(4.67 out of 5)
Shannon Mem Opens Glenwood Summer of Jazz
Trent | 4 June 2007
Guitarist, singer and songwriter Mem Shannon is one of young lions of blues who believes in expanding the parameters of the music. His two albums for Rykodisc, A Cab Driver’s Blues (his 1995 debut) and Mem Shannon’s 2nd Blues Album (1997), are both worth seeking out in record stores. Shannon brilliantly combines elements of funk, jazz and rock & roll into his guitar playing, and his soulful vocals are not your run-of-the-mill stylings. In fact, most things about Shannon are exceptional: the way he write songs, the way he sings them, and the way he presents them….
Shannon was born in New Orleans and began playing clarinet at age 9. By the time he was 15, he was playing guitar, inspired by his father’s blues record collection, but it wasn’t until he saw B.B. King that he got serious about it and began practicing in earnest…
By April of 1996, at the annual New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, Shannon announced from the stage that he was giving up his job as a cab driver to play blues full-time. He hasn’t looked back and thanks to good booking agents and his own work ethic, he’s already toured extensively around the U.S., Europe and Canada.
Shannon is the first major new talent to come out of New Orleans in some time, and since thousands of foreigners visit New Orleans every spring for JazzFest, Shannon forged his reputation as an international touring musician easily. Shannon’s music isn’t stuck in a jump-shuffle mode. He takes a broader view, incorporating elements of funk, jazz, swamp-rock and classic rock into the Membership’s blues-based sound. The band funks it up with varying shuffle drum backbeats, throbbing bass lines, a wailing saxophone and feathery keyboard treatments. And there is room in Shannon’s view of himself as a bluesman for political and social commentary in songs like “Wrong People In Charge,” “Charity,” and “Down Broke.”
From Richard Skelly, All Music Guide
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Here some photos from the actual performance:
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