RIP Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown

Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, who was scheduled to play the Narrows earlier this year, passed away on Saturday.

His show at the Narrows had to be cancelled because of his health.

The Providence Journal did a story on Gate's passing in Tuesday's paper, and spoke with Narrows president Patrick Norton:

Patrick Norton, president of the Narrows Center for the Arts, in Fall River, saw Brown numerous times over the years, starting at the 1992 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. "He was one of the most amazing musicians I'd ever seen," Norton said, citing Brown's ability to play guitar and violin, and leap from country to Cajun to rock to blues to jump music and waltzes.

Norton got to meet Brown a few times over the years and described him as "always a very gracious, gentle man."

Finally, after years of trying, Norton booked Brown to play at the Narrows Center in February of this year. But Brown's health prevented him from making it to the show. "He was just doing fly-ins at that point," Norton said. "He'd just done a weekend in New York, and it was just clear that he wasn't going to be able to do it." Brown, an inveterate road traveler, had been performing while on oxygen for at least a year by that point, Norton says. "He was playing out the string the hard way."

Sometimes, a performer's death can spur a critical reexamination and a popular resurgence. "I hope that's the case with Gatemouth," Norton says, "because he deserves to be heard. . . . He's an American treasure."