Mem Shannon (born December 21, 1959 in

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

, United States) is an American blues musician. He is currently signed to Toronto's

NorthernBlues Music NorthernBlues Music is a Canadian independent record label, which specializes in blues music. The label was established in 2001, and a number of its artists and albums have since been nominated for and won Blues Music Awards. President Fred Litwi ...

. Shannon is a former taxi-cab driver turned bluesman.Scott Jordan
"Mem Shannon's Spend Some Time With Me & Andy J. Forest"
''

Offbeat Magazine ''OffBeat'' is a New Orleans, Louisiana monthly local music magazine founded by Jan V. Ramsey in 1987. The magazine, published by OffBeat, Inc., focuses on the popular music of New Orleans and Louisiana, which is generally R&B, blues, jazz ...

'', March 24, 2005

Early life

Shannon played both clarinet and

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...

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 Riley B. King (September 16, 1925 – May 14, 2015), known professionally as B.B. King, was an American blues singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer. He introduced a sophisticated style of soloing based on fluid string bending, shi ...

Career

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 The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival (commonly called Jazz Fest or Jazzfest) is an annual celebration of local music and culture held at the Fair Grounds Race Course in New Orleans, Louisiana. Jazz Fest attracts thousands of visitors to New ...

. Later in 1991, they competed for a spot at the

Long Beach Blues Festival The Long Beach Blues Festival, in Long Beach, California, United States, was established in full in 1980, and was one of the largest blues festivals and was the second oldest on the West Coast (first being the San Francisco Blues Festival). It ...

, but lost in the final round of the talent contest and did not get to appear. MemShannonFrenchMarket

First album and beyond

In 1995, after being impressed with a demo tape that Shannon had recorded,

Joe Boyd Joe Boyd (born August 5, 1942) is an American record producer and writer. He formerly owned Hannibal Records. Boyd has worked on recordings of Pink Floyd, Fairport Convention, Sandy Denny, Richard Thompson, Nick Drake, The Incredible String Ba ...

Hannibal Records Hannibal Records was a British record label and one of the first to work with the World music genre. Hannibal was started by Joe Boyd in 1980. Boyd had produced records by artists such as Nick Drake, The Incredible String Band and Fairport ...

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 ''Living Blues: The Magazine of the African American Blues Tradition'' is a bi-monthly magazine focused on blues music, and America's oldest blues periodical. The magazine was founded as a quarterly in Chicago in 1970 by Jim O'Neal and Amy van ...

'' magazine's Critics Poll Song of the Year, as well as receiving a Blues Music Award nomination for song of the year. Shannon appeared as himself in the 2008 novel, ''Bad Moon Rising'' by

Jonathan Maberry Jonathan Maberry (born May 18, 1958) is an American suspense author, anthology editor, comic book writer, magazine feature writer, playwright, content creator and writing teacher/lecturer. He was named one of the Today's Top Ten Horror Writers. ...

. 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 Thomas Vincent Savini (born November 3, 1946) is an American prosthetic makeup artist, actor, stunt performer and film director. He is known for his makeup and special effects work on many films directed by George A. Romero, including ''Martin' ...

Jim O'Rear Jim O'Rear is an American actor, screenwriter, and director. Career O’Rear began his professional career working on stage with magicians including David Copperfield and Harry Blackstone, Jr. He then trained as an actor at The American A ...

Brinke Stevens Brinke Stevens (born Charlene Elizabeth Brinkman, September 20, 1954) is an American actress, model, and writer. A native of San Diego, Stevens initially pursued a career as a marine biologist prior to becoming an actress, earning an undergrad ...

Ken Foree Ken or KEN may refer to: Entertainment * ''Ken'' (album), a 2017 album by Canadian indie rock band Destroyer. * ''Ken'' (film), 1964 Japanese film. * ''Ken'' (magazine), a large-format political magazine. * Ken Masters, a main character in t ...

, Stephen Susco,

Debbie Rochon Debbie Ann Rochon (born November 3, 1968) is a Canadian actress and former stage performer, best known for her work in independent horror films and counterculture films. Early life When Rochon was ten years old, her parents were deemed unfi ...

James Gunn James Francis Gunn Jr. (born August 5, 1966) is an American filmmaker and executive. He began his career as a screenwriter in the mid-1990s, starting at Troma Entertainment with ''Tromeo and Juliet'' (1997). He then began working as a directo ...

and

Joe Bob Briggs John Irving Bloom (born January 27, 1953), known by the stage name Joe Bob Briggs, is an American syndicated film critic, writer, actor, and comic performer. He is known for having hosted ''Joe Bob's Drive-in Theater'' on The Movie Channel fr ...

. Shannon's name and persona appear coincidentally in two horror novels: ''Fat White Vampire Blues'' by Andrew Fox and the aforementioned ''Bad Moon Rising''.

Discography

* ''A Cab Driver's Blues'' (1995) * ''2nd Blues Album'' (1997) * ''Spend Some Time With Me'' (1999) * ''Memphis in the Morning'' (2001) * ''I'm From Phunkville'' (2005) * ''Live: A Night at Tipitina's'' (2007) Discography of Mem Shannon

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

References

External links

Mem Shannon & the Membership webpage All About Jazz
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shannon, Mem 1959 births Living people American blues singers American blues guitarists American male guitarists Songwriters from Louisiana Blues musicians from Louisiana Singers from Louisiana Guitarists from Louisiana 20th-century American guitarists 20th-century American male musicians Northern Blues Music artists American male songwriters