Lonnie McIntosh, known by his stage name Lonnie Mack, was an American rock, blues, and country singer-guitarist. He was active from the mid-1950s until the early 2000s.
His hit-record instrumental, "Memphis" (1963) and its follow up, "Wham!" (1963), represented a quantum leap in rock guitar virtuosity. They significantly raised the bar for rock guitarists and heralded the guitar-solo "revolution" of the 1960s. Although Mack is remembered primarily for his influence on the development of rock guitar, he was also known for the emotional intensity of his blue-eyed soul vocals. His early recordings were close stylistic precursors to both the blues rock genre of the mid-late 1960s and the Southern rock genre of the early 1970s.
Mack found commercial success as a rock artist again in the late 1960s and the mid-late 1980s, but spent most of his long career performing in roadhouses to a small-but-devoted "cult" following. He was uncomfortable in the spotlight. Music historian Dick Shurman observed that Mack's country-boy temperament "wasn’t suited to stardom. I think he’d rather have been hunting and fishing. He didn’t like cities or the (music) business".
He was known for his career-long use of a 1958 Gibson Flying V guitar he called "Number 7". Mack died in April 2016 and has been inducted into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame, the International Guitar Hall of Fame, and the Southern Legends Entertainment and Performing Arts Hall of Fame.
Tracks
Too Rock for Country, 50's/60's Man, Lucille, Medley: Sexy Ways/Annie Had a Baby, Plain Jane (In a Mustang), Honky Tonk Man, Riding the Blinds, High Blood Pressure, Cocaine Blues, Hard Life
Album Review - Blues Matters, November 2018
