Lonnie Mack is one of the great roadhouse warriors of early rock’n’roll, and considered a father of blues-rock guitar. A small-town Hoosier native, Mack made his break in the early 1960s with the guitar solo recording “Memphis,” and his first album “The Wham of That Memphis Man!” He has inspired legions of guitarists, from Duane Allman to Stevie Ray Vaughan. Illuminated by a single lamp in the back of a Cincinnati club, Mack holds his 1958 Gibson Flying V guitar, the seventh off the production line, and his principal ax all of these years.
From Bob Nave: "Lonnie Mack was a major influence on my playing. I loved Lonnie's soulful singing and of course the sound of his Gibson Flying V played through a Magnatone Amp was very special. It came to be known as the "Lonnie Mack Sound", although Lonnie copped the idea of the Magnatone from Robert Ward and his Ohio Untouchables that plalyed at Cub 77 on West 3rd Street in Dayton. There was another guitarist from Oxford, Ohio at the time by the name of Maurice Gibson that also played a flying V with his fingers instead of a pick. Maurice and The Mystics were an excellent R&B trio that packed Al & Larry's in Oxford on Wednesday nights. After the release of "The Wham of That Memphis Man" on Fraternity in 1963 most every guitar player I knew tried to find one of
ReplyDeletethose Magnatone amplifiers and copy Lonnie's sound."