Z.z. Hill

Texas-born singer Z.Z. Hill managed to resuscitate both his own semi-flagging career and the entire genre at large when he signed on at Jackson, MS-based Malaco Records in 1980 and began growling his way through some of the most uncompromising blues to be unleashed on black radio stations in many a moon. His impressive 1982 Malaco album Down Home Blues remained on Billboard's soul album charts for nearly two years, an extraordinary run for such a blatantly bluesy LP. His songs "Down Home Blues" and "Somebody Else Is Steppin' In" have graduated into the ranks of legitimate blues standards (and few of those have come along over the last couple of decades)

Z.Z. Hill (1981). The initial step in Hill's amazing rebirth as a contemporary blues star, courtesy of Jackson, Mississippi's Malaco Records and producers Tommy Couch and Wolf Stephenson. The vicious blues outings "Bump and Grind" and "Blue Monday" were the first salvos fired by Hill at the blues market, though much of the set - "Please Don't Make Me (Do Something Bad to You)," "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" - was solidly in the Southern soul vein.
Bluesmaster (1984). Issued the year he died, Bluesmaster boasted more competent soul-blues hybrids by the man who reenergized the blues idiom with his trademark growl. LaSalle's "You're Ruining My Bad Reputation," "Friday Is My Day" (written by legendary Malaco promo man Dave Clark), and a nice reading of Paul Kelly's slinky "Personally" rate with the standouts.

Thirty-seven years later, we have the iconic songs of Texas-born singer Z.Z. Hill brought to us by Grammy-winning bluesman Mississippi-based Grady Champion on the same Mississippi-based Malaco label. Champion is a producer/singer/songwriter/musician who has won a Grammy, several prestigious Blues Music Awards as well as the 26th International Blues Challenge. Amazingly, he is one of his father’s 28 children, born October 10, 1969 on a farm in Canton, Mississippi. Originally a rapper, he gravitated to the blues, first learning harmonica and releasing his first album, the self-released Goin’ Back Home (1998.) He was quickly signed by Shanachie Records, with whom he released two albums. Champion and Kevin Bowe co-wrote “Trust Yourself” which was included on Etta James’ album Let’s Roll (2003) and winner of a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album. The album also won a Blues Music Award as the Soul/Blues Album of 2004. Dreamin’ (2011), was a #1 album on the Sirius XM’s Bluesville chart, as well as earning two BMAs. This is his third release for Malaco, a self-produced effort entirely in tribute to Z.Z. Hill who died 35 years ago April 27, 1984. Champion says, “I’ve been particularly inspired by Z.Z.’s efforts to restore blues music to modern black consciousness.”

His complete recordings for the Bihari brothers’ Kent label, together on one package for the first time, including many making their CD debut.

Down Home is one of the very few classic blues albums of the 1980s. Hill revitalized the genre among African-American listeners with his "Down Home Blues," which earned instant standard status. But the entire album is tremendously consistent, with the percolating R&B workouts "Givin' It Up for Your Love" and "Right Arm for Your Love" contrasting with an intimate "Cheatin' in the Next Room" and the straight-ahead blues "Everybody Knows About My Good Thing" and "When It Rains It Pours."

One of the most commercial of Hill's albums, this disco-tinged release included the minor hits "This Time They Told the Truth" and "Love Is So Good When You're Stealing It."

As with Johnny Taylor, ZZ Hill was another rootsy soul singer who made a big shift in the mid 70s – as he was brought into the ranks of Columbia Records, and forged a more polished sound that blended hard soul and modern influences, into a sound that helped him break into a lot more new markets.

When Malaco Records started out in the late 1960s, the label that small Southern R&B companies looked up to was Stax. The Jackson, MS-based Malaco, like the Memphis-based Stax, focused mainly on deep-fried Southern soul in the beginning – only in 1968 and 1969, Malaco was a struggling young operation that was fighting to stay afloat. But ironically, Malaco would still be in business long after Stax's 1975 demise, and it would continue to favor classic soul long after most labels had moved away from it. When other black-oriented independents were putting out urban contemporary, rap and house music in the 1980s and 1990s.

Zac Harmon has been expressing an unbiased love for music for well over twenty years. Born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi, he is a disciple of the Farish Street blues sound. Farish Street is universally recognized as the home of many great blues legends, including the late, great Elmore James.Harmon's early years included stints as a guitarist for Z.Z. Hill, McKinley Mitchell, Dorothy Moore and Sam Myers. Moving to Los Angeles in 1980, he worked as a studio musician and began to make a name for himself as a writer/producer….