SAD DAY

Yesterday, we lost a giant in the music industry - a musician, singer and songwriter.  Lonnie Mack passed away at the age of 74.

Lonnie was born and raised in greater Cincinnati.  His family did tenant farming along the Ohio River in Indiana when he was a youngster.  Everyone in the family played an instrument.  Lonnie traded a bicycle for his first guitar.

His first play-for-pay gig was playing his guitar for tips outside the hotel in Aurora, Indiana. He played blue grass and old fashioned country before rock and roll was invented. He dropped out of school at age thirteen and began playing roadhouses in Cincinnati.

In 1958, he bought one of the first Gibson Flying V guitars (s/n 7) ever made. He knew what to do with it.  He developed his own style.  It was copied by all the early rock and roll bands.  Mack is credited with bringing the lead electric guitar to rock and roll.  He also popularized the "whammy bar" that brought so many new sounds to the industry and led to guitar soloing.

He made his first recordings at Cincinnati's King Studios.  He called his first band The Twilighters after the club in Hamilton, Ohio where he played regularly.  Mack's solos on the electric guitar influenced every rock musician from the 1960's thru the 1980's.   A few of those who give him this credit are Stevie Ray Vaughn, Jeff Beck, Duanne Allman, Dickie Betts and Ted Nugent.

Not only was he a great guitar player, he is considered one of the finest of the 'blue-eyed soul singers of his era.  This is someone you should know.
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