Sun Records Studio Declared Landmark

 Secretary of the Interior Gale A. Norton announced July 31st that Sun Records, Memphis Recording Service located in Memphis, Tenn., has been designated as a National Historic Landmark. The small brick building on 706 Union Ave. was founded by Sam Phillips and is known as the birthplace of the first great rock-and-roll record label. Secretary Norton dedicated the announcement to the memory of Phillips.
The legendary producer passed away July 31st in Memphis. Since the late 1950s, the small Memphis recording studio produced recordings by legendary artists such as Elvis Presley, B.B. King, Howlin Wolf, Ike Turner, Rufus Thomas, Johnny Cash,
Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Charlie Rich, Roy Orbison, and many others.

Big Al Dupree Dies

 Singer/pianist Al Dupree died August 4th of a heart attack. He was 79. Dupree spent his entire life performing - from his teenage gigs at clubs in the State-Thomas neighborhood to his five-nights-a-week job at the Balcony Club, where he
appeared until his health began deteriorating in June. After studying music at Xavier University in New Orleans, he served three years in the U.S. Army during World War II. As soon as he was discharged in 1946, he gravitated back to nightclubs, touring the country with big bands (including one led by jazz pioneer Buster Smith). He jammed with everyone from T-Bone Walker to Ike Turner. He didn't release records until the 1990s: his first album, "View from the Balcony", came out in 1994, followed by "Big Al Dupree Swings the Blues" in 1995 and "Positive Thinking" in 1999.

Sam Phillips Dies

 There have been numerous articles on Sam Phillips' death. Visit here to view recent news articles on his passing.

 Howard "Louie Bluie'' Armstrong, a legendary string-band fiddler who dazzled
generations of audiences with his virtuosity from blues to bluegrass to folk
and jazz, died July 30th at Boston Medical Center from complications that
developed after a heart attack in March. He performed across the country and was the subject of two PBS documentary films, Terry Swigoff's ''Louie Bluie Armstrong'' in 1985 and Leah Mahan's ''Sweet Old Song'' last year. Mr. As a teen he began performing alongside Knoxville performers Ted Bogan and Carl Martin in groups like the Tennessee Chocolate Drops and the Four Aces. In 1930, the Chocolate Drops made their radio debut and cut their first sides for the Vocalion label.

Quinn Golden Dies

 Memphis soul singer Quinton 'Quinn' Golden, 48, died of a heart attack July 28th at Delta Medical Center. Golden, whose career began in the early 1970s, performed with local Memphis groups as well as with Al Green and his orchestra for seven years as bass player and background vocalist. He toured with other Memphis music pillars such as Rufus Thomas and the Bar-Kays and worked with prominent artists Ike Turner, Denise LaSalle, Bobby Rush and Carl Sims. A producer and songwriter as well as recording artist for local Ecko Records he cut five albums for the label including 2003's "Bottoms Up!"

2003 W.C. Handy Winners Announced

 The 2003 W.C. Handy Blues Awards were announced on May 22nd at Memphis' Orpheum Theatre. Vocalist Shemekia Copeland led the field acollecting three trophies. Copeland's Alligator album "Talking to Strangers" was named blues album of the year and contemporary blues album of the year, and the singer was named contemporary female artist of the year. Two blues veterans scored multiple wins. Solomon Burke's "Don't Give Up on Me" (Fat Possum) took soul blues album of the year honors, and the R&B singer was tapped as soul male artist of the year. Charlie Musselwhite was dubbed contemporary male artist of the year and blues instrumentalist (harmonica). B.B. King repeated as blues entertainer of the year, while Magic Slim & the Teardrops scored as blues band of the year. View the complete list of winners at the Billboard website- click here.

Joe "Guitar" Hughes Dies

 Joe "Guitar" Hughes, a staple of Houston's Third Ward blues scene for half a century, died May 20th of cardiac arrest at Memorial Hermann Hospital. He was 65. Hughes was born in the Third Ward on Sept. 29, 1937, and grew up among the
rich blues talent in the area, including Copeland, Collins, Lightnin' Hopkins and Johnny "Guitar" Watson. Hughes and Copeland became disciples of the electrified string improvisations and bombastic brass introduced by T-Bone Walker shortly after World War II. In the early '50s Hughes and Copeland formed the Dukes of Rhythm, which became the house band for popular Houston blues club Shady's Playhouse. Hughes was a bandleader at Shady's until 1963, releasing regional singles, including "The Shoe Shy" and "Ants in My Pants." When his stint at Shady's ended, Hughes went on the road with the Upsetters, an R&B band that also featured Little Richard and Houston saxophonist Grady Gaines among its members. By 1965 he had moved on to the band of Bobby "Blue" Bland. It wasn't until the mid ‘80s that Joe released a number of records including "Texas Guitar Master Craftsman" [Double Trouble], "If You Want to See These Blues" [Black Top], "Live at Vredenburg" [Double Trouble], "Texas Guitar Slinger" [Bullseye], "Down & Depressed: Dangerous" [Munich], and his latest CD entitled "Stuff Like That" for Blues Express. He was also featured in a documentary movie entitled "Third Ward Blues" which focuses on his life, Albert Collins, and Clarence Gatemouth Brown growing up in Houston's Third Ward.

Earl King Dies

 Earl King, the prolific songwriter and guitarist responsible for some of the
most enduring compositions in the history of R&B, died April 17th from diabetes related complications. He was 69. Over his 50-year career, King wrote and recorded hundreds of songs. His best-known compositions include the Mardi Gras standards ''Big Chief'' and ''Street Parade''; the rollicking ''Come On (Let the Good Times Roll),'' which both Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan recorded; and ''Trick Bag." In his prime, he was an explosive performer, tearing sinewy solos from his Stratocaster guitar and wearing his hair in an elaborate, upraised coif. Born Earl Silas Johnson IV he cut his first singles in the early 1950s, taking on the stage name ''Earl King'' at the suggestion of a record promoter. "Those Lonely, Lonely Nights" became one of Mr. King's first regional hits. His recording of "Trick Bag" for Imperial Records reached No. 17 on Billboard's R&B chart in 1962. After an abortive affiliation with Motown Records, Mr. King returned to the business of writing and recording songs in New Orleans. Work for New Orleans R&B artists dried up the late 1960s but rebounded a decade later. Mr. King was coaxed out of semiretirement by young musicians who grew up on his music. He enjoyed a career renaissance after recording and releasing several well-received albums for the local Black Top Records label. The first was "Glazed," a 1986 Grammy-nominated collaboration with the New England band Roomful of Blues, followed by "Sexual Telepathy" and "Hard River to Cross," on which he remade several of his older songs. Unlike many artists from the golden age of R&B, Mr. King retained the publishing rights to his compositions. As a result, he was able to live off songwriting royalties generated by the likes of "Come On (Let the Good Times Roll)," which appeared on Jimi Hendrix's multimillion-selling 1968 album "Electric Ladyland." In recent years he performed more frequently overseas. As his health deteriorated, he was hospitalized numerous times as diabetes took a toll.

Hank Ballard Dies

 Hank Ballard, the singer and songwriter whose hit "TheTwist" ushered a nationwide dance craze in the 1960s, died March 2nd. Ballard, who was suffering from throat cancer, died at his home. Ballard's birth records indicate he was born in 1927, but biographical information lists his birthdate as 1936. In 1958, Ballard wrote and recorded "The Twist," but it was only released on the "B'' side of a record. One year later, Chubby Checker debuted his own version of "The Twist'' on Dick Clark's Philadelphia television show. It soon topped the charts and launched a dance craze that prompted the creation of other Twist songs, including "Twist and Shout" by the Isley Brothers and "Twistin' the Night Away'' by Sam Cooke. Ballard was discovered in the early 1950s by writer-producer Johnny Otis. He was lead singer for the Royals, which changed its name to the Midnighters. By the early 1960s, he had charted 22 singles on the rhythm and blues charts, including "Work with Me Annie'' - the biggest R&B hit of 1954, selling more than 1 million copies. Ballard was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.

'Beale Streeter' Forest Dies

 Drummer and singer Earl Lacy Forest, one of the legendary "Beale Streeters,"
died of cancer on February 26th at Memphis Veterans Medical Center. He was 76. The Beale Streeters were an informal group of musical friends in the early '50s that played together throughout the Mid-South and on each other's recordings. They included future R&B and blues stars Bobby Bland, Johnny Ace, Junior Parker and Rosco Gordon. B. B. King is sometimes considered a member, though he was more an excuse for the Beale Streeters to perform, and one version of the group - with Mr. Forest, Ace and saxophonist Billy Duncan - played on King's 1951 classic "Three O'Clock Blues." Mr. Forest and the Beale Streeters were also on some of Bland's first sides, including the 1951 Sam Phillips-produced Chess single "A Letter from a Trench in Korea" and Bland's first Duke single, 1952's "I.O.U. Blues." Mr. Forest was also a songwriter and established himself later writing songs for Bland, Parker, Little Milton and others. Among his tunes is the standard "Next Time You See Me", recorded by Parker, James Cotton and many others. Mr. Forest composed in recent years with Malaco songsmith George Jackson, and the duo had co-written numerous tunes for Johnnie Taylor and Bland at the label.

Othar Turner Dies

 Otha Turner, master of the homemade fife and king of the barbecued goat and
music picnic, died February 26th in Gravel Springs, Miss. Most agree he was 94. Turner, who played a bamboo cane fife, or wooden flute, was a living link to rural blues and a 19th Century fife-and-drum tradition that predated the blues. His music was recently featured in Martin Scorsese's Academy Award-nominated film Gangs of New York. Born in Rankin County, Miss., Turner grew up in the North Mississippi hill country of Tate and Panola counties, where he spent much of his life as a sharecropper and subsistence farmer. Turner first heard the fife as a teenager in the 1920s. Turner's music, which he often played with his Rising Star Fife & Drum Band, was an important bridge to a past shared by late fife players Sid Hemphill and Napoleon Strickland, with whom Turner also played in the Como Drum Band. A W. C. Handy Blues Awards nominee this year for best instrumentalist, Turner played such regional festivals as the Beale Street Music Festival and King Biscuit Blues Festival in Helena, Ark. His reputation grew through his annual Labor Day picnic at his home in Gravel Springs, which drew people from all over the world. Turner was first recorded in the 1960s and can be heard on a number of blues compilations including the Arhoolie set "Mississippi Delta Blues Jam in Memphis Volume 1," the German collection "Living Country Blues: An Anthology," the Austrian disc "Africa and the Blues," both volumes of "It Came From Memphis," and the Library of Congress anthology "Afro-American Folk Music from Tate and Panola Counties, Mississippi," the latter which features Turner on guitar. Yet his first album didn't come out until 1998. That album, "Everybody Hollerin' Goat," was picked by Rolling Stone magazine as one of the five "Essential Blues Records of the Decade." A 2000 follow-up, "From Senegal to Senatobia," paired Turner with African musicians. Both records were produced by Luther Dickinson, who used Turner as well on the North Mississippi Allstars' albums. [Get well cards and donations can be sent to:
c/o Bobby Turner, 3339 Gravel Springs Road, Senatobia, Mississipi 38668]