Johnnie Taylor Among Newest Blues Hall Of Fame Members

Johnnie Taylor
Echoes/Redferns – Johnnie Taylor

Five people, an album, five singles and a book have been chosen to join this year’s Blues Hall of Fame class.

The Memphis, Tennessee-based Blues Foundation said the 12 newest honorees of the Blues Hall of Fame will be celebrated at an event on May 4.
Singers Lucille Bogan, Little Willie John and Johnnie Taylor are among the hall’s newest members.
Songwriter Otis Blackwell, who wrote “Don’t Be Cruel” and “All Shook Up” for Elvis Presley and “Breathless” and “Great Balls of Fire” for Jerry Lee Lewis, is also being honored by the hall.
So is Mary Katherine Aldin, who has spent decades as a DJ and compiler or annotator of blues and folk reissue albums.
An album by Bo Diddley and singles by Sonny Boy Williamson II, Bobby “Blue” Bland, Roy Brown, B.B. King and the Baby Face Leroy Trio also will enter the hall.
The book “Red River Blues: The Blues Tradition in the Southeast,” written by Bruce Bastin, also has been named to the hall.