington with Lonnie Mack (rec. 1967)
2000 The Crudup Brothers Franktown Blues
2006 The Charmaines Gigi & The Charmaines (rec. 1962-1963)
2007 Stevie Ray Vaughan Solos, Sessions & Encores (live version of "Double Whammy" rec. 1985)

Career recognition and awards

Year Award or recognition
1992 Jimmy Guterman ranked Mack's 1963 debut album No. 16 in his book, The 100 Best Rock 'n' Roll Records of All Time.[126]
1993 Gibson Guitar Corporation issued a limited-run "Lonnie Mack Signature Edition" of "Number 7".[100]
1998 The Cincinnati Enquirer gave Mack its Pop Music Award ("Cammy") for "Lifetime Achievement".[127]
2001 Southeastern Indiana Musician's Association Hall of Fame induction.[128]
2001 International Guitar Hall of Fame induction.[129]
2002 Mack's second "Lifetime Achievement" Cammy.[130]
2005 Rockabilly Hall of Fame induction.[131]
2006 The Southern Legends Entertainment & Performing Arts Hall of Fame induction.[132]
2010 Dave Hunter featured "Number 7" in his book, Star Guitars: 101 Guitars That Rocked The World[133]
2011 Walter Carter featured "Number 7" in his book, The Guitar Collection, calling it one of the world's 150 "most elite guitars".[134]
2012 Rolling Stone featured "Number 7" in an article entitled 20 Iconic Guitars.[135]

See also

Further reading

References

  1. ↑ His most popular albums, The Wham of that Memphis Man (1963), Strike Like Lightning (1985), and Attack of the Killer V (1990) were blues-oriented with a rock instrumental bent and a traditional black gospel vocal bent. Dueling Banjos (1973) was an album of traditional bluegrass music and Appalachian music tunes. Glad I'm in the Band (1969) and Whatever's Right (1969) were ecletic with an emphasis on country and soul. Hills of Indiana (1971) was almost entirely country, with a singer/songwriter emphasis. Coco's (1983) was a mix of traditional country, acoustic and electric blues, deep soul, blues-rock, and roots-rock. South (1978) was a mix of country-pop and bluegrass. Second Sight (1986) and Roadhouses and Dance Halls (1988) were eclectic mixes of rockabilly, roots-rock, and outlaw country. Home at Last (1977) was mostly country. Pismo (1978) was a mix of country, rockabilly and Southern rock.
  2. ↑ (1) Attributing his "semi-obscurity" to "his ability to work in any number of Southern music forms. He could play burning R&B, smoldering soul, laid back country and hot blues, which made him as difficult to market as he was to describe.": Dansby, Music and Death 2016, Houston Chronicle, December 29, 2016, as preserved at https://www.houstonchronicle.com/entertainment/columnists/dansby/article/Music-and-death-2016-You-want-it-darker-10820590.php; ; (2) Calling him a "cult figure" who nonetheless became "a seminal influence on a long list of British and American artists": Grimes, "Lonnie Mack, Singer and Guitarist Who Pioneered Blues-Rock, Dies at 74", New York Times, April 22, 2016. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/23/arts/music/lonnie-mack-singer-and-guitarist-who-pioneered-blues-rockdies-at-https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/23/arts/music/lonnie-mack-singer-and-guitarist-who-pioneered-blues-rockdies-at-74.html?_r=0; and (3) See also, section below entitled "Career chronology", detailing the periods 1964–1968 ("British Invasion" career slump), 1971–1984 (ended rock career; became unnoticed country artist), and 1990–2004 (ended recording career; became independent roadhouse performer).
  3. ↑ (1) Brown & Newquist, Legends of Rock Guitar, "Lonnie Mack", Hal Leonard Publishing, 1997, at p. 24; See also, (2) Sandmel, Guitar World magazine, May 1984, pp. 55–56.
  4. ↑ (1) "...pioneering father of blues-rock...", McDevitt, Unsung Guitar Hero Lonnie Mack, Gibson online at http://www.gibson.com/News-Lifestyle/Features/en-us/Unsung-Guitar-Hero-Lonnie-Mack.aspx, 09/05/2007, ; (2) "Well before the term was coined, “Memphis” defined blues-rock.", Wyatt, Lonnie Mack and the Birth of Blues-Rock Guitar, Guitar World magazine on-line, June 12, 2018, at https://www.guitarworld.com/lessons/talkin-blues-lonnie-mack-and-birth-blues-rock; (3) Reiser, Lonnie Mack: Remembering His Trail-Blazing Blues-Rock Guitar Virtuosity, Website: "Keeping the Blues Alive", April 29, 2016, at https://keepingthebluesalive.org/lonnie-mack-remembering-his-trailblazing-blues-rock-guitar-virtuosity/; (4) Kreps, Lonnie Mack, Blues-Rock Guitar Great, Dead at 74, Rolling Stone online at https://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/lonnie-mack-blues-rock-guitar-great- dead-at-74-20160423, 04/23/2016; and (5) Brown & Newquist, Legends of Rock Guitar, "Lonnie Mack", Hal Leonard Publishing, 1997, p. 24.
  5. ↑ See, references in section below entitled "Blue-eyed soul vocals".
  6. ↑ See, section below entitled "Career chronology".
  7. ↑ Brown & Newquist, Legends of Rock Guitar, "Lonnie Mack", Hal Leonard Publishing, 1997, pp. 24-25.
  8. 1 2 Hagood, "Lonnie Mack: Remembering His Trailblazing Blues-Rock Guitar Virtuosity", Website:"Keeping the Blues Alive", April 29, 2016, at https://keepingthebluesalive.org/lonnie-mack-remembering-his-trailblazing-blues-rock-guitar-virtuosity/
  9. ↑ Interviewed for Duane Allman's 2006 biography, guitarist Mike Johnstone recalled sixteen-year-old Allman's fascination with Memphis, saying: "Now, at that time, there was a popular song on the radio called 'Memphis'—an instrumental by Lonnie Mack. It was the best guitar-playing I'd ever heard. All the guitar-players were [saying] 'How could anyone ever play that good? That's the new bar. That's how good you have to be now.'" Poe, Skydog: The Duane Allman Story, Backbeat, 2006, at p. 10.
  10. ↑ Hagood, "Lonnie Mack: Remembering His Trailblazing Blues-Rock Guitar Virtuosity", Website:"Keeping the Blues Alive", April 29, 2016, at https://keepingthebluesalive.org/lonnie-mack-remembering-his-trailblazing-blues-rock-guitar-virtuosity/
  11. ↑ "Lonnie Mack, Singer and Guitarist Who Pioneered Blues-Rock, Dies at 74", New York Times, April 22, 2016. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/23/arts/music/lonnie-mack-singer-and-guitarist-who-pioneered-blues-rockdies-at-https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/23/arts/music/lonnie-mack-singer-and-guitarist-who-pioneered-blues-rockdies-at-74.html?_r=0. See also Guterman, "The 100 Best Rock 'n' Roll Records of All Time", 1992, Citadel Publishing, p. 34; and Brown & Newquist, Legends of Rock Guitar, "Lonnie Mack", Hal Leonard Publishing, 1997, at p. 24-25.
  12. ↑ Wyatt, "Lonnie Mack and the Birth of Blues-Rock Guitar", Guitar World magazine on-line, April 25 2018, at https://www.guitarworld.com/lessons/talkin-blues-lonnie-mack-and-birth-blues-rock; "Twenty Iconic Guitars", Rolling Stone magazine online at https://www.rollingstone.com/music/pictures/20-iconic-guitars-20120523/lonnie-macks-flying-v-0534574, 05/23/2012; McDevitt, "Unsung Guitar Hero Lonnie Mack", Gibson online at http://www.gibson.com/News-Lifestyle/Features/en-us/Unsung-Guitar-Hero-Lonnie-Mack.aspx, 09/05/2007; and "Posthumous editorials" under the section below entitled "Further reading". ...Southern rock...: Music historian Dick Shurman considers Mack's early recordings a "prototype" of Southern rock. McCardle, "Lonnie Mack, Guitarist and Singer Who Influenced Blues and Rock Acts, Dies at 74", Washington Post, April 25, 2016, at https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/lonnie-mack-guitarist-and-singer-who-influenced-blues-and-rock-acts-dies-at-74/2016/04/25/5c581f3c-0a44-11e6-bfa1-4efa856caf2a_story.html. Southern rock (Allman Brothers; Warren Haynes, April 23, 2016 posting on Official Warren Haynes website, preserved at http://www.warrenhaynes.net/news/detail/warren_haynes_reflects_on_lonnie_mack. (c) Before his rise to Allman Brothers fame, seventeen-year-old Duane Allman honed his soloing skills by playing Memphis along with Mack's record, repeatedly stopping and starting the record with his foot, until he had mastered Mack's technique. (Poe, "Skydog: The Duane Allman Story", Backbeat, 2006, p. 10 et seq.). (d) Before his rise to Lynyrd Skynyrd fame, guitarist Steve Gaines practiced "playing (Memphis) by ear until he could imitate" Mack, who was one of Gaines' "favorite artists". Odom, Lynyrd Skynyrd: Remembering The Free Birds Of Southern Rock, Broadway Books 2002, at p. 142. Gaines can be heard performing Mack's "Why" (1963) in 1974 here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAXU_-q3srs. Mack was also an early influence on another early Skynyrd guitarist, Ed King. Odom, Lynyrd Skynyrd: Remembering The Free Birds Of Southern Rock, Broadway Books 2002.
  13. ↑ Puterbaugh, "The British Invasion: From the Beatles to the Stones, The Sixties Belonged to Britain", Rolling Stone Magazine, July, 14, 1988, preserved at https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/the-british-invasion-from-the-beatles-to-the-stones-the-sixties-belonged-to-britain-244870/; (2) (a) Mack's own popularity had been built mostly on his 1963 instrumentals, Memphis and Wham!. Davis & Parker, Instrumentals: When no words were necessary, Pt. 2, Goldmine Magazine, December 29, 2010, preserved at http://www.goldminemag.com/features/instrumentals-when-no-words-were-necessary-pt-2. (b) "In February of 1964, the Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show, and Mack's career withered on the vine." Dave Rubin, Inside the Blues: 1942 - 1982, "Rockin' the Blues: Lonnie Mack & Michael Bloomfield", Hal Leonard (Updated Ed., 2007) at p. 124.
  14. ↑ See, section of this article entitled "Career chronology".
  15. ↑ (1) See lyrics to two Mack tunes: (a) "I don't care what you think of me, I'm a-gonna live my life bein' country. Had a fancy job out in Hollywood, everybody said I was doin' good. Had lots of money and opportunities, but I'm a-gonna live my life bein' country." (Country, 1976); (b) "L.A. made me sick." (A Long Way From Memphis, 1985); (2) (a) In 1973, Mack and Rusty York released an all-acoustic bluegrass LP, Dueling Banjos. (b) In 1974, Mack played lead guitar for country-soul artist Dobie Gray. Mack's guitar work from this period can be found on Gray's 1974 album Hey, Dixie. Mack wrote or co-wrote three tunes on the album, including the title track. See credits under "track listings"/"show track credits" for Hey Dixie at https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/dobie-gray/hey-dixie/. In March 1974, he performed as Gray's lead guitarist at the last broadcast of The Grand Ole Opry from Nashville's Ryman Auditorium. (c) In 1977, Mack recorded Home at Last, an album of country ballads and bluegrass tunes. (d) In 1978, he recorded Lonnie Mack with Pismo, a somewhat faster-paced album, of country, southern rock, and rockabilly tunes.
  16. ↑ Brown & Newquist, Legends of Rock Guitar, "Lonnie Mack", Hal Leonard Publishing, 1997, at p. 25.
  17. ↑ (1) Grimes, "Lonnie Mack, Singer and Guitarist Who Pioneered Blues-Rock, Dies At 74", New York Times on-line, April 22, 2018, at https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/23/arts/music/lonnie-mack-singer-and-guitarist-who-pioneered-blues-rockdies-at-74.html; (2) See also, section below entitled "Career chronology".
  18. ↑ See section below entitled "Career chronology".
  19. ↑ During the migration of refugees from the coal mine closures in Southern Appalachia before World War II, most sought jobs in industrialized cities. See, Wikipedia article entitled Hillbilly Highway. However, Mack's parents settled twenty miles downriver from Cincinnati, living and working on sharecropping farms.
  20. ↑ "Lonnie Mack, July 18, 1941 – April 21, 2016". Alligator.com.
  21. ↑ Sandmel, "Lonnie Mack is Back of the Track", Guitar World, May 1984, pp. 55–56.
  22. ↑ (1) Forte, "Lonnie Mack: That Memphis Man is Back", 1978, p. 20; (2) Murrells, The Book of Golden Discs, Barrie & Jenkins, 1978, p.163
  23. ↑ Grimes, "Lonnie Mack, Singer and Guitarist Who Pioneered Blues-Rock, Dies at 74", New York times, April 22, 2016, at https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/23/arts/music/lonnie-mack-singer-and-guitarist-who-pioneered-blues-rockdies-at-74.html.
  24. ↑ McCardle, "Lonnie Mack, Guitarist and Singer Who Influenced Blues and Rock Acts, Dies at 74", Washington Post, April 25, 2016, at https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/lonnie-mack-guitarist-and-singer-who-influenced-blues-and-rock-acts-dies-at-74/2016/04/25/5c581f3c-0a44-11e6-bfa1-4efa856caf2a_story.html.
  25. ↑ (1) Hear Mack interview at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mYxmVf6Xik (2) Van Matre, "Lonnie Mack Back In The Swing Of Things", Chicago Tribune, May 2, 1985, at http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1985-05-0 2/features/8501270055_1_mack-doesn-t-stevie-ray-vaughan-lonnie-mack. Chicago Tribune, Lifestyle Section. Retrieved July 11, 2014.
  26. 1 2 Bill Millar, liner notes to Ace (UK) early Mack compilation album entitled "Memphis Wham!"
  27. ↑ (1) Liner notes to Ace, UK, CD entitled "Memphis Wham!"; (2) Dahl, Bill. "Lonnie Mack profile at" (https://www.allmusic.com/artist/p438). allmusic.com. Retrieved July 27, 2011.
  28. ↑ (1) "Unsung Guitar Hero: Lonnie Mack" at http://www2.gibson.com/News-Lifestyle/Features/en-us/Unsung-Guitar-Hero-Lo%5Bpermanent+dead+link%5D nnie-Mack.aspx, July 14, 1985. Retrieved May 18, 2014; (2) McNutt, Guitar Towns, University of Indiana Press, 2002, p. 175.
  29. ↑ See, e.g., Stephens, "Lonnie Mack", TopperPost #522, April, 2016 at http://www.toppermost.co.uk/lonnie-mack/.
  30. ↑ His most popular albums, The Wham of that Memphis Man (1963), Strike Like Lightning (1985), and Attack of the Killer V (1990) were blues-oriented with a rock instrumental bent and a traditional black gospel vocal bent. Dueling Banjos (1973) was an album of traditional bluegrass tunes. Glad I'm in the Band (1969) and Whatever's Right (1969) were ecletic with an emphasis on country and soul. Hills of Indiana (1971) was almost entirely country, with a singer/songwriter emphasis. Coco's (1983) was a mix of traditional country, acoustic and electric blues, deep soul, blues-rock, and roots-rock. South (1978) was a mix of country-pop and bluegrass. Second Sight (1986) and Roadhouses and Dance Halls (1988) were eclectic mixes of rockabilly, roots-rock, and outlaw country. Home at Last (1977) was mostly country. Pismo (1978) was a mix of country, rockabilly and Southern rock.
  31. ↑ Dansby, Music and Death 2016, Houston Chronicle, December 29, 2016, as preserved at https://www.houstonchronicle.com/entertainment/columnists/dansby/article/Music-and-death-2016-You-want-it-darker-10820590.php
  32. ↑ (1) Grimes, "Lonnie Mack, Singer and Guitarist Who Pioneered Blues-Rock, Dies at 74", New York Times, April 22, 2016. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/23/arts/music/lonnie-mack-singer-and-guitarist-who-pioneered-blues-rockdies-at-https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/23/arts/music/lonnie-mack-singer-and-guitarist-who-pioneered-blues-rockdies-at-74.html?_r=0; (2) In the 1980s, Mack was "elevated to cult status as a blues-rock guitar hero".Greg Schaber, "Mule Train", Cincinnati Magazine, October 2000 issue, pp. 74-83, as preserved at https://books.google.com/books?id=2O0CAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA73&lpg=PA73&dq=schaber+mule+train&source=bl&ots=RvRWKnpiqs&sig=FbRq7LHkAnYBXnaJ70-m90WvOQI&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjmkc-bwpLcAhUoxFQKHcecCdYQ6AEIaTAQ#v=onepage&q=schaber%20mule%20train&f=false
  33. ↑ Larry Nager, "Guitar Greatness", Cincinnati Enquirer (Cincinnati.com), March 13, 1998, as preserved at http://www2.cincinnati.com/freetime/weekend/031398_weekend.html. McNutt, Guitar Towns, 2002, p. 175.
  34. ↑ All but one have been unavailable for decades. "Hey Baby" (Sage, 1959), a bluegrass/rockabilly tune headlined by two of his older cousins, Aubrey Holt and Harley Gabbard, was reissued by Bear Family Records in 2010. It was included in the album "That'll Flat Git It! Vol. 27: Rockabilly & Rock 'n' Roll From The Vault Of Sage & Sand Records: Various Artists". ISBN 978-3-89916-577-7. On it, seventeen-year-old Mack can be heard providing a Travis-picking guitar accompaniment, punctuated by a brief rockabilly solo. It can be heard at Harley Gabbard & Aubrey Holt - Hey Baby ~ Rockabilly on YouTube
  35. ↑ See, section below entitled "'Memphis' and 'Wham!'".
  36. ↑ Strike Like Lightning (1985) and Lonnie Mack Live: Attack of the Killer V (1990), were commercially successful and drew critical acclaim.
  37. ↑ Alec Dubro, Review of "The Wham of that Memphis Man",Rolling Stone magazine, November 23, 1968
  38. ↑ Himes, "Lonnie Mack", The Washington Post, February 20, 1987
  39. ↑ Guterman, "The 100 Best Rock 'n' Roll Records of All Time", Citadel Publishing, 1992, p. 34 (ranking the album No. 16).
  40. ↑ Stephens, Lonnie Mack, TopperPost #522, April, 2016 at http://www.toppermost.co.uk/lonnie-mack/.
  41. ↑ Apart from "Memphis" (Billboard #5) and Wham!" (Billboard #24), only two additional Mack Fraternity singles charted: "Honky-Tonk '65" (#78) and "Baby, What's Wrong?" (#93). See, Billboard's "Chart History" list for Mack at http://www.billboard.com/artist/307816/lonnie-mack/chart.
  42. ↑ The label and its intellectual property rights were ultimately sold for $25,000. "The Fraternity of Wham" (http://rubbercityreview.com/2013/08/the-fraternity-of-wham/). Rubbercityreview.com. Retrieved October 28, 2017.
  43. ↑ Dave Rubin, Inside the Blues: 1942 - 1982, "Rockin' the Blues: Lonnie Mack & Michael Bloomfield", Hal Leonard (Updated Ed., 2007) at p. 124.
  44. ↑ See, Ace's Lonnie Mack page and links at https://www.acerecords.co.uk/search?query=lonnie+mack.
  45. ↑ See, Mack discography at http://wdd.mbnet.fi/lonniemack.htm.
  46. ↑ Mack's three Elektra albums were Glad I'm in the Band (1969), Whatever's Right (1969), and The Hills of Indiana (1971). These were eclectic collections of country and soul ballads, blues tunes, and updated versions of earlier recordings. Both 1969 albums emphasized Mack's vocals and de-emphasized his guitar work. They were modest commercial successes. Mack's final Elektra effort, The Hills of Indiana, was a country album recorded in Nashville that attracted little attention.
  47. ↑ (a) Alec Dubro, Rolling Stone magazine, November 23, 1968. (b) Elektra obliged, adding two bonus tracks from 1964 (Farther On Down The Road and Chicken-Pickin), under the title "For Collectors Only".
  48. ↑ During that period, he famously played bass guitar on The Doors' hit record, "Roadhouse Blues". According to their drummer, John Densmore, author of the book "Riders on the Storm" (Dell, 1990), The Doors' personnel considered Mack a "living legend" of the blues. They recorded an instrumental in his honor, "Blues for Lonnie", that did not appear on any of their contemporary releases, but can be heard here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zpNnje-GRs
  49. ↑ (1) Deccio, "Lonnie Mack Dead", April 24, 2016, http://www.inquisitr.com/3029420/lonnie-mack-dead-guitarist-and-vocalist-who-pioneered-blues-rock-dies-at-74/; (2) Poster for Mack's six-day run at the Fillmore West in July 1969 at http://www.classicposters.com/Johnny_Winter/poster/Bill_Graham/180; (3) Poster of Mack's Cow Palace appearance with the Doors and Elvin Bishop at http://www.classicposters.com/Lonnie_Mack; (4) Mack's reference to appearing with C, S &N at the Fillmore East in his 1985 Carnegie Hall interview at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHAcMm8pxvo.
  50. ↑ (1) Morthland, "Lonnie Mack", Output, March 1984; (2) "Lonnie was a real country boy". Elektra producer Russ Miller, in Holzman, Follow the Music, First Media, 1998, p. 367.
  51. ↑ Mack, as quoted in McDevitt, "Unsung Guitar Hero Lonnie Mack", Gibson on-line, September 5, 2007, at http://www.gibson.com/News-Lifestyle/Features/en-us/Unsung-Guitar-Hero-Lonnie-Mack.aspx.
  52. ↑ Upon completing his 1969 albums, Mack assumed a "Chet Atkins-Eric Clapton role at Elektra, doing studio dates, producing and A&R." (Rolling Stone, "Random Notes", February 7, 1970, p. 4,) In that role, he helped to recruit a number of country and blues artists from Nashville, Memphis, and Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Elektra considered the launch of a specialty label to record them. (Holzman, Follow The Music, First Media, 1998, pp. 366–67.) Mack was instrumental in signing Mickey Newbury, but could not generate much interest in some other prospects, including Roberta Flack. (Houghton, Becoming Elektra, 1st Ed., 2010, Jawbone Press, pp.244–246.) He then tried to sign Carole King, but Elektra rejected her on the grounds that they already had Judy Collins. (Gettleman, Orlando Sentinel, "Guitar Hero Lonnie Mack", as reprinted in Salt Lake Tribune, August 3–4, 1993, p. 3.) Frustrated, he finally attempted to interest Elektra in gospel singer Dorothy Combs Morrison, the former lead vocalist for the Edwin Hawkins Singers of "Oh Happy Day" fame. Mack had recorded Morrison singing a gospel-esque version of The Beatles' "Let It Be", and sought permission to release it; management's response was delayed, however, due to ongoing negotiations for the label's sale to Warner Brothers (Kot, Greg (December 13, 1989). "He Wrote The Book – tribunedigital-chicagotribune" (http://articles.chicagotribune.c om/1989-12-13/features/8903170595_1_doors-morrison-hotel-memphis-man-lonnie-mack). Articles.chicagotribune.com. Retrieved August 18, 2015.), allowing a competing label to seize the initiative and release Aretha Franklin's own gospel version first. "That bummed me out" (Gettleman, Orlando Sentinel, "Guitar Hero Lonnie Mack", as reprinted in Salt Lake Tribune, August 3–4, 1993, p. 3), Mack said. According to a close associate, Mack "had no tolerance for the internal politics of the music business". (Hear, interview of Stuart Holman (Mack's bass-player in the early '70s), "Lonnie Mack Special", July 16, 2011 at http://wvxu.org/post/lonnie-mack-special#stream/0.) He resigned from his A&R job. (Sandmel, "Lonnie Mack is Back on the Track", Guitar World, May 1984, pp. 59–60.)
  53. ↑ Stephens, Lonnie Mack, TopperPost #522, April, 2016 at http://www.toppermost.co.uk/lonnie-mack/
  54. ↑ Mack went mostly unnoticed during this period, but he was not idle. (1) In 1973, Mack and Rusty York released an all-acoustic bluegrass LP, Dueling Banjos. (2) In 1974, Mack played lead guitar for country-soul artist Dobie Gray. Mack's guitar work from this period can be found on Gray's 1974 album Hey, Dixie. Mack wrote or co-wrote three tunes on the album, including the title track. See credits under "track listings"/"show track credits" for Hey Dixie at https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/dobie-gray/hey-dixie/. In March 1974, he performed as Gray's lead guitarist at the last broadcast of The Grand Ole Opry from Nashville's Ryman Auditorium. (3) In 1977, Mack recorded Home at Last, an album of country ballads and bluegrass tunes. (4) A live version of "Cincinnati Jail" can be heard on Mack's final album, "Attack of the Killer V" (1990). (5) In 1978, he recorded Lonnie Mack with Pismo, a somewhat faster-paced album, of country, southern rock, and rockabilly tunes.
  55. ↑ At the nightclub, Mack also served as bouncer. He broke up bar fights by swinging his guitar at the combatants. (See, posting of Mike Pumphrey near the bottom of comments at http://www.tributes.com/obituary/print_selections/103505970?type=6.) The outdoor music venue was known as "The Friendship Music Park". There, Mack hosted performances by local bluegrass and country artists. (Peter Guralnick, Pickers, "Lonnie Mack: Fiery Rock Picker Goes Country", 1977, p. 16.)
  56. ↑ Mack, as quoted in Guralnick, Pickers, "Lonnie Mack: Fiery Picker Goes Country", 1977, pp. 16–18).
  57. ↑ Greg Schaber, "Mule Train", Cincinnati Magazine, October 2000 issue, pp. 74-83, as preserved at https://books.google.com/books?id=2O0CAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA73&lpg=PA73&dq=schaber+mule+train&source=bl&ots=RvRWKnpiqs&sig=FbRq7LHkAnYBXnaJ70-m90WvOQI&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjmkc-bwpLcAhUoxFQKHcecCdYQ6AEIaTAQ#v=onepage&q=schaber%20mule%20train&f=false.
  58. ↑ (1) Dick Shurman, as quoted in McArdle, "Lonnie Mack, Guitarist and Singer Who Influenced Blues and Rock Acts, Dies at 74", Washington Post April 25, 2016, at https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/lonnie-mack-guitarist-and-singer-who-influenced-blues-and-rock-acts-dies-at-74/2016/04/25/5c581f3c-0a44-11e6-bfa1-4efa856caf2a_story.html.1). (2) Shurman's observation about Mack's dislike of cities finds support in the lyrics of two Mack tunes: (a) "L.A. made me sick." (A Long Way From Memphis, 1985); (b) (Country, 1976). (3) Shurman's observation about Mack's dislike of the music business was echoed by Stuart Holman, Mack's bass guitarist in the early 1970s: "Lonnie had no tolerance for the internal politics of the music business." Holman interview on the broadcast "Lonnie Mack Special", July 16, 2011, at http://wvxu.org/post/lonnie-mack-special#stream/0.
  59. ↑ Mack's departure from the LA rock scene apparently also involved a threatening premonition. Towards the end of Mack's time at Elektra, the label had put together a musical whistle-stop touring group, including Mack, Don Nix, and others, billed as "The Alabama State Troupers and Mount Zion Choir". (Holzman, Follow The Music, First Media, 2000, p. 36.) According to Elektra producer Russ Miller, Mack disappeared six days before the tour was to begin. Miller found him hiding out on his rustic Kentucky farm. Mack refused to join the tour, citing a nightmare during his last night in Los Angeles, in which he and his family had been pursued by Satan. He had awoken in a sweat, finding his Bible opened to a passage warning him to "flee from Mount Zion". Miller, a former evangelist preacher (Houghton, Becoming Elektra, 1st Ed., 2010, Jawbone Press, pp.244–246), knew Mack's mind. Returning to California alone, Miller explained: "[Lonnie's] a real country boy. [T]hat was it for Lonnie". (Holzman, supra). Years later, Mack wrote a tune adverting to this experience. In "A Song I Haven't Sung" (1986), he equated the pursuit of "fortune and fame" with selling one's soul to Satan, allowing the "body to live while your soul is left to rot". The tune appears on Mack's 1986 Alligator album, "Second Sight".
  60. ↑ (1) Mack, as quoted in Gettleman, "Guitar Hero Lonnie Mack Is A Low-Key Yet Major Influence On Many Musicians", Orlando Sentinel, as reproduced in Desert News/The Salt Lake Tribune, Tues. PM/Wed. AM, August 3-4, 1993 at p.3. (2) Vaughan idolized Mack, calling him "the baddest guitar player I know" (Vaughan, as heard on DVD entitled "American Caravan: Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble", recorded in 1986 at the Orpheum Theatre in Memphis. It can be seen and heard here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkBqTWBIkKw.) and credited much of his own guitar style to Mack. ("Lonnie invented a lot of this stuff." Newton, "My First Interview With Stevie Ray Vaughan", at https://earofnewt.com/2015/08/26/my-first-interview- with-stevie-ray-vaughan-when-he-sang-me-three-lines-of-an-earl-king-song/.) Vaughan also said, "I got a lot of the fast things I do from Lonnie" (Menn, Secrets From The Masters, Miller-Freeman, Inc, 1992, p. 278, ISBN 0-87930-260-7). Three years before his death, Vaughan listed Mack first among the guitarists he had listened to, both as a youngster and as an adult. (Vaughan interview at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcrkPrxj698). As a teen-ager, Vaughan honed his guitar skills by playing along with Wham!, starting and stopping the record-player repeatedly as he attempted to copy Mack's guitar. (Vaughan interview, https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=GImi3eGVbSI, at counter 17:36; Patoski, "SRV: Caught in the Crossfire", 1993, Backbeat: 15–16.) In his teens, Duane Allman did the same with Memphis. (Poe, "Skydog: The Duane Allman Story", Backbeat, 2006, at p. 10 et seq.) Vaughan went on to record Wham! several times, and called his own instrumental, Scuttle-Buttin, "just another way of playin' [Mack's 1964 instrumental] Chicken-Pickin." (Vaughan, as quoted in review of the album Couldn't Stand The Weather at http://www.musicradar.com/news/guitars/s tevie-ray-vaughan-couldnt-stand-the-weather-legacy-edition-album-review-265255. Musicradar.com. Retrieved October 28, 2017.)
  61. ↑ (1) Mike Joyce, "Lonnie Mack, Making His Mark On Music", Washington Post, July 9, 1985, as preserved at https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1985/07/09/lonnie-mack-making-his-mark-on-music/e91f0750-e622-4878-8040-3b037a60a19b/ (2) During Mack's recuperation, Vaughan put on a benefit concert to help pay his medical bills, and Vaughan and his bass-player, Tommy Shannon, personally installed an air-conditioner in Mack's house. "Michael Smith, "Gritz Speaks With Guitar Hero Lonnie Mack", June 2000" (http://swampland.com/articles/view/all/50 1). Swampland.com. Retrieved July 27, 2011.
  62. ↑ Brown & Newquist, Legends of Rock Guitar, "Lonnie Mack", Hal Leonard Publishing, 1997, at p. 25.
  63. ↑ (1) See, July, 1985 photo of Richards and the Wood backing Mack's performance at New York's Lone Star Cafe at https://www.iorr.org/talk/read.php?1,2317009; Attendees included Mick Jagger, Paul Simon, and Bob Dylan. See, review of Mack's appearance at the Lone Star, NY Times, Sunday, July 14. 1985. (2) The tour culminated in a Carnegie Hall concert with Collins and Buchanan. See: (a) Lonnie Mack - Satisfy Susie on YouTube; (b) Lonnie Mack Stop on YouTube; and (c) Lonnie Mack, Albert Collins & Roy Buchanan on YouTube
  64. ↑ (1) Lonnie Mack, as quoted in Nager, "Guitar Greatness", Cincinnati Enquirer (Cincinnati.com), March 13, 1998, as preserved at Archived July 29, 2017, at the Wayback Machine.; (2) See also, Mack interview in Greg Schaber, "Mule Train", Cincinnati Magazine, October 2000 issue, pp. 74-83, as preserved at https://books.google.com/books?id=2O0CAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA73&lpg=PA73&dq=schaber+mule+train&source=bl&ots=RvRWKnpiqs&sig=FbRq7LHkAnYBXnaJ70-m90WvOQI&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjmkc-bwpLcAhUoxFQKHcecCdYQ6AEIaTAQ#v=onepage&q=schaber%20mule%20train&f=false
  65. ↑ Although he never recorded again as a solo artist, he made guest appearances on two albums of other artists. (1) Baber, Bo (May 31, 2000). "Review of Franktown Blues" (http://www.warehousecreek.com/frank/reviews.htm). Warehousecreek.com. Retrieved July 27, 2011. (2) "Lonnie Mack – Biography – Amoeba Music" (http://www.amoeba.com/lonnie-mack/artist/161293/bio). Amoeba.com. Retrieved October 28, 2017.
  66. ↑ 1963 Stewart Colman, liner notes to album "From Nashville to Memphis", March 2001
  67. 1 2 "We Lost Another Guitar Hero on April 21—Lonnie Mack Passes at 74". GuitarPlayer.com. Retrieved October 28, 2017.
  68. ↑ Interviewed in 2011, the recording engineer on "Memphis", Chuck Seitz, recalled that it took ten minutes to "set up" and less than ten minutes to record the tune twice. "Lonnie Mack Special", http://wvxu.org/post/lonnie-mack-special#stream/0
  69. ↑ (1) "...chords-and-riffs...": See, (a) articles collected under "Posthumous editorials" in the section below entitled "Further reading"; and (b) Brown & Newquist, Legends of Rock Guitar, "Lonnie Mack", Hal Leonard Publishing, 1997, pp. 24-25. (2) Calling the pre-Mack melodic rock guitar solos "inherently simple": Brown & Newquist, Legends of Rock Guitar, "Instrumental and Surf Rock", Hal Leonard Publishing, 1997, p. 22. (3) Poe, Skydog: The Duane Allman Story, Backbeat, 2006, at p. 10.
  70. ↑ "Memphis" was the fourth rock guitar instrumental to reach Billboard's "Top 5", preceded by "Twang" and "Surf" classics, including The Virtues' "Guitar Boogie Shuffle" (1958), The Ventures' "Walk, Don't Run" (1960), and Duane Eddy's "Because They're Young" (1960).
  71. ↑ Murrells, Joseph (1978). The Book of Golden Discs (2nd ed.). London: Barrie and Jenkins Ltd. p. 163. ISBN 0-214-20512-6.
  72. ↑ (1) "Swampland:Lonnie Mack". Swampland.com. Retrieved November 29, 2017. ; (2) "Remembering Lonnie Mack and his visits to Pike – Milford PA – Letters to the Editor". Pikecountycourier.com. Retrieved October 28, 2017.
  73. ↑ Years later, Stevie Ray Vaughan recorded a tribute to Chicken-Pickin entitled Scuttle-Buttin. The Rock Musician - 15 Years of Interviews, St. Martin's Press, 1994 (ed., Sherman), ISBN 0-312-30461-7 (pbk), at p. 216.
  74. ↑ Brown, Legends of Rock Guitar, "Lonnie Mack", Hal Leonard Publishing, 1997 at p.25.
  75. ↑ Brown & Newquist, Legends of Rock Guitar, "Lonnie Mack", Hal Leonard Publishing, 1997, pp. 24-25.
  76. ↑ See, e.g., (1) "Talkin' Blues: Lonnie Mack and the Birth of Blues-Rock". Guitar World. Retrieved May 18, 2014. ; (2) Guitar Player, "101 Forgotten Greats and Unsung Heroes", 2/1/2007, at https://www.guitarplayer.com/players/101-forgotten-greats-andamp-unsung-heroes; and (3) Brown & Newquist, Legends of Rock Guitar, "Lonnie Mack", Hal Leonard Publishing, 1997 at p.25. (4) They were not his only early demonstrations of soloing skill, however. Suzie Q (1963) and Lonnie on the Move (1965) are often mentioned, but the former was not promoted as a single and the latter was lost in the tidal wave of the British Invasion. A third, Chicken-Pickin (1964), widely considered Mack's greatest early demonstration of fret-board speed, suffered a similar fate. More recently, Jeff Beck regularly performed Lonnie on the Move during his 2015 and 2016 tours. He can be seen playing it at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RX4J0bbE5cY and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQa99- hWTnQ. It is a direct copy of Mack's own live, 1990 version, which can be heard here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpU2UqaeULw. Beck probably first heard the tune when it was issued in Britain on the Stateside label in 1964. See, photo of that pressing with date 1964 at http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Lonnie-Mack-Lonnie-On-The-Move-1964-UK- 45-STATESIDE-DEMO-/352182827062.
  77. ↑ (1) Mack interview at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mYxmVf6Xik (2) Matre, Van (May 2, 1985). "Lonnie Mack Back In The Swing Of Things" (http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1985-05-0 2/features/8501270055_1_mack-doesn-t-stevie-ray-vaughan-lonnie-mack). Chicago Tribune, Lifestyle Section. Retrieved July 11, 2014.
  78. ↑ Brown, Legends of Rock Guitar, entries on Chuck Berry and Lonnie Mack, Hal Leonard Publishing, 1997, at p. 13–14 (Berry) and 24–25 (Mack).
  79. ↑ Richard T. Pinnell, Ph. D., "Lonnie Mack's Version of Chuck Berry's 'Memphis' — An Analysis of an Historic Rock Guitar Instrumental", Guitar Player Magazine, May 1979, p. 41.
  80. ↑ (1) Bluegrass: (a) "I started off in bluegrass, before there was rock 'n' roll.". Grimes, "Lonnie Mack, Singer and Guitarist Who Pioneered Blues-Rock, Dies at 74", New York times, April 22, 2016, at https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/23/arts/music/lonnie-mack-singer-and-guitarist-who-pioneered-blues-rockdies-at-74.html. (b) "Mack began performing guitar in the family bluegrass band at 7." McCardle, "Lonnie Mack, Guitarist and Singer Who Influenced Blues and Rock Acts, Dies at 74", Washington Post, April 25, 2016, at https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/lonnie-mack-guitarist-and-singer-who-influenced-blues-and-rock-acts-dies-at-74/2016/04/25/5c581f3c-0a44-11e6-bfa1-4efa856caf2a_story.html; (c) "...a guitar style that owes as much to Bluegrass as The Blues...". "Lonnie Mack", Website: "All About Blues Music", April 2016 at https://www.allaboutbluesmusic.com/lonnie-mack/. (2) country: (a) Mack interview at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mYxmVf6Xik. (b) Mack told this same story as early as 1985, when interviewed by the Chicago Tribune. See, "Lonnie Mack Back In The Swing Of Things", Chicago Tribune, Lifestyle Section, May 2, 1985.
  81. ↑ (1) "Before Lonnie, the horn guys did all the lead work. He made the guitar the pre-eminent lead instrument". Former Elektra executive James Webber, in Schaber, "Mule Train", Cincinnati Magazine, October 2000 issue, pp. 74-83, preserved at https://books.google.com/books?id=2O0CAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA73&lpg=PA73&dq=schaber+mule+train&source=bl&ots=RvRWKnpiqs&sig=FbRq7LHkAnYBXnaJ70-m90WvOQI&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjmkc-bwpLcAhUoxFQKHcecCdYQ6AEIaTAQ#v=onepage&q=schaber%20mule%20train&f=false; See also, Sandmel, Guitar World, May 1984, pp. 55–56. (2) Mack's lead guitar style did not go mainstream overnight. As late as November, 1968, a Rolling Stone reviewer found his use of runs in his solos "peculiar". Alec Dubro, Review of "The Wham of that Memphis Man!", Rolling Stone, November 23, 1968.
  82. ↑ See, Brown & Newquist, Legends of Rock Guitar, "Lonnie Mack", Hal Leonard Publishing, 1997, at pp. 24–25.
  83. ↑ Nixon, "It's Star Time!", Guitar World, November 1985 at p. 82.
  84. ↑ Mack can be seen tugging on the device while continuing to pick at counter 2:09 and using the "shuddering" technique at counter 2:13 of the video of his Carnegie Hall concert, playing "Staisfy Suzie" at https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=xhX1lfWZaNw&ebc=ANyPxKpQ8Db4nyyibTLxE14xV4- KfgochEdNE8Cmg4OvLKjsjm7_E3llRU18Wnl25OTs5oXmtK30Md9-ROCrO0KfSUBVNRFHFw.
  85. ↑ (1) Vitale, "RIP Lonnie Mack", Website: WTTW (Chicago Tonight column, April 22, 2016, at https://chicagotonight.wttw.com/2016/04/22/rip-lonnie-mack; (2) "Wayback Machine" (https://web.archive.org/web/20080510181805/http://www.gibson.com/en-us/Lifestyle/Features/ Unsung%20Guitar%20Hero%20Lonnie%20Mack/). Web.archive.org. May 10, 2008. Archived from the original on May 10, 2008. Retrieved October 28, 2017.
  86. ↑ See, Stephens, "Lonnie Mack", TopperPost #522, April 2016, at http://www.toppermost.co.uk/lonnie-mack/.
  87. ↑ Stephens, "Lonnie Mack", TopperPost #522, April 2016, at http://www.toppermost.co.uk/lonnie-mack/.
  88. ↑ Poe, "Skydog: The Duane Allman Story", Backbeat, 2006, at p. 10.
  89. ↑ Greg Schaber, "Mule Train", Cincinnati Magazine, October 2000 issue, pp. 74-83, as preserved at https://books.google.com/books?id=2O0CAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA73&lpg=PA73&dq=schaber+mule+train&source=bl&ots=RvRWKnpiqs&sig=FbRq7LHkAnYBXnaJ70-m90WvOQI&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjmkc-bwpLcAhUoxFQKHcecCdYQ6AEIaTAQ#v=onepage&q=schaber%20mule%20train&f=false
  90. ↑ Brown & Newquist, Legends of Rock Guitar, "Lonnie Mack", Hal Leonard Publishing, 1997, p. 24.
  91. ↑ "Warren Haynes - news". Warrenhaynes.net. Retrieved August 28, 2018.
  92. ↑ (1) Kot, "He Wrote The Book", Chicago Tribune online, December 13, 1989 ("Lonnie Mack launched the modern guitar era 26 years ago."), at http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1989-12-13/features/8903170595_1_doors-morrison-hotel- memphis-man-lonnie-mack) and (2) Vinson, "Don't Procrastinate – Be Rock Solid", MurfreesboroPost.com, February 6, 2010 (calling Mack "the father of Modern Guitar"), at http://www.murfreesboropost.com/archive/2010/06/06.
  93. ↑ "Landmark Recordings", Guitar World, July 1980, as republished in Guitar World, July 1990
  94. ↑ "Warren Haynes - news". Warrenhaynes.net. Retrieved August 28, 2018.
  95. ↑ "Lonnie Mack, Singer and Guitarist Who Pioneered Blues-Rock, Dies at 74". Nytimes.com. Retrieved August 28, 2018.
  96. ↑ (1) As to most: (a) Brown, Legends of Rock Guitar, Hal Leonard Publishing, 1997, at pp. 24–25; (b) Herbert, "Lonnie Mack dead: Blues guitar great dies at 74, Joe Bonamassa says", April 22, 2016 at http://www.syracuse.com/celebrity-news/index.ssf/2016/04/lonnie_mack_dead_blues_guitarist_joe_bonamassa.html; (c) Santoro, "Double-Whammy", Guitar World, January 1986, p. 34; (d) "Landmark Recordings", Guitar World, July 1980, as republished in Guitar World, July 1990; (e) Eskow, "The Death of Prince and the Death of Lonnie Mack", Counterpunch.org, May 3, 2016, at http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/05/03/the-death-of-prince-and-the-death-of-lonnie-mack/; (2) As to Garcia: (a) Nash, "This Week In The Blues", American Blues Scene website, August 4, 2014 and (b) "Lost Live Dead" Blogspot, February 10, 2010, comment of Legs Lambert, March 15, 2010 at http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2010/02/grateful-deadjerry-garcia-tour.html; (3) As to Gaines: (a) Odom, Lynyrd Skynyrd: Remembering The Free Birds Of Southern Rock, Broadway Books 2002, at p. 142. (b) Gaines can be heard performing Mack's "Why" (1963) in 1974 here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAXU_-q3srs. (4) As to Hendrix: (a) Greg Schaber, "Mule Train", Cincinnati Magazine, October 2000 issue, pp. 74-83, as preserved at https://books.google.com/books?id=2O0CAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA73&lpg=PA73&dq=schaber+mule+train&source=bl&ots=RvRWKnpiqs&sig=FbRq7LHkAnYBXnaJ70-m90WvOQI&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjmkc-bwpLcAhUoxFQKHcecCdYQ6AEIaTAQ#v=onepage&q=schaber%20mule%20train&f=false. (b) Early in the period of Hendrix' celebrity, Hendrix came to see Mack play at a club in New York and ended up spending the after-hours jamming with Mack, Jerry Garcia and Janis Joplin. Vinson, Mike. " 'The Possum' has gone to heaven" (http://www.murfreesboropost.com/vinson-the-possum-h as-gone-to-heaven-cms-35390). The Murfreesboro Post. Retrieved August 18, 2015. (5) As to Gatton: McArdle, Lonnie Mack, guitarist and singer who influenced blues and rock acts, dies at 74, Washington Post, April 25, 2016, as preserved at https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/lonnie-mack-guitarist-and-singer-who-influenced-blues-and-rock-acts-dies-at-74/2016/04/25/5c581f3c-0a44-11e6-bfa1-4efa856caf2a_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.8cbaf6d26f94.
  97. ↑ Vaughan: (1) Joseph, "Before the Flood", Guitar World Magazine, September 1983; (2) "The Lost Stevie Ray Vaughan Interview" at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhffhhnibQY; Beck: Miller, "Jeff Beck's Guitar Magic Conquers Boston's Orpheum Theater", The Patriot Ledger on-line, April 20, 2015 at http://www.patriotledger.com/article/20150420/blogs/304209997; Nugent: Nugent interview at http://www.musicradar.com/news/guitars/ted-nugent-picks-the-11-greatest-guitarists-of-all-time-533304; Betts: Sandmel, "The Allman Brothers: Live at the Clifton Garage 1970" at http://www.spectratechltd.com/extrapages/Allman%20Brothers%20-%20Live%20at%20Ludlow%20Garage%20CD%20-%20cover%20&%20notes.pdf; Haynes: http://www.warrenhaynes.net/news/detail/warren_haynes_reflects_on_lonnie_mack); Benson: Benson interview, VHS-DVD, "Further On Down the Road", Flying V, 1985; Collins: Collins interview, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=US1658nBJow; Belew: Munro, "Ex King Crimson Man Belew Pays Tribute to Lonnie Mack", April 29, 2016, at http://teamrock.com/news/2016-04-29/ex-king-crimson-man-belew-pays-tribute-to-lonnie-mack); Morris: Tyler Morris discussing Mack's influence on him at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cy-Yr9PrJ08.
  98. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on July 29, 2017. Retrieved June 16, 2017.
  99. ↑ McDevitt, "Unsung Guitar Hero Lonnie Mack", Gibson online at http://www.gibson.com/News-Lifestyle/Features/en-us/Unsung-Guitar-Hero-Lonnie-Mack.aspx, 09/05/2007.
  100. 1 2 Meiners, Larry [2001-03-01], Flying V: The Illustrated History of the Modernistic Guitar, Flying Vintage Publishing, p. 13.
  101. ↑ Hunter, Star Guitars: 101 Guitars That Rocked The World, "Lonnie Mack: 1958 Flying V", Voyageur Press 2010, at pp. 152, et seq.
  102. ↑ Carter, "The Guitar Collection", Epic Ink Publishing, 2011, ISBN 978-1603801690. A page from the book depicting Mack's guitar can be seen here: https://uncrate.com/the-guitar-collection/
  103. ↑ Sullivan, "20 Iconic Guitars" Rolling Stone on-line, May 23, 2012, at https://www.rollingstone.com/music/pictures/20-iconic-guitars-20120523.
  104. ↑ Stephens, "Lonnie Mack", Topperpost #522, April, 2016, at http://www.toppermost.co.uk/lonnie-mack/
  105. ↑ (1) "Baby, What's Wrong?" hit the low end of the charts at 93 in December, 1963. See, Billboard's "Chart History" list for Mack at http://www.billboard.com/artist/307816/lonnie-mack/chart. (2) The blue-eyed soul vocals on Mack's debut album, The Wham of that Memphis Man (1963) came at a time when the racial divide in American culture was epitomized by the difference between black and white pop music styles. (Kirkus Review of the book, Country Soul, by Charles L. Hughes, U. of North Carolina Press, 2015, at https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/charles-i-hughes/country-soul/). When Mack's first vocal recordings were released in 1963, Mack's gospel-inspired version of the soul ballad "Where There's a Will" was played on R&B radio stations throughout the Deep South. Soon, he was invited to give a live radio interview with a prominent R&B disc jockey in racially polarized Birmingham, Alabama. Mack said that when he appeared at the radio station, the DJ said, "Baby, you're the wrong color" and canceled the interview on the spot. After that, Mack's vocals received little play on R&B radio stations. (a) "We Lost Another Guitar Hero on April 21—Lonnie Mack Passes at 74" (http://www.guitarplayer.com/artists/1013/we-l ost-another-guitar-hero-on-april-21-lonnie-mack-passes-at-74/57726). GuitarPlayer.com. Retrieved October 28, 2017. (b) Sandmel (May 1984). "Lonnie Mack is Back on the Track". Guitar World. p. 59.
  106. ↑ Mack's singing style might be described today as country-soul. See, Watrous, "Lonnie Mack in a Melange of Guitar Styles", New York Times, September 18, 1988 (describing his soul-singing style as "country-esque").
  107. ↑ Retrospective review of Mack's 1963 debut album, Alec Dubro, Rolling Stone magazine, November 23, 1968.
  108. ↑ Music critic Bill Millar, 1983 essay entitled "Blue-eyed Soul: Colour Me Soul" (https://web.archive.org/web/20071122194241/http://www.soul-s/ ource.co.uk/soul-words/blue-eyed-soul-colour-me-soul.htm). Excerpted from The History of Rock. Archived from the original (http://w Archived July 15, 2013, at the Wayback Machine. ww.soul-source.co.uk/soul-words/blue-eyed-soul-colour-me-soul.htm) on November 22, 2007. Retrieved November 14, 2007.
  109. ↑ Guterman, "The 100 Best Rock 'n' Roll Records of All Time", 1992, Citadel Publishing, p. 34.
  110. ↑ Curtis, Lost Rock & Roll Masterpieces Fortune, April 30, 2001
  111. ↑ (1) The greatest deep soul ... shame over witnessing it: Music and cultural critic Griel Marcus, commenting on Mack's Why (1963), in essay entitled "Songs Left Out Of Nan Goldin's Ballad of Sexual Dependency", Aperture #197 (Winter 2009), as reproduced at https://aperture.org/blog/songs-left-nan-goldins-ballad-sexual-dependency/. (2) Mack's scream  ... tops it: From a Marcus lecture of the same year and title as the essay above; presented at The Experience Music Project Museum (now the Museum of Pop Culture) in Seattle. It is quoted in the comment immediately below the Why Youtube video, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJgoZV0qiLE.
  112. ↑ Dave Stephens, author of two books on rock music, in "Lonnie Mack", TopperPost #522, April 2016 at http://www.toppermost.co.uk/lonnie-mack/
  113. ↑ The photo accompanying this article is from a performance during that season.
  114. ↑ "Unsung Guitar Hero: Lonnie Mack" (http://www.gibson.com/News-Lifestyle/Features/en-us/Unsung-Guitar-Hero-Lon nie-Mack.aspx). gibson.com. Retrieved November 29, 2017.
  115. ↑ "Photo of Mack playing at concert" (https://web.archive.org/web/20110715132351/http://pureprairieleague.com/benefit/index. htm). Pureprairieleague.com. Archived from the original (http://pureprairieleague.com/benefit/index.htm) on July 15, 2011. Retrieved July 27, 2011.
  116. ↑ John Soeder, The Plain Dealer. "Guitar stars pay tribute to Les Paul in Cleveland concert". Cleveland.com. Retrieved July 27, 2011.
  117. ↑ "Lonnie Mack sat in with my band Sat night..." Thegearpage.net. Retrieved August 28, 2018.
  118. ↑ He can be seen playing the tune at that event, on a borrowed guitar, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utqP7q244mY
  119. ↑ Two, "The Times Ain't Right" and "You Need A Little Help", can be heard here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOSCnUTb7Ds and here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNrwmsE521s
  120. ↑ "Lonnie Mack Comes Back to Life" (http://rockabillyhall.com/NewsArch02.html). Rockabillyhall.com. Retrieved July 27, 2011.
  121. ↑ "Bobby Boyd profile at" (https://web.archive.org/web/20110708075009/http://www.bobbyboydband.com/bio.html). Bobbyboydband.com. Archived from the original (http://www.bobbyboydband.com/bio.html) on July 8, 2011. Retrieved July 27, 2011.
  122. ↑ Travis Wammack, as quoted in Russ Corey, "Shoals musicians recall Lonnie Mack as great guitarist, singer", Florence (AL) Daily Times on-line, April 23, 2016, at http://www.timesdaily.com/news/shoals-musicians-recall-lonnie-mack-as-great-guitarist-singer/article_48a46f3e-8dae-5334-a3c7-1a6ec1260060.html.
  123. ↑ Kreps, "Lonnie Mack, Blues-Rock Guitar Great, Dead at 74", Rolling Stone magazine on-line, April 23, 2016, at https://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/lonnie-mack-blues-rock-guitar-great-dead-at-74-20160423.
  124. ↑ See, "Funeral arrangements for musician Lonnie Mack" at https://local12.com/news/local/funeral-arrangements-for-musician-lonnie-mack
  125. ↑ McArdle, "Lonnie Mack, guitarist and singer who influenced blues and rock acts, dies at 74", Washington Post on-line, April 25, 2016, at https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/lonnie-mack-guitarist-and-singer-who-influenced-blues-and-rock-acts-dies-at-74/2016/04/25/5c581f3c-0a44-11e6-bfa1-4efa856caf2a_story.html?noredirect=on
  126. ↑ Guterman, "The 100 Best Rock 'n' Roll Records of All Time", Citadel Publishing, 1992, p. 34)
  127. ↑ Larry Nager, Cincinnati Enquirer, "Lonnie Mack Wins Lifetime Achievement Cammy", March 15, 1998
  128. ↑ "Security Check Required". Facebook.com. Retrieved October 28, 2017.
  129. ↑ "Guitar Hall of Fame". Guitarhalloffame.com. Retrieved October 28, 2017.
  130. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on July 23, 2008. Retrieved April 6, 2008.
  131. ↑ "List of Hall of Famers". Rockabillyhall.com. Retrieved July 27, 2011.
  132. ↑ "Full Inductee List". Widmarcs.com. Retrieved July 27, 2011.
  133. ↑ Hunter, Star Guitars: 101 Guitars That Rocked The World, "Lonnie Mack: 1958 Gibson Flying V", Voyageur Press 2010, at p. 152 et seq.
  134. ↑ Walter Carter, The Guitar Collection, Epic Ink Publishing, 2011, ISBN 978-1603801690
  135. ↑ "20 Iconic Guitars". Rolling Stone. May 23, 2012. Retrieved August 28, 2018.
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