When I first started buying records they were hugely expensive and therefore any new additions to my collection were as a result of saving up enough money to buy what I wanted. It’s where all my money went and I was very selective and planned every purchase several weeks in advance. It was exciting.
My sister Jane and her boyfriend Allan Fuller had an enviable stash of blues and soul and other treasures and one day he gave me a copy of a 45-rpm single named Lonnie On The Move by Lonnie Mack on the Stateside label as a gift because he thought I’d like the drumming.
This was 1965. Yeah, I liked the drumming. I loved the drumming. It was impossible drumming. But that guitar. Wow! It was incomparable. I stuck to playing the drums.
Lonnie Mack was not a name that was heard among teenage music fans in London where Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and other emerging string-slingers were grabbing the headlines. We know now that they had both definitely heard of Lonnie. He was way ahead of the game. They were not the only ones who have copped onto his groundbreaking sound and soloing style. Some of the other guitar players who were influenced and inspired by him are listed on his Wikipedia entry. There are plenty. You will probably have heard of all of them. The list is growing. It will never stop growing. Lonnie was the man.
For his own reasons, Lonnie decided not to release any albums after 1991. He was happy playing a few shows and that’s the way it was for the rest of his time here.
When I first met Bucky Lindsey he was full of stories about his ten years on the road playing bass with Lonnie and he played me a live recording they had made in 1992. The four-piece band sounded enormous and Lonnie’s guitar playing was still in a class of its own.
With the grim news of Bucky’s declining health in 2025 I asked Lisa if maybe Lonnie’s daughter Holly would give us permission to release the recordings as a live album so Bucky was aware that it was work in progress. It had been over thirty years since Lonnie’s last commercial release so she agreed and dug out some photographs and the marvellous front cover image that you will see on the album.
Upon hearing of Bucky’s death in June, Holly asked us to dedicate the album to his memory because Lonnie had meant so much to Lonnie and accordingly - Lonnie Mack. Live From Louisville 1992 (Dedicated to the memory of Hoy “Bucky” Lindsey) will be released on vinyl/CD and digital formats on 24th October 2025.
Photo credit: Clayton Call
