Memphis Music Scene

 Bishop, Rush, among Blues Music Award winners

Bluff City singer/harmonica player John Nemeth, up for six awards, won for best soul blues album, 'Memphis Grease'.

John Nemeth - Photo: Aubrey Edwards

Elvin Bishop - Photo: Barry Brecheisen

COMMERCIAL APPEAL
Bob Mehr - May 8, 2015

Bluff City singer/harmonica player John Nemeth, who was up for six awards, managed to nab just one for best soul blues album for Memphis Grease. Memphis-bred Charlie Musselwhite also scored the 28th award of his career, with a win as best harmonica player.

Veteran guitarist/singer Elvin Bishop was the big winner at the 36th annual Blues Music Awards, held in Memphis on Thursday night.

The sold-out ceremonies, which took place at downtown’s Cook Convention Center, saw Bishop — on the heels of being elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Butterfield Blues Band earlier this year — take home the best band, song and album awards for his work on Can’t Even Do Wrong Right.

Fellow veteran, folk-blues artist John Hammond earned a pair of awards in the best acoustic album and artist categories for his record, Timeless.

Local and regional names also had a strong night as Mississippi’s Bobby Rush won the coveted B.B. King Entertainer award — his first, after multiple nominations — as well as honors for best soul blues artist. Bluff City singer/harmonica player John Nemeth, who was up for six awards, managed to nab just one for best soul blues album for Memphis Grease. Memphis-bred Charlie Musselwhite also scored the 28th award of his career, with a win as best harmonica player.

The late Johnny Winter — who died in July 2014 — was honored for best rock blues album, for his posthumously released Step Back. Meanwhile, For Pops, a tribute to Muddy Waters — by his son Mud Morganfield and Kim Wilson of the Fabulous Thunderbirds — earned the nod for best traditional blues album.

Other notable names who walked away with wins included Keb’ Mo’ for contemporary blues album, Gary Clark Jr. for contemporary blues artist, and Ruthie Foster, who earned the Koko Taylor award for best traditional blues female artist.

The awards also saw a small class of artists inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame. The group included 83 year-old Atlanta bluesman Tommy Brown, British guitar great Eric Clapton and rock and R&B pioneer Little Richard.

This year’s awards have been the subject of intense interest. The ceremonies come as part of a big launch weekend with the Blues Foundation opening its long-planned physical location for the Blues Hall of Fame to the general public today on South Main (see today’s Go Memphis section for a full story).

The multi-hour awards ceremony was recorded by Sirius/XM Radio. It will air on the satellite network’s B.B. King’s Bluesville station on Saturday at noon (and will be rebroadcast Sunday at midnight and Tuesday at 6 p.m.). The event will also be edited down for a public television broadcast in the fall and a later DVD release.  Read at source

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John Nemeth - In early 2013, John Németh traded his life on the west coast to settle down in Memphis, Tennessee. He and Jaki, that girlfriend he followed to California, had married and started a family, and Memphis made sense for multiple reasons: It’s centrally located for touring, the cost of living is inexpensive, and the river town is the historical ground zero for American roots music.

“I moved to Memphis because it is the epicenter for soul and blues,” Németh confirms. “The wealth of knowledge runs deep in the instincts of its musicians and its studios.”

For more on John Nemeth, go here

Reminiscent of 1950s and 1960s R&B blues sounds coming out of Memphis and Muscle Shoals, John Nemeth, along with the Bo-Keys*  bring back a lot of memories for me.  ~Deltalady



*Not to be confused with The Bar-Kays, a mid-1960s instrumental soul/funk band, or The Mar-Keys, a 1950s/1960s studio session band. Nevertheless, this "new" "old" band gained plenty of cred with their adherence to those old session bands in the era of the Memphis Sound and Muscle Shoals groups. The Bo-Keys have had a remarkable series of Blues Music Award-nominated recordings.  The multi-generational [and in the tradition of early session groups in Muscle Shoals and Memphis, multi-racial] cast of players – some in their eighth decade – bring a high level of virtuosity developed cutting literally hundreds of hits during the ‘60s and ’70s to those recordings. Bo-Keys web site

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Fallon, Richards to Attend Memphis Music Hall of Fame Induction

By Andy Meek, The Daily News

Updated 12:05PM                            

                

Jimmy Fallon, host of NBC’s “The Tonight Show,” and Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards will be among the attendees at this weekend’s Memphis Music Hall of Fame induction ceremony at the Cannon Center for the Performing Arts.

Fallon is inducting his friend and fellow entertainer Justin Timberlake at the Saturday, Oct. 17, event. Richards is set to induct rock guitar pioneer Scotty Moore, a part of the early lineup backing Elvis Presley.

Entertainers set to perform as part of the induction ceremony include guitarist Steve Cropper, a former member of Booker T. and the MGs; drummers Jim Keltner and Steve Jordan; blues vocalist Tracy Nelson; R&B artist Melanie Fiona and Charlie Rich Jr., the son of famed musician and singer Charlie Rich.

This year, the Memphis Music Hall of Fame is honoring inductees Alberta Hunter, Al Jackson Jr., Scotty Moore, Charlie Rich, Sam & Dave and Justin Timberlake. Sam Moore of Sam & Dave and Timberlake are scheduled to attend.

The Memphis Rock 'n' Soul Museum administers the annual Memphis Music Hall of Fame announcement and induction, in cooperation with other music organizations and attractions in Memphis.  Read more at source

Music Legacy

Newman takes reins at Blues Foundation           

By LANCE WIEDOWER

Barbara B. Newman is The Blues Foundation’s new president and CEO.
She takes the reins of the organization which opened its new public face
 – the Blues Hall of Fame – in May.
(Daily News/Andrew J. Breig)

         
When Barbara Newman took over as president and CEO of The Blues Foundation, it was her first job in the music industry.

But to be clear, Newman’s path has been pointing to the position since she was a child meeting musical icons such as Duke Ellington and Leonard Bernstein.

Her grandfather’s twin brother was a session player in Muscle Shoals, Ala., and at Stax, where he was a violinist on Isaac Hayes’ classic “Shaft.” He also was a charter member of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra.

And a young Newman was a witness to it all.
“From the time I was really young, that music piece was important to me,” said Newman, who replaced the retiring Jay Sieleman Oct. 1. “I was raised with it. But it wasn’t a path I planned for myself.”

Today, Newman leads The Blues Foundation to further its mission to preserve blues history, celebrate recording and performance excellence, support education and expand appreciation, awareness and enjoyment of the art.

The public facing piece of that mission is the Blues Hall of Fame, which opened in May in the storefront of the foundation’s South Main Historic Arts District office. The hall has existed since the 1980s, but only this year has a physical home where it helps support the foundation’s educational mission.

“By having a footprint where people can engage with the blues, it will give the opportunity for that music to be preserved and for people to experience it in a live setting,” Newman said. “I see the Blues Hall of Fame as a key point of preserving history.”

More than 350 performers, industry professionals, recordings and literature have been inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame. Having the physical presence, at 421 S. Main St. across the street from the National Civil Rights Museum, gives the foundation an important opportunity to honor these contributors while educating visitors on music’s impact.

“Being directly across from the Civil Rights Museum, visitors can learn about the struggle then walk across the street to hear the music of the struggle,” Newman said. “But just because it’s called the blues doesn’t mean it’s sad and oppressive. People who haven’t taken the time to listen because they think it’s sad music, when they hear it they want to engage in the music. That’s part of the education process.”

Newman grew up in Memphis. After graduating from Brown University she went to work in New York City at National Westminster Bank USA. She went through the loan officer development program and moved along a path that gave her experience in corporate finance.

She left work when her children were born, and in 1989 she and her husband, Bruce Newman, decided to move the family to Memphis. Read more at source