MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE
2012 Regular Session
To: Rules
By: Senator(s) Jones, Burton, Butler (38th), Chassaniol, Fillingane, Simmons (13th)
A RESOLUTION RECOGNIZING AND SALUTING THE MUSIC AND SERVICE OF AWARD WINNING MUSICIAN GRADY CHAMPION OF CANTON, MISSISSIPPI.
WHEREAS, Grady Champion, for the past 20 years, has been working as a professional in the blues industry in Mississippi and Miami, Florida, as a composer, singer, guitar and harmonica player; and
WHEREAS, Grady Champion, who is a self-taught musician has played in front of some of the largest venues in the United States and Europe in 2011 and 2012; and
WHEREAS, Grady Champion won the 2010 International Blues Challenge Award, competing against 100 bands at the Orpheum Theater in Memphis, Tennessee; and
WHEREAS, Grady Champion has recorded a total of five CD's, Going Back Home (1998); Payin' for My Sins (1999); Two Days Short of a Week (2001); Back in Mississippi Live at the 930 Blues Cafe (2008); and DREAMIN (2011); and has another CD, Shanachie Days, set to debut in May, 2012, in Jackson, Mississippi; and
WHEREAS, Grady Champion is a young blues singer and harmonica player that has been compared to Sonny Boy Williamson. His Shanachie debut album "Payin' for My Sins" released August 24, 1999,includes a version of "Don't Start Me to Talkin'" that really shows Grady's high-energy singing and harmonica playing and an update of the traditional blues lament "Goin' Down Slow", a hard-bitten vignette of modern life. The charm and insight he brings to his songwriting in numbers like "My Rooster Is King" and the classic-sounding tale of infidelity "You Got Some Explaining to Do" mark Grady as an important new talent. Grady's voice not only sounds like Robert Johnson, but the way he works the crowd seemed as though Johnson's fire and raw sense of what the audience needs was born inside him; and
WHEREAS, Grady Champion has performed with outstanding musicians, such as Eddie Cotton, Jr., played at the Chicago Blues Festival in 2009, played at the famous Willie Dixon Blues Heaven Foundation in Chicago. Members of his current band are Frank White (drummer), Nathan Keck (lead guitar), and Marquis Champion (bass player); and
WHEREAS, after recently returning from Europe, Grady Champion will embark on a rigid touring schedule playing the United States blues festival circuit throughout the summer, with brief stints back in Mississippi to play dates at the Club Underground 119 in
downtown Jackson; and
WHEREAS, it is with great pride that we commend the accomplishments of this talented blues musician who has brought honor to his community and become an unofficial ambassador for the State of Mississippi:
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI, That we do hereby recognize and salute Canton, Mississippi's Grady Champion for his music and service to the State of Mississippi, and extend our best wishes to Grady and his band in their future successes.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That this resolution be presented to Grady Champion and forwarded to the Mississippi Arts Commission, and be made available to the Capitol Press Corps.