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MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The Blues Foundation
welcomes the 38th class of Blues Hall of Fame inductees in a
ceremony taking place on May 10, 2017. This year’s 14 richly deserving
honorees represent all five of the Hall of Fame’s categories:
Performers, Non-Performing Individuals, Classic of Blues Literature,
Classic of Blues Recording (Song) and Classic of Blues Recording (Album).
The six performers chosen for induction
include two distinctive vocalists, Mavis Staples and Latimore;
a pair of legendary guitarists, Magic Slim and Johnny Copeland;
and longtime Howlin’ Wolf sidemen guitarist Willie Johnson and
piano-man Henry Gray. They will join the more than 125 performers
who already are Hall of Fame members. The year’s non-performer selection is
Living Blues Magazine co-founder and radio show host Amy
van Singel, who passed away in Sept. 2016.
The Classic of Blues Literature
pick is the rightfully recognized Father of the Blues, W.C.
Handy’s 1941 memorable autobiography. John Lee Hooker was among
the Hall’s first inductees in 1980 and now his 1966 Chess album Real
Folk Blues will enter the Hall of Fame too in the Classic of Blues
Recording Album category. The quintet of Classic of Blues Recording songs
includes Bo Diddley’s signature tune “Bo Diddley,” Tommy
Tucker’s much covered classic “Hi Heel Sneakers,” the Albert
King hit “I’ll Play the Blues For You,” Son House’s “Preachin’
the Blues” and “I Ain’t Superstitious,” which features 2017
inductee Henry Gray playing on Howlin’ Wolf’s well-known 1961
recording.
The Blues Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony
takes place Wednesday, May 10 at Memphis’ Halloran Centre for the
Performing Arts and Education. Hosted by the Blues Foundation, the evening
begins at 5:30 p.m. with a Cocktail Reception, followed by the Induction
Ceremony at 6:30 pm. Tickets for this open-to-the-public ceremony are $100
per seat and can be purchased online at: http://bit.ly/2kVoDRG
More
festivities occur the following day, May 11, with the Blues Foundation’s
Blues Music Awards. Celebrating the past year’s best in blues recordings
and performances, this event will be held at the Memphis Cook Convention
Center. A pre-ceremony party commences at 5:30 p.m.,
while the Awards Show, including a seated dinner and featuring performances
by many of the nominees, starts at 7 pm. Individual tickets and tables may
be purchased for $150 per seat at the same link as above. For more
information, contact Barbara Newman, President & CEO; barbara@blues.org; (901) 527-2583, Ext.
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ABOUT THE INDUCTEES:
Performers
Henry Gray,
who played piano in the Howlin’ Wolf band and other Chicago blues groups
before returning to his native Louisiana in 1968, has rarely been in the
spotlight, but has steadily built an impressive resume entertaining
audiences around the world with his blues-drenched piano pounding. Gray,
born in 1925, is still performing regularly six decades after his first
recording sessions in Chicago.
Willie Johnson
(1923-1995) recorded only a few songs on his own, but as a sideman his
storming barrage of distortion and incendiary guitar licks in the 1950s,
especially on the early records of Howlin’ Wolf, earned him a lasting
reputation as a groundbreaking commando in the annals of electric guitar
playing. Mentored by Wolf in their Mississippi days, Johnson played in Wolf’s
band in the South and in Chicago, and recorded for Sun Records in 1955.
Mavis Staples,
one of America’s premier singers of gospel and soul music, has expanded her
musical mastery with her performances in more blues-based settings in
recent years. The blues is nothing new to the Staples family, as Mavis’
father and founder of the Staple Singers, Roebuck “Pop” Staples, was a
devotee of Delta blues master Charley Patton back in Mississippi. Mavis,
born in Chicago in 1939, remains on her lifelong mission to inspire and
uplift her listeners no matter what musical genre she employs.
Johnny Copeland
(1937-1997) was one of a bevy of blazing guitar slingers to emerge from the
vibrant Third Ward of Houston, Texas, and one of the city’s most powerful
singers as well. Establishing himself with a series of blues and soul
singles beginning in 1958, he attained national prominence in the 1980s
recording blues albums for Rounder Records. His daughter Shemekia has
followed in his footsteps by winning multiple Blues Music Awards.
Magic Slim
led one of the most relentless, hard-driving bands in Chicago blues history
for several decades until his death in 2013. Born Morris Holt in
Mississippi in 1937, he earned his nickname from his friend and fellow
blues guitar ace Magic Sam. Slim was also known for possessing perhaps the
largest repertoire of any blues artist, always able to pick up another song
from the radio or the jukebox, enabling him to record more than 30 albums
and garner dozens of Blues Music Awards nominations. His son Shawn “Lil
Slim” Holt is ably carrying on the family blues tradition.
Latimore, the
abbreviated stage name of singer, keyboardist and a songwriter Benny
Lattimore, has cut a dashing figure on the Southern soul circuit ever since
he began touring in the 1970s on the strength of hits such as “Stormy
Monday” and his best-known original, “Let’s Straighten It Out.”
Latimore, who was born in Tennessee in 1939 but has called Florida home
since the 1960s, is now a distinguished and still spirited love philosopher
and elder statesman of the scene.
Individuals: Business, Production, Media
or Academic
Amy van Singel,
known to blues radio audiences as “Atomic Mama,” was a cofounder of Living
Blues magazine in Chicago in 1970. She and her former husband Jim O'Neal
published the magazine from their home in Chicago until they transferred
the publication to the University of Mississippi in 1983. Her radio career
began at Northwestern University and included stints at stations in
Chicago, Mississippi, Memphis, Alaska and Maine. Amy died in her sleep at
her home in Maine on Sept. 19, 2016, at the age at 66.
Classics of Blues Literature
Father of the Blues
by W.C. Handy is a monumental opus that is indispensable to the study of
American musical history. Published in 1941, the book traces Handy’s
background as a trained orchestra leader, his discovery of the blues and
the struggles he endured to become a successful music publisher. It is
often cited as a primary resource on the earliest years of blues history.
No book is more deserving of designation as a Classic of Blues Literature.
Classics of Blues Recording: Albums
The 1966 John Lee Hooker album Real
Folk Blues is the latest of several Chess Records’ Real Folk
Blues albums to be elected to the Blues Hall of Fame. Whereas the rest
of the LPs in the series by Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf and others were
compilations of older recordings, the Hooker album was newly recorded in
May of 1966 in Chicago. Hooker was his inimitable and spontaneous self,
reworking some of his older songs and improvising new ones, accompanied by
his Detroit guitarist Eddie Burns and Chicago sidemen Lafayette Leake and
S.P. Leary.
Classics of Blues Recording: Singles
“Bo Diddley”
was not only the 1955 hit record that made Ellas McDaniel famous — it also
gave him his professional name. The famed “Bo Diddley beat,” an energized
update of the old “Hambone” rhythm, rocked the world, and Bo continued to
create classics for Checker Records in Chicago with his innovative blend of
blues and rock ’n’ roll.
“Hi-Heel Sneakers”
by Tommy Tucker was the last blues record from the mighty Chess Records
catalogue to hit No. 1 on the charts. Recorded in New York in 1963, the
single on Chess’ Checker subsidiary label topped the Cash Box
magazine R&B charts in 1964. Tucker’s enticement to “put on your red
dress” and hi-heel sneakers has resounded on countless bandstands ever
since.
“I Ain’t Superstitious,”
an ominous Willie Dixon composition recorded by Howlin’ Wolf in 1961, is
best known to rock audiences through the Jeff Beck Group’s 1968 cover
version featuring Rod Stewart on vocals. On the original session for Chess
Records in Chicago, Wolf’s band included Hubert Sumlin, Jimmy Rogers, Sam
Lay and 2017 Blues Hall of Fame inductee Henry Gray.
“I’ll Play the Blues for You,”
recorded by Albert King in Memphis for the Stax label in 1971, was written
by Jerry Beach, a longtime fixture on the Shreveport, Louisiana, music
scene who died in 2016. In Beach’s lyrics, sung with warmth and tenderness
by King, the blues becomes a source of soothing and comfort. King’s 45
spent eight weeks on Billboard magazine’s Best Selling Soul Singles
chart in 1972
“Preachin’ the Blues,”
a two-part single by Son House on the Paramount label from 1930, is a prime
example not only of House’s intensity as a Delta blues singer and guitarist
but also of his lifelong inner conflict between the lure of the blues life
and devotion to the church. House, who did preach in church at times, also
sang of the hypocrisy he saw in religion with lyrics such as “I’m gonna be
a Baptist preacher and I sure won’t have to work.”
About the Blues Hall of Fame Museum: Since
opening in May of 2015, the Blues Hall of Fame Museum has become a must-see
destination for blues aficionados and casual fans alike. Through its ten
permanent galleries and the Upstairs Legendary Rhythm and Blues Cruise
Gallery’s temporary exhibit space, the museum exposes, educates, and entertains
visitors, providing them a unique way to explore blues culture and history,
while also highlighting its 400 inductees. Visitors can use
interactive touchscreens to access databases that allow them to hear music,
watch videos and read stories about every museum’s inductees. Guests can
also view one-of-a-kind memorabilia, from musical instruments and tour
attire to awards and artwork.
The 2017 Hall of Fame class will be
represented in the special exhibit galleries beginning in early May.
Located at 421 S. Main Street, Memphis, the museum is open seven days a
week (10 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sat., 1-5 p.m. Sun.). Admission is $10 per
person, with children and Blues Foundation members free. The museum is also
available for private parties and events after hours. For more information,
call 901-527-2583.
About the Blues Foundation:
This world-renowned, Memphis-based organization holds a mission to preserve
blues heritage, celebrate blues recording and performance, expand worldwide
awareness of the blues, and ensure the future of this uniquely American art
form. Founded in 1980, The Blues Foundation has approximately 4,000
individual members and 200 affiliated blues societies representing another
50,000 fans and professionals around the world. Its signature honors and
events — the Blues Music Awards, International Blues Challenge, and Keeping
the Blues Alive Awards — make it the international hub of blues music. Its
HART Fund provides the blues community with medical assistance for
musicians in need, while Blues in the Schools programs and Generation Blues
Scholarships expose new generations to blues music. Throughout the year,
the Foundation staff serves the global blues community with answers,
information, and news.
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