Cady said the musician was with his family at his brother's house when he died. Mr. Brown's home in Slidell, La., a bedroom community of New Orleans, was destroyed by Katrina, Cady said.
''He was completely devastated," Cady said. ''I'm sure he was heartbroken, both literally and figuratively."
Although his career first took off in the 1940s with blues hits ''Okie Dokie Stomp" and ''Ain't That Dandy," Mr. Brown bristled when he was labeled a bluesman.
In the second half of his career, he became known as a musical jack-of-all-trades who played a half-dozen instruments and culled from jazz, country, Texas blues, and the zydeco and Cajun music of his native Louisiana.
By the end of his career, Mr. Brown had more than 30 recordings and won a Grammy award in 1982. He called his work ''American music, Texas style." It was also the title of one of his albums.
His versatility came partly from a childhood spent in the musical mishmash of southwestern Louisiana and southeastern Texas. He was born in Vinton, La., and grew up in Orange, Texas.
Mr. Brown often said he learned to love music from his father, a railroad worker who sang and played fiddle in a Cajun band.
Mr. Brown started playing fiddle by age 5. At 10, he taught himself an odd guitar picking style he used all his life, dragging his long, bony fingers over the strings.
Two other children in his family were talented musicians: drummer Bobby and guitarist James ''Widemouth" Brown. They played impromptu street concerts, taking their father's advice: ''Tune your instrument, don't overplay and play some of everything so you don't get stuck in one bag."
Mr. Brown, who was dismissive of most of his contemporary blues players, named his father as his greatest musical influence.
''If I can make my guitar sound like his fiddle, then I know I've got it right," Mr. Brown said.
He left home at 16 to tour on the ''Chitlin Circuit" of black concert halls and honky tonks, mostly working as a drummer. He recalled one early job with a group called W.M. Bimbo & His Brownskin Models, whose leader took all the band's money and left everyone stranded in Norfolk, Va.
