Lonnie Mack

Lonnie Mack
Mack in 2003
Mack in 2003
Background information
Birth nameLonnie McIntosh
Born(1941-07-18)July 18, 1941
West Harrison, Indiana, U.S.
DiedApril 21, 2016(2016-04-21) (aged 74)
Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.
Genres
Occupations
  • Musician
  • songwriter
Instruments
  • Guitar
  • vocals
Years active1954–2004; 2007–2011
Labels

Lonnie McIntosh (July 18, 1941 – April 21, 2016), known as Lonnie Mack, was an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. He was influential in the development of blues 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[1] 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,[2] added "edgy, aggressive, loud, and fast" melodies and runs to the predominant chords-and-riffs pattern of early rock guitar.[3] These tracks raised the bar for rock guitar proficiency,[4] helped launch the electric guitar to the top of soloing instruments in rock,[3] and served as prototypes[5] for the lead guitar styles of blues rock[6] and Southern rock[7] that soon followed.

Shortly after the album's release, however, the British Invasion hit American shores, and Mack's recording career "withered on the vine".[8] 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. During this period, he became increasingly unhappy with the music business. He left Elektra in 1971, and for 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[9] with a successful blues rock LP, Strike Like Lightning, a promotional tour featuring celebrity guitarist sit-ins,[10] and a Carnegie Hall concert with Roy Buchanan and Albert Collins.[10] In 1986, he went on the Great American Guitar Assault Tour with Buchanan and Dickey Betts.[11] In 1990, he released another well-received blues rock album, Lonnie Mack Live! Attack of the Killer V,[12] then retired from recording. He continued to perform, mostly in small venues, until 2004.[13]

  1. ^ Davidson, Merric (May 18, 2016). "Lonnie Mack". Toppermost. Retrieved July 29, 2022.
  2. ^ British guitarist analyses Lonnie Mack and Stevie Ray Vaughan live in 1986!, retrieved December 13, 2023
  3. ^ a b Hagood, "Lonnie Mack: Remembering His Trailblazing Blues-Rock Guitar Virtuosity", Website:"Keeping the Blues Alive", April 29, 2016. Archived August 26, 2018, at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ 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.
  5. ^ Grimes, William (April 23, 2016). "Lonnie Mack, Singer and Guitarist Who Pioneered Blues-Rock, Dies at 74". The New York Times.
  6. ^ (1) Guterman, "The 100 Best Rock 'n' Roll Records of All Time", 1992, Citadel Publishing, p. 34; (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".
  7. ^ "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.
  8. ^ 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.
  9. ^ "...full-fledged comeback...". Brown & Newquist, Legends of Rock Guitar, "Lonnie Mack", Hal Leonard Publishing, 1997, at p. 25.
  10. ^ a b Grimes, William (April 23, 2016). "Lonnie Mack, Singer and Guitarist Who Pioneered Blues-Rock, Dies at 74". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved July 29, 2022.
  11. ^ 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 Archived April 23, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
  12. ^ 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!"
  13. ^ See section below entitled "Career chronology".