Lonnie Mack

Lonnie Mack never performed the blues without country inflections surfacing, nor did he tackle an uptempo rockabilly number without deep blues elements surfacing, a pattern consistent with an artist who listed Bobby Bland and George Jones among his primary inspirations. His rapid, vibrato-laden guitar approach, built around aggressive whammy-bar manipulation, shaped the work of numerous players, notably Stevie Ray Vaughan, who revered Mack’s initial Fraternity singles and later served as co-producer and guitarist on the 1985 Alligator comeback album Strike Like Lightning.

Raised in rural Indiana near Cincinnati, Lonnie McIntosh absorbed a potent blend of R&B and hillbilly sounds. In 1958 he acquired the seventh Gibson Flying V ever produced and began working the roadhouse circuit through Indiana, Ohio, and Kentucky. Mack repeatedly credited fellow local guitarist Robert Ward with shaping his tone through the watery sound of a Magnatone amplifier, prompting Mack’s own adoption of the brand.

Early-sixties session dates for Cincinnati’s leading label, Syd Nathan’s King Records, found him supporting Hank Ballard, Freddy King, and James Brown. At the conclusion of a 1963 Fraternity Records session, Mack moved to the foreground for an incendiary instrumental reading of Chuck Berry’s “Memphis.” Fraternity released the track, and it climbed to the Top Five on Billboard’s pop charts.

The urgent follow-up “Wham!” proved even more striking on guitar, its lightning-quick whammy-bar lines propelled by a forceful horn section. Mack’s vocals proved equally commanding; R&B outlets aired the soul ballad “Where There’s a Will” until they learned he was white, then abruptly withdrew it. Its B-side, a blistering vocal version of Jimmy Reed’s “Baby, What’s Wrong,” reached the lower rungs of the pop charts late in 1963.

Mack recorded abundant standout material for Fraternity throughout the mid-sixties, much of it unreleased until years afterward. A 1968 Rolling Stone profile led to an Elektra contract that promised broader recognition, yet the three resulting Elektra albums proved less cohesive than the Fraternity sides. Elektra also reissued Mack’s sole Fraternity LP, the landmark The Wham of That Memphis Man. He contributed a guitar solo to “Roadhouse Blues” on the Doors’ Morrison Hotel and briefly served on Elektra’s A&R staff.

Frustrated with the industry, Mack withdrew to Indiana, later signing with Capitol for a pair of little-noticed, country-oriented albums. At Stevie Ray Vaughan’s urging, he left Indiana for Austin, Texas, and resumed national visibility. Vaughan produced the powerful 1985 album Strike Like Lightning; later that year Mack shared a Carnegie Hall bill with Alligator labelmates Albert Collins and Roy Buchanan, the concert later issued on home video as Further on Down the Road.

Mack’s next Alligator release, Second Sight, disappointed fans focused on his guitar work by emphasizing songwriting and vocals. He departed Alligator in 1988 for Epic, but the stylistically scattered Roadhouses and Dancehalls failed to find an audience. The 1990 set Live! Attack of the Killer V, recorded at FitzGerald’s outside Chicago, reaffirmed why Lonnie Mack remained revered by devotees of ferocious guitar playing. Lonnie Mack died in Nashville in April 2016 at the age of 74.