Panama Francis Dies

 American popular music lost one of the great drummers, session men and all-
around characters David Albert (Panama) Francis died in Florida at the age of 82. Starting when he was a teenager in the 1930s, Francis drummed for six years with Lucky Millinder and five years with Cab Calloway, among many other bandleaders. In the late '70s he formed the New York-based Savoy Sultans. They cut six albums, two of which got Grammy nominations. He drummed on more records than he or anyone ever counted — including the Four Seasons' "Big Girls Don't Cry" and "Walk Like a Man," Neil Sedaka's "Calendar Girl," Bobby Darin's "Splish Splash," LaVern Baker's "Jim Dandy," Johnny Mathis' "Chances Are" and the Platters' hits "Only You," "The Great Pretender," "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes."

Tommy Johnson Gets Headstone

 The great Tommy Johnson finally has a headstone, 45 years after his death, although it is not yet marking his grave. In the meantime, the Mount Zion Foundation commissioned a headstone. The stone was unveiled Oct. 20 at a ceremony at Railroad Park in downtown Crystal Springs. There were remarks from Johnson scholar David Evans, Johnson niece Vera Johnson Collins and others. Some local musicians, supposedly with ties to Johnson, played afterward. The stone will be displayed in the Crystal Springs Public Library pending the cemetery cleanup. Collins vows that the cemetery will be cleaned up by sometime next year. She plans to move from Columbus, Ohio, back to Mississippi to continue to spearhead this project. She also wants to get a grave marker for her father, Mager Johnson, who also was a blues singer.

Dave Myers Dies

 Chicago blues guitarist and bassist Dave Myers, 74, died Monday, Sept. 3, in Chicago from diabetes-related complications. Hailed as one of the creators of the classic Chicago blues bass sound, Mr. Myers released only one solo album, making his name and reputation more as a talented accompanist and premier session player for renowned artists, including Little Walter Jacobs, Otis Rush and Earl Hooker. Mr. Myers moved to Chicago in 1941 and with his brother, Louis, formed a groundbreaking band known as The Three Aces, Chicago's first electric blues band. With harmonica player Junior Wells, the trio--later renamed The Aces--played Chicago blues hot spots, including the Checkerboard Lounge and Theresa's in the late 1940s. Drummer Fred Below joined the band in 1950. Mr. Myers was the last surviving member.

Taj Mahal Street Naming Raises Ire

 Plans to rename a city street in honor of blues musician and former Springfield, Mass. resident Taj Mahal have run into a dead end. Following objections from people who live on the street set to be renamed - Monroe Street - city councilors on Monday night decided instead to add a plaque to the street instead of changing its name to Taj Mahal Way. Taj Mahal, who spent part of his childhood on Monroe Street when his name was still Henry Fredericks, lived in Springfield for 23 years. The bluesman has won two Grammy awards.

North Carolina to Honor A Legacy of Bull City Blues

 The Bull City Blues are finally getting their due. From the 1920s through the 1940s, the Bull City of Durham, N.C., achieved legendary status as the region’s true “home of the blues.” On August 25, the state of North Carolina honored this legacy by dedicating a state historic marker celebrating the “Bull City Blues.” During the early decades of the last century, Durham hosted a remarkably creative and influential community of African American blues musicians. Chief among these were guitarists Blind Boy Fuller and Blind Gary Davis, and harmonica wizard Sonny Terry. By the early 1940s, the Bull City was as renowned for its blues as it was for its tobacco.

Betty Everett Dies

 Betty Everett, 61, the Chicago rhythm and blues artist who performed the
1964 hit "The Shoop Shoop Song [It's in His Kiss]," a song that both
typified the Record Row sound of Chicago in the early 1960s , died August 19 in her Beloit, Wis., home. Born in Greenwood, Miss., Ms. Everett sang gospel music with her familyand came to Chicago at 17. After recording unsuccessfully with such Chicago labels as Co bra, C.J. and One-derful, Ms. Everett briefly tried her hand with the Daylighters before leaving music for the first time. She returned in the early 1960s and signed with Vee-Jay. Almost immediately, she hit it big with "You're No Good." When Vee-Jay--then also promoting The Beatles--folded, Ms. Everett started with other labels in town, and returned to the charts with "Danger" and "Sweet Dan" in 1970. Exhausted, she again dropped out of the music business soon after. She last performed for a PBS special--"Doo-Wop '51"--which aired this
year.

Robert Johnson Gets Headstone;
Historian Organizes Annual Celebration

 Blues historian Gayle Dean Wardlow, who spent more than three decades searching for the location ofRobert Johnson's grave, is initiating the first annual
Robert Johnson Cross Road Memorial Days celebration oft he blues giant's life and music. The two-day event is scheduled for August 16th and 17th, beginning at the Little Zion Baptist Church near Greenwood, Mississippi, which includes the Little Zion Baptist Church Cemetery, where Johnson was buried. The day's events will also feature testimony from more than forty musicians about Johnson's work and influence, and the unveiling of a new headstone for Johnson's previously unmarked burial site.

Ernie K-Doe Dies

 Ernie K-Doe, the eccentric rhythm-and-blues singer best known for his 1961
No. 1 hit "Mother-in- Law," died on July 5 at a New Orleans hospital. He was 65. K-Doe had a handful of minor hits, such as "T'aint it the Truth,'' "Come on Home'' and "Te-Ta-Te-Ta-Ta.'' But he was forever associated with his only No. 1 single. In 1995, K-Doe opened Ernie K-Doe's Mother-In-Law Lounge near the French
Quarter, performing there every Sunday with various musicians.

John Lee Hooker Dies

 Legendary blues guitarist John Lee Hooker, whose spare hypnotic style born in the heart of the Mississippi Delta influenced generations of rock and folk stars, died on June 21 in his home near San Francisco. He was 83.

 Born Aug. 22, 1917, in Clarksdale, Miss., he learned guitar from his stepfather, Will Moore, who was friends with blues guitarists Blind Lemon Jefferson, Blind Blake and Charley Patton. Hooker left home at 14 and joined the Army, which sent him packing after three months. Like many Southern blacks in the 1940s, Hooker made the journey north to work in an industrial city, landing in Detroit. He played three or four nights per week in the Motor City and soon he attracted the attention of talent scouts.

 Hooker recorded prolifically for numerous labels, under numerous different names. Hooker put nine songs in the top 30 on the R&B charts and had two No. 1 R&B singles: "Boogie Chillun'' in early 1949 and "I'm in the Mood'' in late 1951. His record of "Boom Boom'' reached the R&B top 20 in June 1962

 He recorded more than 100 albums over six decades; the last was 1997's "Don't Look Back'' on the Pointblank label. He recorded so often and for so many fly-by-night producers that his music has been endlessly repackaged; last year alone, there were more than 20 Hooker releases of old material. Hooker was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991 and given a lifetime achievement Grammy in 2000.

Long Lost Blind Joe Reynolds Record Discovered

 Bruce Smith, a school teacher from Ohio with an appreciation for old Blues records, wandered into the Nashville Flea Market and found the record in a stack of old 78's. He purchased three records at $1.00 each with the third being a long lost Blind Joe Reynolds record from 1929 ("Ninety Nine Blues" backed with "Cold Woman Blues"). Unaware of its value, he purchased it simply because it "looked interesting." As it turns out the record is the only known copy to exist. Richard Nevins of the Yazoo label called "Cold Woman Blues" a "masterpiece." Both sides of the recording have now been remastered and will soon appear on a Yazoo label compilation CD. Go here to listen to an mp3 of the record