Ronnie Baker Brooks

In the Olympic tradition, when the torch gets passed on, the flame transfers from one sure hand to the next -- keeping it burning, while at the same time moving forward. It's a fitting image for young Chicago guitar hero Ronnie Baker Brooks on his aptly titled third release, The Torch. Not only does he sing with soulful fire and play with a white-hot intensity, he's also carrying the torch from the previous generation of soul and blues greats and moving the music into the future.

Brooks grew up steeped in American music tradition yet his focus remains resolutely on the future. As well as anyone of his generation, he knows the transcendent release at the heart of soul, blues and rock. He knows because, as the son of blues great Lonnie Brooks, he came of age watching the fieriest guitar players and most soulful singers of a previous era express their deepest feelings through their music.Not only does he sing with soulful fire and play with a white-hot intensity; he's also carrying the torch from the previous generation of soul and blues greats and moving the music into the future.

"I grew up among the best of the best," Brooks says. "Every time I play, I feel like I've got to do it with the authenticity and passion that I saw in guys like Buddy Guy, Muddy Waters, B.B. King and my father. But I also have to put my twist on it. None of those guys repeated what came before them."

Brooks has earned his spot on the front lines. He spent a dozen years backing his father, watching how the master entertainer drew enthusiastic responses night after night. For years, the younger Brooks put his lessons on stage every night, opening his father's show to great response. With his father's blessing, he left the band to strike out on his own shortly after releasing his own debut album, Golddigger in 1998.

Like his father before him, Brooks became a Chicago blues mainstay, playing regularly in Chicago area clubs. After the release of his second album, 2001's Take Me Witcha, he hit the road for what turned out to be a seemingly non-stop three-year tour, picking up devoted new fans all along the way.