Born to Chicago blues legend Lonnie Brooks, Ronnie Baker Brooks upholds the lineage also sustained by his sibling Wayne Baker Brooks. He took up the guitar in childhood and later served as bassist in his father’s road ensemble before stepping out as a solo artist in 1998 with the release of Golddigger shortly after turning thirty.
Rodney Dion Baker entered the world in Chicago, Illinois, on January 23, 1967. His initial stage appearance alongside Lonnie occurred at age nine, yet he completed his education at Hales Franciscan High School in 1985. The following year he entered Lonnie’s band on bass before switching to guitar for the 1988 live recording Live from Chicago: Bayou Lightning Strikes.
Throughout the ensuing decade he performed steadily, most often alongside his father and fellow Alligator acts, until 1992, when he filled in for an ailing Lonnie at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and began headlining. That period yielded three Watchdog Records albums—Golddigger in 1998, Take Me Witcha in 2001, and The Torch in 2006. He later produced Eddy Clearwater’s 2008 album West Side Strut and collaborated on songwriting with Chris Beard for the vocalist’s 2010 release Who Am I and What I Do. Working with producer Steve Jordan, Brooks issued the soul-infused Times Have Changed in 2017, his first album in eleven years. After signing with Chicago’s Alligator Records he maintained an international touring schedule for seven more years before returning in October 2024 with Blues in My DNA, the label’s first charting release from the artist.
