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For almost the first time in his life Gate was getting some decent publicity in the US,

plus further recordings and TV appearances. The 1982 Rounder album, “Alright
Again”, won a Grammy award for Best Blues Recording. In the same year he also won
an award as ‘Instrumentalist of the Year’ in the Blues Music Awards. This was the

first of a string of awards he gained for his instrumental prowess during the decade
and beyond.

In 1983 he followed up with “One More Mile” and a reissue of some of his Peacock
recordings, which produced another Blues Music Award as Entertainer of the Year.

1986 saw the release of “Real Life”, on Rounder, and “Pressure Cooker”, on Alligator,
the latter being the compilation of tracks recorded in France in the 1970s, previously
referred to, and which itself was

Grammy nominated.

Gate was eventually signed to
Alligator Records in 1989, and they
released another Grammy nominated

album, “Standing My Ground”. On this
occasion he was backed by his own
‘red hot’ touring band. Although he

had ostensibly returned to his blues
roots, these blues based albums
featured some Cajun fiddle tunes and

the odd jazz standard (such as Duke
Ellington’s ‘Take The A Train’).

1991 produced another Alligator
album, “No Looking Back”.

By now, late in his career, Gate was
on something of a roll, with extensive
touring, not only in the USA, but also New Zealand, Australia, Central America, Africa,

and even the Soviet Union. He was happy to play anywhere, stating that “people can’t
come to me, so I go to them”.

With regard to his music, Gate said “I refuse to be labelled as a blues, jazz or country
player”, preferring to be known as a player of Americana, and this was borne out by

the albums he recorded over the rest of his life, such as “American Music - Texas
Style” (1999), “Back to Bocalusa” (2001) and his final album, 2004s “Timeless”, which
was a true melting pot of different styles, featuring blues, country songs and swing

music.

By the early years of the new century, health problems, in the form of a heart
condition and lung cancer, were curtailing the touring, although he still continued

to perform in and around his home at Slidell, near New Orleans, where had been
living since the early 1990s. His house was built on stilts, above the water, and