Lee Gates

It's Never Too Late

Born in Pontotoc, Miss., in 1937, Lee Gates moved to Milwaukee as a teenager and he’s been playing juke joints there for over fifty years. After several rotations of his new debut album, Lee Gates & The Alabama Cotton Kings, it’s evident his playing evokes a genetic sound resembling his legendary cousin, bluesman Albert Collins.

“My daddy’s brother had a lot of kids out in there in Texas,” says Gates of his cousin’s family. “I never met them as a child, but we all knew of each other. When Albert came to Milwaukee [in 1974] I showed him around and we did some gigs together. Every time he came to town we would go out and eat supper together. He was a good friend to me.”

Gates' nine-song Music Maker recording stands as a testimony to his fluid playing. The opening track, an instrumental, “Sweet Lucy’s Groove” sets the festive Friday-night tone for this 40-minute recording. Gates rips high, wailing licks in lyric-less jams like “You Gotta Love Me Baby,” “Lucy’s Voodoo,” “Lee’s Boogie,” “Lucy’s Crying” and “When Baby Got the Blues.” One can only wonder why Gates remained undiscovered for so long.

Last year, the blues player got some much needed assistance from Tim Duffy, president of the non-profit Music Maker Relief Foundation. Duffy’s organization assists over 70 impoverished Southern musicians with instrument acquisition, tour support, life maintenance, medical and emergency relief.

In the liner of Gates' album, Duffy explains the recording's provenance: “In October of 2003 Lee called me up and announced that he was coming to Hillsborough [N.C]. I asked him what for and Lee replied, ‘to make a CD.’ I asked Lee if he didn’t mind going down to Alabama to record. Two days later Lee caught a greyhound to Huntsville, he missed a layover in Nashville and got in early the next morning and went straight to the studio with Ardie Dean (producer). Lee proclaimed the record done in three hours and was soon on the bus heading back home.”

After years of playing, and with the help of Music Maker, Gates has begun a long overdue recording career that otherwise might not have been possible.

(For more on the Music Maker Relief Foundation visit www.musicmaker.org)