Second Sight
Lonnie Mack
Alligator Records
Released 1986
By the time Lonnie Mack released his second album for Alligator Records, he had been discovered/rediscovered three times. In 1963, his instrumental hit “Wham” virtually invented the blues rock guitar style and influenced Stevie Ray Vaughn. However, the arrival of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones sent the blue-collar Mack into obscurity. He was rediscovered in 1968 and released a trio of albums that were mishandled by Elektra Records. He retreated to his home state of Indiana where he owned and operated an outdoor country music venue. In 1985, he signed with the simpatico Alligator label and released three excellent albums in the latter half of the 1980s. Second Sight is an album of mostly originals co-written by Mack. He sets the tone right from the start with odes to his car and to rock and roll. Both feature his leads and fills enhanced with the vibrato arm on his signature 1958 Gibson Flying V guitar. The vibrato arm is often called a “whammy bar” in recognition of Mack. Mack also could sing blue-eyed soul and dirty blues equally well. “Tough On Me, Tough On You” is a soul ballad about the end of a love affair. Mack shows his blues chops in “Cincinnati Jail,” a true story about the time Mack was arrested and put in jail. Mack tells the story in the song, “While walkin’ cross the street a car almost ran me down / I hit it on the fender said you better slow it down / They jumped from the car and shot me in the leg / And they put me in the Cincinnati jail.” Unfortunately, the driver of the car was an off-duty police officer! Mack ends the song with a warning, “If you’re going to Cincinnati better take a friend / And watch out for the good guys they’d really do you in.” Despite that experience, Mack puts the city in a more positive light in the instrumental “Camp Washington Chili,” a landmark chili restaurant in Cincinnati. The album ends with “A Song I Haven’t Sung.” Mack shares his Christian faith and warns about seeking “fortune and fame.” Mack never sought stardom and disliked the music business; he preferred playing in roadhouses and clubs. His final album was released in 2001 on Columbia Records and garnered little attention. Mack retired in 2004 except for one-off performances where he still blew the roof off with his guitar playing. His death from natural causes on April 21, 2016, was overshadowed by the death of Prince on the same day. The long list of blues rock guitarists who have named Mack as an influence includes Vaughn, Jeff Beck, Neil Young, Dickey Betts, Warren Haynes, Bootsy Collins, Adrian Belew, and many others. Mack has been inducted into the International Guitar Hall of Fame, the Rockabilly Hall of Fame, and the Southeastern Indiana Musician’s Association Hall of Fame.