The son of blues musician Lonnie Brooks, Ronnie Baker Brooks grew up watching the masters at work: Buddy Guy, Muddy Waters and B.B. King. The guitarist spent more than a decade backing his father before breaking out on his own in 1998 with his debut album Golddigger. By the time his follow-up, Take Me Witcha, came out in 2001, Brooks was a fixture on his native Chicago's blues scene. He waited five years before releasing The Torch, which takes its name from a track featuring Brooks, his father and leading bluesmen Eddy Clearwater, Jimmy Johnson and the late Willie Kent. Although rooted in tradition, Brooks's music  includes soul and hip-hop influences, introducing a new generation to the blues.