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Since he was a teenager just out of high school, Ronnie Baker Brooks has toured the world with his father, legendary bluesman Lonnie Brooks.
Even with connections that could have made it easy for him to enter the music industry, Brooks notes that his father emphasized hard work and having true passion for the art form.
“Dad set me up for today,” he says. “He always told me to put the time in, study, practice, get better. I started my music career as his roadie. He wouldn’t let me play onstage with him until I earned it, and until he was certain playing music was what I truly wanted to do.”
At one show, Brooks remembers that blues singer Koko Taylor pulled him aside as he was loading the gear and told him: “You learn from your daddy everything you can. And one day, it’ll be up to you to carry the blues forward.”
That upbringing etched the musical genre into his being, leading Brooks to form his own band and label in the 1980s and 1990s, and to title his fifth and latest album “Blues in My DNA.” He will be performing a show at the Fanatics Pub in Lima next week.
The 11-track album, which won Contemporary Blues Album of the Year in 2025, has Brooks mixing rock, funk, and soul elements with a baseline level of blues throughout.
For instance, the album’s lead-off song, “I’m Feeling You,” immediately hits listeners with a traditional rock drum beat and funky guitar melody, while the nine-minute-long “Stuck on Stupid” features a classic blues guitar solo delivered in Brooks’ own unique style.
Brooks views the title track as autobiographical, describing it as “a bridge between me and my audience,” with his passionate guitar solos underlining the lyrics, which celebrate the power of music and its ability to triumph over racism, poverty, and glass ceilings.
“I ain’t complaining, I’m just explaining,” he sings, “I got love in my blood, the blues in my DNA.”
Blues are a way to “build bridges, not walls,” and that writing from an authentic sense of self allows musicians to do just that, Brooks believes.
“I’m excited to continue to create Chicago blues as part of my family legacy and our shared history. I’ll always carry on and represent the blues in everything I do,” he says. “Dad started the fire, (blues guitarist) Albert Collins poured the gas on it, and Koko Taylor put the grill on.”
Brooks will be performing at the Fanatics Pub in Lima on Feb. 4 at 7 p.m. Reserved seating tickets are $47 and can be purchased online.
Jacob Schermerhorn is a Rochester Beacon contributing writer and data journalist.
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Nice to see the article on Ronnie Baker Brooks. I was in attendance last night @ Fanatics (an area gem), as well as when he performed last October. Needless to say he and his band are terrific, world class.
Hopefully he’ll come back this way again, and I’ll be there.