Saint Louis, MO - Monday, May 15, 2006 – Arguably the country’s fastest rising star in contemporary or “next-generation” blues, Chicago’s Ronnie Baker Brooks will make his long-awaited first appearance at Broadway Oyster Bar on Saturday May 20th at 10pm.

Though a popular draw at festivals and clubs throughout the Midwest in recent years, this will mark the first appearance of Ronnie Baker Brooks at a Saint Louis venue since he launched his own touring project in 1999. In that time, he has produced two of his own cd’s and a dvd, toured the world extensively and worked on several live and studio projects of note.

Ronnie Baker Brook’s third Watchdog Records cd, THE TORCH, is set for official release on June 9, 2006 to correspond with appearances at Chicago Blues Festival, however advance copies are expected to be available for purchase at this event.

When he debuted with Golddigger in 1998, much of the blues world was already familiar with Ronnie Baker Brooks via his long apprenticeship as bandleader for living legend patriarch, Lonnie Brooks. His primal effort helped him earn a WC Handy Award nomination for “Best New Blues Artist” and enough encouragement from fans and media to light the runway for takeoff of a successful solo career.

Ronnie’s second cd, Take Me Witcha, was released in 2001. By now, he was creating a major stir among the music community as a new kind of blues songsmith. He was writing scintillatingly youthful and urban compositions framed with pyrotechnic guitar work and the unbridled energy of a band more akin to rock and roll than anything else.

His career since has illuminated a high path through the changing landscape of music marketing, revealing how today’s independent talent can achieve unprecedented self-determination with hard work, intelligent marketing and grass roots loyalty.

The four years spent carefully cultivating his latest recordings have paid great dividends with THE TORCH, the epitome of a courageous and genre-bending release. Heart and soul are laid bare on track after track as he builds bridges between more traditional concepts of blues music and modern freedoms of expression.

Made up entirely of original material, many of the new songs on THE TORCH were recorded in Memphis with the same Chicago-based ensemble that has backed Ronnie on the road these past several years. Others were recorded in Minneapolis where Ronnie enlisted another band that knows well how to keep up with a funky front man, Prince’s New Power Generation.

Ronnie Baker Brooks at Broadway Oyster Bar
Saturday May 20, 2006 @ 10:00pm
736 S Broadway - Saint Louis, MO 63102
ticket information at (314) 621-8811