ONE of the last survivors from the classic era of blues music, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown was a true original whose music also encompassed Texas swing, jazz, country, Cajun and zydeco influences.

A potent singer and a virtuoso instrumentalist on guitar and violin who could also play harmonica, mandolin, viola and drums, his professional career began in the 1940s and lasted more than 60 years. He escaped from the city before Hurricane Katrina struck, but was devastated by the destruction of his home and community. Although he had been ill for some time with lung cancer and heart disease, his family suggested that he had died from a broken heart.

Born in Vinton, Louisiana, and raised nearby in Orange, Texas, he learned his love of music from his father, who sang and played fiddle in a Cajun band. He earned the name “Gatemouth” from a high-school teacher who said he had a “voice like a gate”, a comment he took as a compliment.

Yet it was as a drummer that Brown began working professionally in the early 1940s, initially influenced by the big band sound of Count Basie, Lionel Hampton and Duke Ellington, whose Take the A Train remained a staple of his live repertoire all of his life.

After a stint in the US Army, Brown made his impromptu debut as a guitarist in 1947 when he casually walked on stage at Don Robey’s Bronze Peacock Club in Houston and picked up the guitar that the show’s star, T-Bone Walker, had just put down. He treated the audience to Gatemouth Boogie, a composition he later claimed he had made up on the spot. According to folklore, within minutes he was showered with $600 worth of tips — more than Walker’s fee for the night.

The astute Robey immediately booked Brown for a club tour across the Southern states, backed by a 23-piece orchestra, The following year, Robey founded Peacock Records, with Brown on the roster.

His early recordings for Peacock included Okie Dokie Stomp, Ain’t That Dandy, Boogie Rambler and Dirty Work at the Crossroads. Often accompanied by Jimmy McCracklin on piano, such sides prominently featured his Texas-style blues guitar playing, influenced by T-Bone Walker. In turn, Brown’s playing exerted a powerful influence on the next generation of blues guitar players including Albert Collins, Johnny Copeland, Johnny “Guitar” Watson, Lonnie Brooks and, across the Atlantic, the young Eric Clapton.

On Just Before Dawn, Brown’s final single for Peacock, he fused the blues styles of Texas with the Cajun fiddle music of Louisiana. In Nashville he added elements of mainstream country, even appearing on stage in cowboy boots and hat, not always with the approval of his blues fans.

Brown regularly toured Europe and found a new audience there. He recorded an eclectic series of LPs for European record labels, including a Louis Jordan tribute and a swamp-rock collection. In the 1980s he signed to Rounder Records, and won a Grammy award for his first album there, 1981’s Alright Again. He signed to the specialist blues label Alligator in 1989.

Brown recorded an album for Verve in 1996, which included guest appearances by Clapton, Ry Cooder, Maria Muldaur and Leon Russell.

In his last years Brown suffered ill-health but managed to record a final album, Timeless, in 2004. He is survived by three daughters and a son.

Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, blues singer, was born on April 18, 1924. He died on September 8, 2005, aged 81.