Page 3 - BiTS_05_MAY_2020

George Brock: May 16, 1932 – April 10, 2020

Billed as Big George Brock, he was an American blues musician. A
native of Mississippi, he moved to Missouri in the 1950s and

operated a series of nightclubs. He played alongside Muddy Waters,
Howlin' Wolf, Jimmy Reed, and Albert King.

Big George — often called one of the last of the great Mississippi Delta
bluesmen — died at his home in St. Louis after an extended illness,
his family confirmed. Brock was 88.

Born May 16, 1932, in Grenada, Mississippi, and raised in Clarksdale, Mississippi, where at one point
he worked in cotton fields for $2 a day, Mr. Brock landed in St. Louis in 1952 in search of something
better. It was a familiar path for Delta blues musicians as they headed north.

The influential St. Louis musician was as well-known for his deep

baritone and his way with the blues harmonica as he was for his
flashy, colorful costumes, one of which is on display at the
National Blues Museum in downtown St. Louis. Mr. Brock was
one of the first recipients of the museum’s Keeping the Blues
Alive Award.

His classic band was known as the Houserockers, later the

New Houserockers, and together they were a staple at
BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups and other St. Louis venues.

John May, operations manager at BB’s, called
Mr. Brock a titan of St. Louis blues — “a real

king of the blues.”

In 2006, Mr. Brock was the subject of documentary filmmaker Damien Blaylock’s “Hard Times.” In
2019, he performed at the Big Muddy Blues Festival on Laclede’s Landing and at his own 87th birthday
party at the Ambassador in St. Louis.

Jeremy Segel-Moss, president of the St. Louis Blues Society, programmed the slimmed-down Big Muddy

Blues Festival in 2019. He knew Mr. Brock, one of the headliners, should be part of the lineup.

“His death leaves a huge hole in St. Louis,” Segel-Moss said. “He was the patriarch of St. Louis blues
over the course of the last 10 or 15 years. He was one of the greatest bluesmen I ever saw. He had an
incredible stage presence and inspired a new generation of blues performers including Marquise Knox

and Matthew Lesch, who didn’t know the older guys because they were already gone.

Alonzo Townsend, son of the late Grammy-winning St. Louis blues great Henry Townsend, viewed Mr.
Brock as an uncle-figure. He said Mr. Brock often performed at his father’s birthday celebrations at
BB’s.

Mr. Brock is survived by his wife, Evelyn Riddick. He has said he has 42 children.