Kerry Brown grew up listening to the music of New Orleans’ Baptist churches, and the brass bands forever rolling down the streets. Exposed to these influences from a young age, growing up in downtown Gretna, it wasn’t long before Kerry discovered he had a knack for keeping the rhythm.

As a teenager, he took music classes in school, and played drums in churches throughout the city, sometimes from seven in the morning to seven in the evening. His father worked as a valet for Ray Charles when he lived in Algiers: it was just one of many examples of how in those days, Kerry constantly found himself surrounded by musicians.

*Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown and Kerry in Paris, France.*

Mentored by New Orleans icons like Zigaboo Modeliste, Earl Palmer and Freddie Kohlman, he honed his skill on the drums until he met Mr. Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, the great blues front man and Texas-born multi-instrumentalist. While still in high school, Kerry joined the elder Mr. Brown on tour alongside musicians like Stevie Ray Vaughan, appearing at one of the first Ann Arbor Blues Festivals with the group, and recording on a live album while they were there.

Around New Orleans, the young Kerry became known as “Baby Gate” - because people thought he was Gatemouth’s son. “Buddy Guy always told people I was Baby Gate,” he remembers, as he was playing with - and staying with - Gatemouth at his home in New Orleans. And after all, they did share the same last name.

One night, the notorious country music outlaw David Allan Coe showed up at Gatemouth’s house, in need of a drummer for a gig that night. “He busted up in Gatemouth’s house. ‘Where’s your boy? Where’s your son?’” Kerry remembers. “He said, ‘I need a drummer NOW!”’ So naturally, Kerry tagged along and played the gig.

The night at the Howlin’ Wolf was a success. At the end of the gig, the band loaded on to the tour bus as Kerry turned to head home. David Allan Coe said, “Where are you going? You’re Gatemouth’s son. You’re getting on the bus with me!”

After a bit of protest, Kerry went home to go tell his wife. But the next day, he met Coe for a gig in Biloxi, and the two have been playing together ever since.

“David Allan Coe was controversial. Some of the songs are really out there. But it's my life,” chuckles Kerry. “When you live in the David Allan Coe world, you learn to be controversial.”

*Charlie Daniels with Kerry at the Gretna Heritage Festival*

Coe is just one of a long list of musicians, ranging from blues to brass to country to rock n’ roll, that Kerry has graced the stage with over the years. Genres don’t matter much to him, who over his decades-long career, has toured widely with the Allman Brothers; marched with the Royal, Excelsior and many other brass bands; played alongside artists like BB King, Teddy Riley, Danny Barker and Buddy Guy; backed Led Zepplin’s Jimmy Page on tour with The Firm; recorded with John Mooney, Freddie King and Champion Jack Dupree; and has directed and booked talent for the Gretna Heritage Festival upwards of 20 years. He is also involved with the Grand Isle Tarpon Rodeo and local Parc de Famillies Festival.

Kerry has booked musicians like Charlie Daniels, Earth, Wind and Fire, Kool & the Gang, Chicago, Dr. John, and many, many more: including a few old friends from his days on the road, like Mr. Coe and members of the Allman Brothers Band, who Kerry manned the drum kit behind at Gretna Fest in 2014.

In the 1990s, Kerry met Mr. Lawrence Cotton, a master of New Orleans piano and now, a fellow Preservation Hall Foundation Master Practitioner. After playing alongside each other in Teddy Riley’s band and on a tour with trumpeter Thomas Jefferson opening for Wallace Davenport, the two became fast friends. One night, Mr. Cotton didn’t feel well after a gig they played together with Jamil Sharif. The other band members all had somewhere to be, so Kerry drove Mr. Cotton to the hospital. He was in cardiac distress.

When the doctor checked in and asked for next of kin, Mr. Cotton didn’t have anyone to contact. His beloved wife had just passed away. So Kerry signed the paperwork. “Mr. Cotton adopted me that night,” he laughed. In all seriousness, it was Kerry who later signed a power of attorney, and helped Mr. Cotton get organized at home after 17 years of caring for his ailing wife’s every need.

*Mr. Cotton accepts his 2019 Preservation Hall Foundation Master Practitioner Award alongside Kerry and Ben Jaffe, Preservation Hall Creative Director. Photo by Camille Lenain.*

“I’ve been married to my wife for 25 years. And 22 of those, I’ve been married to Mr. Cotton,” laughs Kerry. The two have been neighbors and close collaborators ever since. Kerry lives with his wife, jazz vocalist Jane Harvey Brown, in one of two homes on a quiet block off Magazine owned by Mr. Cotton: the same house where the young Lawrence first experienced a house wired for electricity in 1934.

A couple of Kerry’s old friends, the sound team for the Allman Brothers crew, paid a visit to New Orleans to help outfit and install a custom 16-track studio in 93-year-old Mr. Cotton’s living room. “All he has to do is push a button,” says Kerry proudly. The men have spent time during the pandemic recording a new album, of which Kerry is the producer.

Kerry says he’s learned a lot from becoming Mr. Cotton’s family.

"Having Mr. Cotton around has taught me so much about life. About success. That it's not about selling a million records," he says. “Treat people the way you want to be treated. When you get paid, pay yourself first,” Kerry laughs. “These are the lessons that I’ve learned from Mr. Cotton.”

Meet the Collective: Kerry Brown

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