NEW YORK, NY – OCTOBER 18: Bettye LaVette performs onstage during the Little Kids Rock Benefit 2017 at PlayStation Theater on October 18, 2017 in New York City. (Photo by Cindy Ord/Getty Images for Little Kids Rock)
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Singer Bettye LaVette, piano man Eddie Boyd and 1920s star Victoria Spivey are among the performers named to the Blues Hall of Fame this year.
Based in Memphis, Tennessee, the hall honors singers, musicians, producers, songrwriters, educators, and pieces of music that have made significant contributions to the genre.
Along with Boyd, LaVette and Spivey, the hall is inducting two harmonica players this year — Billy Branch and Georgie “Harmonica” Smith, The Blues Foundation said in a news release Tuesday.
Also on the list are singer and musician Syl Johnson and producer Ralph Peer, who recorded both country and blues musicians.
The Howlin Wolf compilation “The Chess Box” is the only album inducted this year.
Blues singles that made it into the hall include “3 O’Clock Blues,” by B.B. King, “Trouble in Mind,” by Bertha “Chippie” Hill, and Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup’s “That’s All Right (Mama),” which was Elvis Presley’s first recording at Sun Studio in Memphis in 1954.
French author Sebastian Danchin’s “Earl Hooker, Blues Master,” a biography of the guitar legend, has been inducted as a classic of blues literature.
Inductees will be honored at a ceremony in Memphis on May 6.