His Blues Get a New Audience : Comeback: The low-key, urbane music of veteran singer-pianist Charles Brown fell out of favor during the rock era, but he is winning new fans opening for Bonnie Raitt.

Charles Brown never expected that his Hollywood homecoming last year would have such big-time repercussions.

The veteran singer-pianist--whose mellow, tuxedo-slick blues made him enormously popular on the post-World War II R&B; scene before the ‘50s rock explosion--was trying to take a small step in a career revival spurred by his 1986 album, “One More for the Road.” But the audience at the Vine Street Bar & Grill in July, 1989, included Bonnie Raitt.

Their paths crossed again in Washington, D.C., four months later when Brown--along with Etta James, Ruth Brown, Lavern Baker, the Clovers and Percy Sledge--was presented with a Life Achievement Award by the Rhythm & Blues Foundation. At a party after the event, Raitt and Brown struck up a conversation and established a rapport.

“We got to talking, and Bonnie was saying, ‘If I ever get any power, you would be the one I’d want on my tour because I’d want to marry you,’ ” chuckled Brown, 68, over the phone from his apartment in Berkeley. “I said, ‘Bonnie, you wouldn’t want to marry me because, child, you don’t want to be smelling liniment all night.’ We were just joking.”

But the joke turned serious this year when Raitt’s multiple Grammy victory gave her the power to choose her opening acts. The upshot has been 30 dates for Brown on Raitt’s current tour, which concludes Sunday at the Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre. The pianist performs four songs, the last two backed by Raitt’s band, and returns for a verse-trading finale at the end of her set.

“Everything I do now is mostly one day at a major festival or a week at a nightclub, so I never had it in mind to go out and do a straight string of 30 one-nighters on a big circuit,” Brown said. “When we came along, you were doing great when you’d get 1,200 people; but when you come into a 20,000-seat hall today, you can’t believe how all the people are so involved in the concert.”

Brown, who was born in Texas City, Texas, began studying classical piano at 10, but he was far more influenced by jazz piano great Art Tatum, the Ink Spots vocal trio and bluesman Leroy Carr. He graduated from Prairie View College and taught high school chemistry for a time before moving to Berkeley in 1943. He moved to Los Angeles the next year.

He broke into show business when he won an amateur contest at the Lincoln Theater on Los Angeles’ Central Avenue--he combined Earl (Fatha) Hines’ “Boogie With the St. Louis Blues” and the “Warsaw Concerto.” After working briefly as a solo artist, Brown joined guitarist Johnny Moore’s Three Blazers.

The Three Blazers--part of the smooth, suave “club blues” sound associated with Cecil Gant and Nat (King) Cole--hit it big with their first single, “Drifting Blues,” a million-seller, in 1945. That started a run of 20 R&B; chart hits for Brown in the late ‘40s and early ‘50s, either with the Three Blazers or on his own after he quit the group in 1948.

Brown influenced an entire generation of R&B; and blues singers, among them Ray Charles, Bobby (Blue) Bland, Sam Cooke, Fats Domino and Chuck Berry. But the low-key, urbane flavor of his music fell out of favor during the rock ‘n’ roll era, and it did not resurface even during periodic blues revivals.

Brown was not entirely forgotten, however--the Eagles recorded his “Please Come Home for Christmas” and Bruce Springsteen did the Three Blazers’ “Merry Christmas, Baby.” But it took a pair of Swedish tours 10 years ago to stoke the career fires. Those tours prompted the release of a live album and of several reissue albums of Brown’s vintage ‘40s and ‘50s material by the Route 66 label there.

The “One More for the Road” album was reissued by Alligator last year.

A new album from Brown, “All My Life,” is scheduled to hit the stores Nov. 1 as one of four inaugural releases on Rounder’s Bullseye Blues label.

“It’s got things from the past the kids weren’t able to hear--boogies and good ballads and my way of saying the words,” Brown said. “A lot of singers today have beautiful voices but you don’t understand a word they say.

“In the years when we were coming up, the people who listened could make their love affair bud even more when they heard the words if the song created that atmosphere. That’s why the blues and spirituals--and country & western--were so important, because a story was told and you can relate when you hear the story.”

Charles Brown opens for Bonnie Raitt and NRBQ Sunday at 8 p.m. at the Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre, 8800 Irvine Center Drive, Irvine. Tickets: $20 and $22 (only upper seats and lawn seating remain). Parking: $5. Information: (714) 855-8096.