(photo courtesy of New Albany News Exchange)
A Mississippi Blues Trail marker was unveiled near the Union County Heritage Museum honoring Sam Mosley and the late Bob Johnson of the Mosley and Johnson Band and local native Billy Ball, who founded Billy Ball and the Upsetters.
Perhaps the more familiar of the three are Sam Mosley and Bob Johnson. Growing up here, they began performing and working as both producers and songwriters over a 31-year partnership. That creative team was broken only by Johnson’s death Aug. 22, 1998, due to a heart attack he suffered while performing in Verona.
Mosley and Johnson became widely known in the 1980s with several albums of blues and southern soul for the Muscle Shoals Sound and Malaco labels. They continued, writing songs for artists such as Johnnie Taylor, Bobby “Blue” Bland, Little Milton and others.
The band’s fame spread internationally when they performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival.
Mosley first played with his brother’s band, Jamie and the Dynamics, at the small café operated by Bud Turner only about three blocks west of the Blues Trail marker. After Johnson’s death, his brothers Willie and Miles have continued to perform as the Mosley Johnson Band.
“It’s been a long journey,” Mosley told the approximately 150 people gathered for the unveiling. “But I am passionate about the blues, and I’ve got a lot more music left in me.”
“I didn’t begin by myself,” he said. “My friend Bob Johnson was responsible. He was the one talking every deal; I did the music.”
Johnson’s daughter, Penny, talked about her father on behalf of Johnson’s widow and other family members, calling Bob Johnson a visionary, thanking him for his ideas, hard work and accomplishments.
“He played the blues in juke joints,” she said, but also in the presence of some notables and added he “never stopped dreaming.”
The unveiling ceremony was accompanied by a reception in the museum allowing visitors to see the blues exhibit there and entertainment was provided by Terry “Harmonica Bean.”
UCDA Executive Director Stephen Surles welcomed everyone and museum director Jill Smith talked more about the honor and thanked those who helped.
Union County is expected to get a second Blues Trail marker sometime next year. It was also revealed Monday that research by the Mississippi Blues Trail staff has turned up information that New Albany was home to the Morganfield family in the 1800s, including Dave Morganfield. His grandson, McKinley Morganfield, is better known as bluesman Muddy Waters.
Museum director Smith is already working on a date for the first-ever performance here featuring both the Mosley Johnson Band and Billy Ball and the Upsetters. She said it would be ideal to have that coincide with the next Blues Trail marker unveiling.
WHAT EXCITING NEWS for Blues fans!
(photos courtesy of Kip Caven)
Click any of the following links to visit Malaco's Website to listen to clips of Mosley & Johnson and purchase a CD.
CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR FRIENDS!
THEY DESERVE THE HONOR!
The Malaco Music Group invites you to watch BET’s Bobby Jones Gospel Hour this Sunday, December 28, 2008 to see Keith "Wonderboy" Johnson perform. As if that weren't enough, he's also going to introduce the hottest and most exciting female Quartet group in the country, Jewel & Converted, for their national television debut!
