Long before he created the Go-Go sound that defines the Washington pop music scene, Chuck Brown was grateful to play his guitar all day in backyards for a meal. A half century later, the “Godfather of Go-Go” and his band will burst into the Barns of Wolf Trap for a high energy evening of non-stop dancing.
“I’m just a country boy who came out of the South hearing my mother sing blues and gospel,” he says. “I loved jazz, things like ‘Harlem Nocturne,’ but I had no idea I’d be able to play for a living until people asked me why I didn’t get in a band.”
And so he did. His professional career harks back to the ’60s performing with Jerry Butler and the Earls of Rhythm. When he joined Los Latinos a few years later, he fell in love with the Latin beat. By adding African drums and cutting the beat in half to dress up the top 40 songs, he latched onto a formula that grabbed the audience from their seats and hustled them onto the dance floor.
After his first hit, “We the People,” rocked the town and “Bustin’ Loose,” his next album, went gold, he called the phenomenon “Go-Go-Swing” and gave that title to his next album. The name stuck and he has reigned ever since as “Godfather of Go-Go.”
Brown is such a local legend that the Washington Nationals baseball team chose “Bustin’ Loose” as its home run celebration song.
He is equally proud to have influenced many of the young musicians coming up and helping some of the Go-Go bands emulating him today get their start.
Friday’s audience can anticipate gyrating to numbers from “The Best of Chuck Brown,” released in 2005, and “We’re About the Business” (2007), along with many other favorites. He is currently in the studio finishing tracks for the next CD due out later this year.
“I’m happy to be still working, seeing old friends working and healthy, and watching the young bands like Mambo Sauce playing and making it happen,” he says. “Tell the Wolf Trap audience to get ready to dance like they’ve never danced before.”
If you go
Chuck Brown, the “Godfather of Go-Go”
Where: The Barns at Wolf Trap
When: 8 p.m. April 10
Info: $30; 877-965-3872; wolftrap.org
