Labels NorthernBlues Music Record label NorthernBlues Music Genres Blues | Role Musician Name Mem Shannon | |
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Born December 21, 1959 (age 64)
New Orleans, Louisiana, United States ( 1959-12-21 ) Albums A Cab Driver's Blues, I'm From Phunkville Similar People Mark Bingham, Alton "Big Al" Carson, Walter "Wolfman" Washington, Charmaine Neville, The Wild Magnolias Profiles | ||
Mem shannon phunkville
Mem Shannon (born December 21, 1959 in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States) is an American blues musician. He is currently signed to Toronto's NorthernBlues Music. Shannon is a former taxi-cab driver turned bluesman.
Contents
- Mem shannon phunkville
- Mem shannon the lights of caracas
- Early life
- Beginnings
- First album and beyond
- Discography
- References
Mem shannon the lights of caracas
Early life
Shannon played both clarinet and guitar by the age of fifteen, due to being inspired by his father's collection of blues records. However, he started seriously practicing only after seeing B.B. King.
Beginnings
After playing in local bands for several years and enjoying local success, his father died in 1981 and he took a job driving a cab in order to help his family pay bills. His music career was put on hold until 1990, when he began playing in local clubs at the urging of a former bassist.
In the early 1990s, he formed a group called Mem Shannon and the Membership, who won a spot playing at the 1991 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. Later in 1991, they competed for a spot at the Long Beach Blues Festival, but lost in the final round of the talent contest and did not get to appear.
First album and beyond
In 1995, after being impressed with a demo tape that Shannon had recorded, Joe Boyd of Hannibal Records contacted Shannon, and his first album, A Cab Driver's Blues, was released on October 15, 1995. Songs on the album featured snippets of actual conversations from his customers while in the cab.
In April 1996, Shannon announced that he was giving up driving his cab in order to make playing music his full-time job.
His song "S.U.V." (2002), won Living Blues magazine's Critics Poll Song of the Year, as well as receiving a Blues Music Awards nomination for song of the year.
Shannon appeared as himself in the 2008 novel, Bad Moon Rising by Jonathan Maberry. He is one of several real-world celebrities who are in the fictional town of Pine Deep when monsters attack. Other celebrities included Tom Savini, Jim O'Rear, Brinke Stevens, Ken Foree, Stephen Susco, Debbie Rochon, James Gunn and Joe Bob Briggs. Shannon's name and persona appear coincidentally in two horror novels: Fat White Vampire Blues by Andrew Fox and the aforementioned Bad Moon Rising.