Mem Shannon

Mem Shannon was born on December 21, 1959, in New Orleans, and grew up immersed in the city's musical atmosphere. He began playing clarinet at nine and picked up the guitar by fifteen, inspired by his father's collection of blues records — though it wasn't until he witnessed B.B. King perform that he began practicing seriously. He played in local bands through his teens and early twenties, but when his father died in 1981 and family finances tightened, Shannon took a job driving a cab on Bourbon Street to make ends meet. For fifteen years he drove, listening to the city through his windshield, accumulating the raw material that would eventually fuel his music. In 1990, at the urging of his old bassist, he started playing clubs again, forming Mem Shannon and the Membership. In 1991 the band won a talent contest that earned them a spot on the Jazz & Heritage Festival main stage — and a thousand dollars and a television commercial.

His 1995 debut album A Cab Driver's Blues on Hannibal/Rykodisc — which interspersed actual passenger conversations recorded in the cab with Shannon's original songs — earned national press coverage from CBS Sunday Morning, the New York Times, and PBS. In April 1996, at the Jazz Fest, Shannon announced from the stage that he was giving up cab driving forever. His music draws deeply from New Orleans's funky rhythmic tradition, weaving blues, soul, jazz, and swamp rock into something that is entirely his own. His 2002 song "S.U.V." was named Song of the Year by Living Blues magazine's Critics Poll. He appeared as himself on the HBO series Treme, and has continued to record and tour internationally for three decades, releasing albums on NorthernBlues Music and remaining one of the city's most consistently engaging live performers.