Wilbur H. Jennings is an American lyricist. He is popularly known for writing the lyrics for the songs "Tears in Heaven" and "My Heart Will Go On". He has been inducted into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame and has won several awards including three Grammy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, and two Academy Awards.
The 41st Annual Grammy Awards were held on February 24, 1999, at Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles. They recognized accomplishments by musicians from the year 1998. Lauryn Hill received the most nominations with 10, setting a record for the most nominations for female artist in one night. During the ceremony, Hill became the first woman to receive 5 Grammy Awards in a single night, and the first woman rapper to take home Best New Artist. Her album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill became the first hip hop album to win the award for Album of the Year. Hill's Grammys sweep is widely considered as one of the biggest moments in hip hop history.
Bobby Rush is an American blues musician, composer, and singer. His style incorporates elements of blues, rap, and funk, as well as a comic sense about blues tropes.
Tommy Castro is an American blues, R&B, and rock guitarist and singer. He has been recording since the mid-1990s. His music has taken him from local stages to national and international touring. His popularity was marked by his winning the 2008 Blues Music Award for Entertainer of the Year.
Charon Shemekia Copeland is an American electric blues vocalist. To date, she has released ten albums and been presented with eight Blues Music Awards.
William Bell is an American soul singer and songwriter. As a performer, he is probably best known for his debut single, 1961's "You Don't Miss Your Water"; 1968's top 10 hit in the UK "Private Number", a duet with Judy Clay; and his only US top 40 hit, 1976's "Tryin' to Love Two", which also hit No. 1 on the R&B chart. Upon the death of Otis Redding, Bell released the well-received memorial song "A Tribute to a King".
"The Thrill Is Gone" is a slow minor-key blues song written by West Coast blues musician Roy Hawkins and Rick Darnell in 1951. Hawkins's recording of the song reached number six in the Billboard R&B chart in 1951. In 1970, "The Thrill Is Gone" became a major hit for B.B. King. His rendition helped make the song a blues standard.
Timothy Chaisson is a Canadian singer/songwriter from Souris, Prince Edward Island. He is a member of Juno Award winning group, The East Pointers.
Ruthie Cecelia Foster is an American singer-songwriter of blues and folk music. She mixes a wide palette of American song forms, from gospel and blues to jazz, folk and soul. She has often been compared to Bonnie Raitt and Aretha Franklin.
Sugar Ray Norcia is an American electric and soul blues singer and harmonica player. He is best known for his work with his backing band, The Bluetones, with whom he has released seven albums since 1980.
Johnny Rawls is an American soul blues singer, guitarist, arranger, songwriter and record producer. He was influenced by the deep soul and gospel music of the 1960s, as performed by O. V. Wright, James Carr, and Z. Z. Hill, although his styling, production and lyrics are more contemporary in nature.
Janiva Magness is an American Grammy Award nominated blues, soul, and Americana singer, songwriter, and author. To date she has released 16 albums.
John Németh is an American electric blues and soul harmonicist, singer, and songwriter. He has received five Blues Music Awards for Soul Blues Male Artist, Soul Blues Album, Traditional Blues Album of the Year, Instrumentalist – Vocals and Instrumentalist – Harmonica. He has recorded ten albums since 2002, having also backed Junior Watson, Anson Funderburgh and Elvin Bishop. He has opened for Robert Cray, Keb' Mo', and Earl Thomas.
Tony Braunagel is an American drummer, producer, and songwriter from Houston, Texas, United States, who is based in Los Angeles, California. Braunagel has played on many film scores and television shows as well as numerous albums as a musician, composer and producer. He is best known as a session drummer and/or percussionist of over 200 albums including those of Otis Rush, Eric Burdon, Johnny Nash, Coco Montoya, Lucky Peterson, as well as Grammy winning albums of Bonnie Raitt, Taj Mahal, Buddy Guy (percussion) and for performing live with dozens of music icons including Bonnie Raitt, Rickie Lee Jones, BB King, Lightnin’ Hopkins, John Lee Hooker, Robert Cray, Bette Midler, Lyle Lovett, and Taj Mahal to name just a few.
Mascot Label Group is an independently-owned record label. Founded in 1989 in The Netherlands under the name Mascot Records, the company was renamed Mascot-Provogue in 1999 and since 2010 has been known as the Mascot Label Group. The company is based in the Netherlands and has offices in New York, Cologne, Stockholm, Milan, Paris and London. It was distributed by ADA and Warner Music Group until 2022; it is now serviced by FUGA. Mascot Label Group is the parent company of six record labels: Mascot Records, Provogue Records, Music Theories Recordings, Cool Green Recordings, The Funk Garage, and The Players Club.
Reneé Austin is an American soul, R&B, gospel, singer, songwriter, and speaker. She is a six-time Minnesota Music Award Winner including 'Female Vocalist of the Year'. Austin has a wide vocal range, and has opened for Los Lobos, Tower of Power, Delbert McClinton, Blues Traveler, Big Head Todd & the Monsters, Keb Mo and more. She released three albums between 1997 and 2005, and supplied backing vocals on Tommy Castro's 2005 album, Soul Shaker. Austin was also part of a group of women who performed in Morgan Freeman's PBS Blues Divas, as well as singing for a live WWE season premier, whose television audience was six million. Her singing voice has been compared by critics to those of Mavis Staples, Tina Turner, Gladys Knight, Anita Baker, Regina Belle, and also as a female version of Michael McDonald.
Victor Lawton Wainwright, Jr. is an American blues and boogie-woogie singer, songwriter, and pianist. Wainwright's musical style was described by the American Blues Scene magazine in 2013 as "honky-tonk and boogie, with a dose of rolling thunder. Wainwright's playing is simply beautiful madness."
Castro Coleman aka Mr. Sipp is an American blues and gospel singer, musician, songwriter and guitarist. Mr. Sipp is the 2014 International Blues Challenge winner by way of The Vicksburg Blues Society as well as the 2014 Gibson Best Guitarist Award Winner. The same year Castro was given the Bobby Rush Entertainer of the Year Award by the Jus' Blues Foundation. In 2015, he won several Jackson Music Awards including International Male Blues Artist, Blues Artist of the Year, and Entertainer of the year.
Roberta Freeman is an American singer, best known for her work with Guns N' Roses, Pink Floyd, Cinderella, Engelbert Humperdinck, and Mary Wilson's Supremes. According to Rolling Stone, "Freeman was one of six women brought into the madness of GN’R for their marathon ‘Use Your Illusion’ tour." Fellow female musicians include Tracey Amos, Cece Worrall, Lisa Maxwell, Anne King and Diane Jones.
"All were brought on board in the early stages of the Use Your Illusion tour in the summer of 1991, and they stuck around until it wrapped up two years later. As touring members... they played a huge role in shaping the band’s sound during their commercial peak."
Anthony R. Geraci is an American blues and jazz pianist, organist, singer and composer. A keyboard player with a professional career in excess of 40 years, Geraci has played on stage with Muddy Waters, B.B. King, Otis Rush, Chuck Berry, Big Mama Thornton, Big Joe Turner, and Jimmy Rogers, and has recorded work with Big Walter Horton, Ronnie Earl, Big Jack Johnson, Zora Young, Sugaray Rayford, Debbie Davies, and Kenny Neal among others. Geraci's work has been nominated for a Grammy Award and he has had numerous Blues Music Award nominations. In addition to his work with others, Geraci has released eight albums in his own name.
