Lonnie McIntosh (July 18, 1941 – April 21, 2016), known as Lonnie Mack, was an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. He was an early influence in the development of blues rock music, Southern rock music, and rock guitar soloing.
Mack emerged in 1963 with his breakthrough LP, The Wham of that Memphis Man. It earned him lasting renown as both a blue-eyed soul singer and a lead guitar innovator. The album's instrumental tracks included two hit singles, "Memphis" and "Wham". In them, Mack, using "top-quality technique" and "pristine" phrasing, added "edgy, aggressive, loud, and fast" melodies and runs to the predominant chords-and-riffs pattern of early rock guitar.Hagood, "Lonnie Mack: Remembering His Trailblazing Blues-Rock Guitar Virtuosity", Website:"Keeping the Blues Alive", April 29, 2016. Mack's early instrumentals raised the bar for rock guitar proficiency,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. helped launch the electric guitar to the top of soloing instruments in rock, and served as prototypes for the lead guitar styles of blues rock(2) Brown & Newquist, Legends of Rock Guitar, "Lonnie Mack", Hal Leonard Publishing, 1997, at p. 24-25; and (3) "Posthumous editorials" under the section below entitled "Further reading". and Southern rock."I think of [Mack] as a prototype of...Southern rock". Music historian Dick Shurman, as quoted McCardle, "Lonnie Mack, Guitarist and Singer Who Influenced Blues and Rock Acts, Dies at 74", Washington Post, April 25, 2016. Mack was a strong influence on several founders of Southern rock: (1) Allman Brothers lead guitarist Warren Haynes: "People like Dickey Betts would tell you that without Lonnie they wouldn't be who they were. That goes for all of us." April 23, 2016, posting on Official Warren Haynes website, preserved at http://www.warrenhaynes.net/news/detail/warren_haynes_reflects_on_lonnie_mack; (2) Before finding fame as lead guitarist of the Allman Brothers, 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.). (3) Remembering the unchallenging simplicity of early rock guitar, Allman Brothers co-lead guitarist, Dickey Betts, observed: "I was really gettin' tired of all the beach songs, and "Louie, Louie". Those are great songs, but I'm talkin' about guitar-playing. And then, here come Lonnie Mack, right down the middle of it all. God, what a breath of fresh air that was for me." Betts video commentary at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ij-LTAFB9o8; (4) Mack was a significant influence on two founders of Lynyrd Skynyrd, Steve Gaines and Ed King. Odom, Lynyrd Skynyrd: Remembering The Free Birds Of Southern Rock, Broadway Books 2002, at p. 142. Before Gaines' rise to Skynyrd fame, he practiced "playing (Memphis) by ear until he could imitate" Mack, who was one of Gaines' "favorite artists". Id. Gaines can be heard singing and playing Mack's "Why" here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAXU_-q3srs.
Shortly after the album's release, however, the British Invasion hit American shores, and Mack's recording career "withered on the vine".Puterbaugh, "The British Invasion: From the Beatles to the Stones, The Sixties Belonged to Britain", Rolling Stone, July 14, 1988. (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, December 29, 2010. (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. He regularly toured small venues until 1968, when Rolling Stone magazine rediscovered him, and Elektra Records signed him to a three-album contract. He was soon performing in major venues, but his multi-genre Elektra albums downplayed his lead guitar and blues rock appeal and record sales were modest. He became increasingly unhappy with the music business during this period and finally left Elektra in 1971. Over the next fourteen years, he functioned as a low-profile multi-genre recording artist, roadhouse performer, sideman, and music-venue proprietor.
In 1985, Mack resurfaced"...full-fledged comeback...". Brown & Newquist, Legends of Rock Guitar, "Lonnie Mack", Hal Leonard Publishing, 1997, at p. 25. with a successful blues rock LP, Strike Like Lightning, a promotional tour featuring celebrity guitarist sit-ins, and a Carnegie Hall concert with Roy Buchanan and Albert Collins. In 1986, he headlined the Great American Guitar Assault Tour with Buchanan and Dickey Betts.Scott Mervis, "RIP Blues Guitar Great Lonnie Mack", Post-Gazette.com, April 21, 2016, at http://blogs.post-gazette.com/arts-entertainment/pop-noise/46490-rip-blues-guitar-great-lonnie-mack In 1990, he released another well-received blues rock album, Lonnie Mack Live! Attack of the Killer V,See, e.g., D'Onofrio, Don's Music Views, "Lonnie Mack/Live!-Attack of the Killer V", 1997, at djd3.tripod.com/mack.html: "...Great talent...exciting performance...responsive crowd...This is what live blues is all about!" then retired from recording. He continued to perform, mostly in small venues, until 2004.See section below entitled "Career chronology".
Early life and musical influences
Shortly before Mack's birth, his family moved from Appalachian (eastern) Kentucky to Dearborn County, Indiana, on the banks of the Ohio River.During the migration of refugees from the coal mine closures in Southern Appalachia before World War II, most sought jobs in industrialized cities. However, Mack's parents settled twenty miles downriver from Cincinnati, living and working on sharecropping farms. One of five children, he was born to parents Robert and Sarah Sizemore McIntosh on July 18, 1941, in West Harrison, Indiana, near Cincinnati, Ohio. He was raised on a series of nearby sharecropping farms.
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.Sandmel, "Lonnie Mack is Back of the Track", Guitar World, May 1984, pp. 55–56.
He began playing guitar at the age of seven, after trading his bicycle for a Lone Ranger model acoustic guitar.(1) Forte, "Lonnie Mack: That Memphis Man is Back", 1978, p. 20; (2) Murrells, The Book of Golden Discs, Barrie & Jenkins, 1978, p.163 His mother taught him basic chords, and he was soon playing bluegrass guitar in the family band. Mack recalled that when he was "seven or eight years old" an uncle from Texas introduced him to blues guitar and that when he 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 which, Mack said, "sounded like rockabilly, but before rockabilly".(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 2/features/8501270055_1_mack-doesn-t-stevie-ray-vaughan-lonnie-mack. Chicago Tribune, Lifestyle Section. Retrieved July 11, 2014.
His musical influences remained diverse as he refined his playing and singing styles. In his pre-teen years, Mack was mentored by blind singer-guitarist Ralph Trotto, a country-gospel performer.(1) Bill Millar, liner notes to Ace (UK) early Mack compilation album entitled "Memphis Wham!". (2) Ry Cooder now owns and performs with Trotto's 1960 Martin D-18, which prominently displays Trotto's name. See, Murphy, "Ry Cooder, American Reverence" Premier Guitar on-line, May 8, 2018, at https://www.premierguitar.com/artists/guitarists/ry-cooder-strat and Verlinde, "Behind-The-Scenes: Ry Cooder Photo Outtakes", Fretboard Journal on-line, May 2014, at https://www.fretboardjournal.com/features/behind-scenes-ry-cooder-photo-outtakes Mack would skip school to play music with Trotto at the latter's house. Mack cited country picker Merle Travis, blues guitarist T-Bone Walker, R&B guitarist Robert Ward, and pop/jazz guitarist Les Paul as significant guitar influences.As to all but Ward: Significant vocal influences included R&B singers Jimmy Reed, Ray Charles, Bobby "Blue" Bland, and Hank Ballard, country singer George Jones, traditional black gospel singer Archie Brownlee, and soul music singer Wilson Pickett.(1) "Unsung Guitar Hero: Lonnie Mack" at http://www2.gibson.com/News-Lifestyle/Features/en-us/Unsung-Guitar-Hero-Lo nnie-Mack.aspx, July 14, 1985. Retrieved May 18, 2014; (2) McNutt, Guitar Towns, University of Indiana Press, 2002, p. 175. Mack recorded tunes associated with most of these artists.
Career
Mack's career-long pattern of switching and mixing within the entire range of white and black Southern roots music genresHis 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 eclectic with an emphasis on country and soul. The 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. made him "as difficult to market as he was to describe." He enjoyed periods of significant commercial success as a rock artist in the 1960s and 1980s, but was mostly absent from the rock spotlight for two long stretches of his career (1971–1984 and 1991–2004),1971–1984 (became low-profile country artist) and 1991–2004 (ceased recording but sporadically appeared in small venues). during which he continued to perform, mostly in small venues, as a roots-rock "cult figure".(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&dq=schaber+mule+train&pg=PA73 In the end, his "influence and standing among musicians far exceeded his (commercial) success."Perrone,"Listen To Soul! Exploring a Musical Genre", ABC-CLIO, , 2021, at pp. 22-23