Clarence ‘Gatemouth’ Brown--Still Swingin’ the Blues

Young rock fans might easily get the impression that Brian Setzer was the first electric guitarist ever to lead a big swing band.

Setzer has been at the apex of a big-band swing revival, but in truth, blues guitarists including T-Bone Walker and B.B. King were leading full orchestras in the studio and on the road years before Setzer was born.

Now, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown is getting ready to show the kids how a first-generation electric blues man does things in the ‘90s with his next album, “Gate Swings,” due in the spring.

“I first started recording back in 1947 with Maxwell Davis’ Big Orchestra in L.A., California, when I flew up from Houston,” the 72-year-old musician said in a recent phone interview. “I always wanted to work with a big band again. We’d been discussing it for a while and I just finally said, ‘Let’s do it now.’ ”

Featuring a 17-piece orchestra and material from Basie to Hampton to Ellington plus a handful of jumpin’ originals, “Gate Swings” is one of the most vital and purely listenable albums of its sort since the music’s heyday. Brown’s playful, speedy guitar licks dominate even the flashiest arrangements.

Those familiar with his extensive catalog already know that Brown, who plays the Coach House (minus the big band) on Wednesday, is much more than a standard blues man.

The brusque Brown has been known to become downright hostile toward anyone who dares label him standard. That’s because he’s also a fine fiddle player, harp blower and smoky-throated singer who has been playing roots music of every stripe for half a century.

“I’ve been playing [jazz] on the road, me and my band, all the time,” he said. “I play whatever I want to play. I started listening to big bands as I grew up. I play everything--Cajun, country, bluegrass, blues, jazz.”

He was born in Vinton, La., grew up in Orange, Texas, and came to fame in 1947 in Houston blues entrepreneur Don Robey’s Bronze Peacock nightclub.

One night when the legendary T-Bone Walker took ill, a young and hungry Brown seized the moment and filled in, giving birth to a career--and a rivalry that endures to this day, even though Walker died 21 years ago.

“I bulldozed my way onto the bandstand ‘cause he got sick and just dropped his guitar,” Brown said. “He went to the dressing room and while he was trying to recover, I picked up his guitar and got up on that stage and made my debut right there. Made $615 in about 15 minutes--with his guitar! He was so angry he told me never to pick up his guitar again and I told him thank you, I wouldn’t. The next day I went out and bought me a $750 Gibson L-5.”

While just about every blues guitarist to come along since has sung the praises of the trailblazing Walker, Brown is not a fan, neither personally nor musically.

“We were never friends. He wasn’t the kind of guy that I would be friends with,” Brown said. “I listened to him for a while but I decided I didn’t like his stuff because everything he played was the same.

“It was all begging and hardship. I wanted to get away from all that,” he said. “I try to stay away from the negative country and the negative blues--all this tear-jerking, crying-in-your-beer, your-woman’s-leaving-you-and-you’re-gonna-do-something-wrong blues. This is not a teaching tactic for people, I don’t think. I do positive music and give instructions so that people can have a better life for themselves.”

Today, Brown is held in as high a regard as Walker was by most of his contemporaries. Exhibit A would be Brown’s latest album, 1996’s Grammy-nominated “Long Way Home.” It features guest turns by such friends and admirers as Eric Clapton, Leon Russell, Ry Cooder, Sonny Landreth and Maria Muldaur. While this might sound like a record company marketing gimmick, Brown contends the idea was all his own.

“I got a lot my friends in there,” he said. “I told my manager, ‘Let’s try something like this. Whatever I want to do, they’ll try.’ So I . . . named the people I wanted, called them and they all said yes.”

* Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, Scott Fairbanks and Mojo Hand play Wednesday at the Coach House, 33157 Camino Capistrano in San Juan Capistrano. 8 p.m. $12.50-$14.50. (714) 496-8930.