Lonnie Brooks’ 40-Year Blues Groove

The word “journeyman” was created to describe guys like Lonnie Brooks, and that’s no put-down.

Not every blues artist can be as ferociously unique as Howlin’ Wolf, John Lee Hooker or B.B. King. Just underneath the level of the giants is a large body of men and women whose work is perfectly accomplished, and Brooks is on the top shelf of that category. Wednesday night at the Galaxy in Santa Ana, he will make his first West Coast appearance in four years.

Brooks has been performing for some 40 years now, and at 62 he has assembled a large and estimable catalog of work. His latest album, “Roadhouse Rules,” is his seventh for Alligator, a blues label in Chicago to which he has been signed since 1978.

That in itself is unusual, as Alligator has become something of a way station for blues acts on the move either up or down. Such big names as Buddy Guy, Johnny Winter, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown and the late Albert Collins have passed on through, along with dozens of lesser lights. Brooks (along with fellow Alligator lifers Koko Taylor and Son Seals) just keeps on singin’ and pickin’, as reliably as the sunrise.

“I like Alligator,” Brooks said during a recent phone conversation. “I’m comfortable there, and I know the big record companies ain’t signing no blues, so . . . you just stay where you’re at.”

Spoken like a true journeyman.

Born Lee Baker Jr. in rural Louisiana, he didn’t get serious about singing and playing guitar until he was in his early 20s, living in Port Arthur, Texas. He first attracted attention backing up zydeco godfather Clifton Chenier.

Brooks’ first regional hit, the swampy “Family Rules,” was released under the name “Guitar Junior,” his nickname at the time.

“I went to this place to cut for Eddie Shuler out of Lake Charles, and he said, ‘What name do you want to put on this? I know everyone calls you Guitar Junior.’ So I told him to use that. I didn’t think it would ever do anything, and I wanted all my friends to know it was me. If I knew it was gonna sell, I would have used my real name.”

On the road in the late ‘50s, Brooks met Sam Cooke, and the two became friends. Brooks says he followed Cooke home to Chicago, where the legendary singer had promised to get Brooks a deal with a bigger record company. But soon Cooke was back on the road and gone, and Brooks was an unknown up north. He wound up living with Cooke’s parents and playing guitar behind Sam’s brother L.C. Cooke for a while.

But there were problems in the Windy City. First, Brooks’ subtle, swampy grooves, so integral to the Texas-Louisiana blues vibe, weren’t met with much enthusiasm in clubs accustomed to the brasher styles of Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters and Little Walter.

The second obstacle in Brooks’ path was one Luther Johnson, who was working the city’s blues circuit as . . . “Guitar Junior.” So Lee Baker Jr. became Lonnie Brooks, in honor of Bertha Brooks, a family friend who’d helped raise him.

(His “Guitar Junior” handle was revived briefly when Brooks made an album for Capitol in 1969 but then was retired permanently.)

In any case, Brooks continued to play the circuit in Chicago and eventually gained a reputation as a top-notch showman. His guitar tone is a bold bundle of raw distortion; his vocal style is fervent and impassioned. He has been a prolific songwriter as well, with compositions that rely heavily on memorable guitar hooks. His Alligator debut, “Bayou Lightning,” released in 1978, is widely considered to be among the classic blues albums of the decade.

And his name continues to spread. “In some cities,” he said, “I can’t even walk down the street without someone asking me to sign an autograph. I was in the washroom one day and this guy was on the stool when I was joking with my band, and he says, ‘I know that voice! Got to be Lonnie Brooks!’ I wasn’t even playing in that city! I was at a rest stop, and this guy was all excited ‘cause he heard my voice.”

Among the members of Brooks’ touring band is his 29-year-old son, guitarist Ronnie Baker Brooks. Lonnie--who has a second guitar-pickin’ son, 26-year-old Wayne--says he often is asked if one day a Brooks Brothers Band will carry on Papa’s legacy, and he says he can see it happening. But not just yet, thank you.

“I don’t think I want to retire. You don’t get tired of something you love doing, and I love playing music. I’d probably just dry up if I wasn’t playing. It’s what keeps me young and alive.”

* Lonnie Brooks plays Wednesday at the Galaxy Concert Theatre, 3503 S. Harbor Blvd., Santa Ana, on a bill with Good Rockin’ Daddy and Debbie Kay. 8 p.m. $12.50-$14.50. (714) 957-0600.