Friday, March 20, 2009

Ronnie Barron

Twelve years ago today the great Ronnie Barron passed away. "Ronnie who?" you say? I first met and photographed him when he was playing keyboards on tour with Paul Butterfield's Better Days. I also knew him after I moved to L.A. when he was playing with John Mayall and I was working with John on my first book, .

During Ronnie's early days in New Orleans he created a character know as Reverend Ether. Later Ronnie bestowed the character on Mac Rebennack - Who's Mac Rebennack, you ask? - who used it to create his own onstage persona known as Dr. John The Night Tripper. And you say, "Oh, that Mac Rebennack." And if you're under the age of zero or just completely musically uninformed you can search Dr. John on You Tube...of course, after you finish reading this post and watching the rare vid of Ronnie.

10/9/43-3/20/97

Here's a rare video of Ronnie...the only moving audio/visual representation I've found on him...



And for all you movie fans, you know Ronnie Barron as the CIA Bartender in Above The Law.



You can see lots more pictures and learn more about Ronnie Barron and the 47 other musicians in my tribute book, .

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

You can see Ronnie in this video from 7:27 to 7:48

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG0p2JHcsQ0&feature=related

and 5:20 to 5:42 in this one

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAx2vMRXskQ&feature=related

Chesher Cat said...

Thanks very much for the links!! You can also hear him all the way through. And they're close to my heart because I also shot Tom W. and hung out with him back in the Troubadour days. I will be posting these in the future.

Natural Mind said...

I use to hang out with Ronnie and his wife Kim in the early 80s. Lost track of him after I moved from LA and then found out he had died. What a character he was.

Natural Mind said...

I use to review bands who played LA back then, and would run into interesting musicians. Bonnie Bramlett, Lorraine Rebenack, (Dr. John's wife) and Ronnie B, use to live in the same apartment building in Sherman Oaks. Those were the good old days.

Rocky Larsen said...

Yea...I knew Ronnie and Kin ald little Ronnie back in the laste 70's and 80's. Ronnie could split his voice in two and sing harmony with himself in a form of falsetto. He was the original boogie woogie master. I love his album Running North Running South. My Jealosy is a great song too. I found an album of his from Japan but its like a hundred dollars. I miss you Ronnie Barron. Rocky

Natural Mind said...

Ronnie did have a wonderful vocal range, and I still remember the great stories he use to tell about traveling on the road with Dr. John and other musicians.

Natural Mind said...

Would love to see photos of Tom Waits. Always loved "Step Right Up"!

bob Lesher said...

I currently play in a blues-folk duo with Ronnie Barron's stepson, Ron Johnson. We are called Crosstown 2 and are based out of North Orange County. Ron is the guitar side of the duo with myself on harmonica-vocals. Ron speaks highly of his stepdad and has some interesting stories about the times Barron played with Butterfield's Better Days band.

Ron is great person and player. We've worked together for a year.

Crosstown 2's schedule can be found on tupelobluemusic.com which is the site of my blues band.

-Bob Lesher

Anonymous said...

ronnie is my grandpa im his real sons (ronnie jr barrosse) daughter , i wish i could have meet him i was just a baby when he died ...

kolimba said...

I never met Ronnie Barron and have no stories to tell about him but love his music.