Bman's Blues Report

Lee Gates has an incredible presence, standing well over six feet tall, his entire body draped with muscles from a life of hard work. He also has Blues genes, since he’s a first cousin to Albert Collins. If Lee isn’t a true-Blue, Mississippi Delta Bluesman, then nobody can carry that moniker. He’s also a Luther Allison-style blues rocker from Pontotoc, Mississippi. Lee hasn’t had any of the breaks that many other less-skilled blues-rockers have had in spite of his blazing guitar work and good writing skills. Lee Gates was born in Mississippi and moved to Milwaukee in 1959 as a teenager where he has been playing his brand of down home Blues for the past 50 years. Blues legend Albert Collins is his first cousin (although it wasn’t until ‘74 that Lee met him) and you can hear the family influence in Lee’s fluid guitar style and tone. My daddy’s brother had a lot of kids out there in Texas. I never met them as a child, but we all knew of each other. When Albert came to Milwaukee I showe...