Do you know these four musicians with Tuscaloosa ties?
Tuscaloosa native Dinah Washington made her mark in the music business, but there are some other well-known musicians with connections to the Druid City.
Here’s a look:
No. 1: Delta bluesman Johnny Shines, who lived the last 20 years of his life in the Druid City’s Holt area, playing clubs, restaurants and festivals, including the one named for him, when he wasn’t working as an upholsterer, and raising a family. He’d begun his career playing Delta blues in Chicago, and “cutting heads” on tours of the South with legends including Robert Johnson. Disgusted with his mistreatment by record labels, John Ned Shines had virtually quit playing until Natalie Mattson, a University of Alabama student, encouraged. He formed the Alabama Blues Society, which later inspired his friends and fellow musicians Debbie Bond and Mike McCracken, to create the Alabama Blues Project. He recorded and went on tour, including international gigs, until his death in 1992.- No. 2: Chuck Leavell, long-time keyboardist for the Rolling Stones, who’s also played with the Allman Brothers Band, Eric Clapton, Aretha Franklin, Chuck Berry and numerous others. He also writes and performs with his own band Sea Level, and cuts other solo projects.
- No. 3: John Townsend, who’s played in studios and on tours with Gregg Allman, Kenny Loggins, Larry Carlton, Jimi Hendrix, Fleetwood Mac and the Marshall Tucker Band, but is best known for his 1977 radio smash “Smoke from a Distant Fire,” with the Sanford-Townsend Band.
- No. 4: Eddie Hinton, a guitarist, singer and songwriter who was predicted to a “next big thing” in the late ’70s, until a cruel twist of fate with his label, Capricorn Records, home to the ABB, Elvin Bishop, Wet Willie, Marshall Tucker Band, Percy Sledge, Dixie Dregs, Bonnie Bramlett, Delbert McClinton and more, declaring. bankruptcy the week his solo debut album “Very Extremely Dangerous” was to be released. The depression sent him into a health spiral which curtailed his career and life, but not before he’d played guitar and written for or sung with Wilson Pickett, Arthur Conley, Aretha Franklin, Joe Tex, Solomon Burke, The Staple Singers, The Dells, Paul Kelly, Johnny Taylor, The Box Tops, R. B. Greaves, Boz Scaggs, Evie Sands, Looking Glass, Toots Hibbert and Otis Redding. His song “Breakfast in Bed” became a hit for Dusty Springfield, and a later cover by UB40 with Chrissie Hynde.