Freddie Brooks is an American singer-songwriter and

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

harmonica player. A native of Wichita, Kansas, he started performing on the Southern California blues scene in 1989. He played

West Coast blues West Coast blues is a type of blues music influenced by jazz and jump blues, with strong piano-dominated sounds and jazzy guitar solos, which originated from Texas blues players who relocated to California in the 1940s. West Coast blues also ...

Biography

Brooks began playing in Southern California in 1989. He played with Bernie Pearl in a few bands before releasing his first and only album, ''One Little Word'' in 1999. Brooks was a regular performer in Orange County, California. Brooks also played with Jim Belushi. A 2003 article in ''

OC Weekly ''OC Weekly'' was a free alternative weekly paper distributed in Orange County and Long Beach, California. OC Weekly was founded in September 1995 by Will Swaim, who acted as editor and publisher until 2007. The paper was distributed at coffee ...

'' noted that Brooks had retired from music.

Reception

Randy Lewis of The '' Los Angeles Times'' praised Brooks' 1999 album ''One Little Word'', complimenting the range of emotions of the songs. Mike Boehm, also of the ''Los Angeles Times'', noted Brooks' versatility on the album, and compared his backing band to Booker T. & the MGs backing Otis Redding. The ''OC Weekly'' ranked Brooks as No. 111 in the greatest Orange County bands of all time, calling ''One Little Word'' one of the best albums of the decade, citing its originality and energy.

Discography

*''One Little Word'' (1999)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brooks, Freddie Living people American blues harmonica players American blues singer-songwriters Writers from Wichita, Kansas West Coast blues musicians Musicians from Wichita, Kansas Year of birth missing (living people) Singer-songwriters from Kansas