Mem Shannon

Mem Shannon 

http://www.memshannon.com/ 

 

 

MEM SHANNON - FORGET ABOUT ME 

Mem Shannon (born 21 December 1959, New Orleans, Louisiana)^[1] is an American blues musician. He is currently signed to Toronto's NorthernBlues Music. Shannon is a former taxi-cab driver turned bluesman.

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.

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 his 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.
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.^[4] Songs on the album featured snippets of actual conversations from his customers while in the cab.^[3]
In April 1996, Shannon announced that he was giving up driving his cab in order to make playing music his full-time job.^[5]
His song "S.U.V." (2002), won Living Blues magazine's Critics Poll Song of the Year,^[6] as well as receiving a Blues Music Awards nomination for song of the year.^[7]
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. ^{[8][9][10][11][12]} Shannon's name and persona appear coincidentally in two horror novels: Fat White Vampire Blues by Andrew Fox and the aforementioned Bad Moon Rising.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mem_Shannon

A Cab Driver'S Blues    Mem Shannon | Format: Audio CD 

 

 http://www.amazon.de/Cab-DriverS-Blues-Shannon-Mem/dp/B00000062P/ref=sr_1_3?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1381484648&sr=1-3&keywords=Mem+Shannon

 

 

Mem Shannon "No Religion"

 

"A Cab Driver's Blues"

Wenn man in einer größeren amerikanischen Stadt einen Taxifahrer, einen cabbie nach seinem Beruf fragt, dann bekommt alles zur Antwort, nur nicht Taxifahrer. Abends und an den Wochenenden sind sie alle Schriftsteller, Musiker, Künstler, Schauspieler, Filmemacher oder Photograph. Nur tagsüber sind sie cabbies. Einige von ihnen schaffen den Durchbruch, die meisten nicht. Hier ist eine solche Erfolgsstory von einem Mann mit Mut; Durchhaltevermögen und einer Vision – ein Mann, der stark genug war, für die Erfüllung seines Traums zu kämpfen: Mem Shannon. Er kam 1959 mit seinen Eltern nach New Orleans. Niemand dachte zu dieser Zeit daran, dass er jemals ein Sänger und Gitarrist, geschweige denn ein bekannter Blues-Performer werden könnte. Als sein Vater 1981 starb, musste Mem Shannon seine Mutter und seine Schwester unterstützen. Um die Familie über Wasser zu halten, fuhr er 15 lange Jahre Taxi in New Orleans, im "Big Easy". Während dieser ganzen Zeit hat er abends und an den Wochenenden Gitarre gespielt und Songs geschrieben. Und er trat in den Clubs und "juke joints" der vibrierenden Bluesszene von New Orleans auf. Sein Durchbruch kam 1995 mit der Veröffentlichung seines ersten Albums. Ein Jahr später gab Mem Shannon das Taxifahren auf und widmete sich ganz der Musik. Im November und Dezember ist der Musiker u.a. in Deutschland auf Tour.

http://www.folker.de/200006/shannon.htm 

 MEM SHANNON - ALL I HAVE 

 

 

http://www.rockzirkus.de/forum/showthread.php?10965-Mem-Shannon-Live