The Blues Foundation will induct 15 new members into the Blues Hall of Fame at its annual Charter Members' Dinner at the Memphis Marriott Downtown on May 10, in Memphis, Tennessee. The Blues Foundation will pay tribute to esteemed individuals, literature, and recordings that have been selected by a committee of blues-music authorities. The event occurs the night before the 2006 Blues Music Awards, which will be presented at the Cook Convention Center.
The 2006 inductees:
Performers
James Cotton
Bobby Rush
Paul Butterfield
Roy Milton
Non-Performers
Bobby Robinson
Jerry Wexler
The Bihari Brothers - Jules, Joe, Les, and Saul
Literature
Chasin' That Devil Music by Gayle Dean Wardlow, edited by Edward Komara
Blues & Rhythm - a British magazine
Music Singles
"Devil Got My Woman" by Skip James (Paramount)
"Honky Tonk, Parts 1 & 2" by Bill Doggett (King)
"Hound Dog" by Big Mama Thornton (Peacock)
Music Albums
Screamin' and Hollerin' the Blues: The Worlds of Charley Patton by Charley Patton (Revenant)
Tell Mama by Etta James (Cadet)
I Do Not Play No Rock 'N' Roll by Mississippi Fred McDowell (Capitol)
Inductee Profiles:
Paul Butterfield
Paul Butterfield ranks among the world's most influential blues harp players. Born in 1942 in Chicago, Illinois, he began playing classical flute as a child. He also grew up listening to his father's jazz records and in 1957, he and future band mate Nick Gravenites began to catch blues acts in the clubs of the South Side. There he met and started jamming with the legends of the postwar blues scene - Muddy Waters, Little Walter Jacobs, Howlin' Wolf, and others. In 1963, he and teenage guitar virtuoso Michael Bloomfield lured a couple of Howlin' Wolf's sidemen away from Wolf's band to form the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. Fronted by Butterfield's strong vocals and harp and augmented by Bloomfield's blues-based guitar, the band landed a deal for their first LP with Elektra in 1965 and also backed Bob Dylan when the folk hero famously defected to rock at the Newport Folk Festival that year. The albums released by the Butterfield Blues Band brought Chicago blues to a generation of rock fans during the 1960s and paved the way for late 1960s electric groups like Cream.
James Cotton
James Cotton's blues résumé is unequaled. He's a Grammy-nominated W.C. Handy winner. His work with Muddy Waters in the 1950s and 1960s is enough to enshrine James Cotton in the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame, but then after Muddy, Cotton continued on with his own high-energy blues bands. Even after throat surgery in the 1990s made singing impossible, Cotton endured. Born in 1935 in Tunica, Mississippi, he received his first harp at age six. Then he heard Sonny Boy Williamson on King Biscuit radio and his direction was cemented. When Sonny Boy left him in 1950, Cotton fronted his own band in Memphis and caught the attention of Sun Records' Sam Phillips, for whom he recorded classics like "Hold Me In Your Arms" and "Cotton Crop Blues." But it was his well-timed meeting with Muddy Waters in 1954 that popularized Cotton into one of the central figures in blues history. After he left Muddy's band, Cotton teamed with Luther Tucker, Matt "Guitar" Murphy, and others, touring the country since 1966 keeping the blues alive.
Article comments
1 - DJRadiohead
"Devil Got My Woman" is one of the most haunting songs ever... and talk about a putdown. These rap knuckleheads ought to give this song a listen.
2 - Joanie
That would require someone stepping outside their comfort zone. It would do them good, but they probably couldn't handle it.
3 - mardeanccole
Some one you should know Robert Lockwood He is the son of Robert Johnson at 90 years old he still plays his music around the world He should be in the hall of fame. every year he plays at the chicago blues fest.
4 - Joan Hunt
I'm a big Robert Lockwood, Jr fan. However, Lockwood isn't the son of Johnson. Johnson lived with Lockwood's mother and taught him how to play guitar.
Along with Honeyboy Edwards, Willie Dixon, Muddy Waters, and Johnny Shines, these are the men who helped shape the blues as we know it.
A friend of mine just played at Honeyboy's birthday party alongside Honey and Lockwood. Gotta love and respect that!