Over the course of her 40-year career, Taylor has received just about every award the blues world has to offer. She has earned 21 W.C. Handy Awards (more than any other artist), six Grammy nominations for her last seven Alligator recordings and won a Grammy in 1984 for the compilation album Blues Explosion on Atlantic. On March 3, 1993, Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley honored Taylor with a "Legend Of The Year" Award and declared "Koko Taylor Day" throughout Chicago. In 1997, she was inducted into the Blues Foundation's Hall of Fame. A year later, Chicago Magazine named her "Chicagoan Of The Year" and, in 1999, Taylor received the Blues Foundation's Lifetime Achievement Award.
Taylor has succeeded in the male-dominated blues world. She's taken her music from the tiny clubs of Chicago's South Side to world-renowned festivals. She has shared stages with Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, B.B. King, Junior Wells and Buddy Guy as well as with Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton. Taylor continues to perform over 80 concerts a year worldwide. Through good times and personal hardships, Koko Taylor has become a true blues icon. "It's a challenge," she says. "It's tough being out here doing what I'm doing in what they call a man's world. It's not every woman that can hang in there and do what I'm doing today." Now that's a bio.
Article comments
1 - James
I remember in 1986 going to see Koko and her band at a small club on the campus of Northwestern University. She was spectacular and after her set, she sat at our table since I happened to be sitting with one of her friends. She was really cool and it is an experience that I have never forgotten.
2 - Eric Olsen
Great story James, thanks! It's great she is dong well.