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PEOPLE & ARTSThursday 10 December 2015

Bonnie Lou, pioneering country and rock singer dies at 91

CINCINNATI (AP) — Bonnie guitar as a child. By age 16, Known for her yodeling, radio performer through Later, she began record-
Lou, a pioneering country she was singing and per- she later was dubbed Bon- the 1940s and some of her ing rockabilly. In 1954, she
music artist and rock ‘n’ roll forming on local radio sta- nie Lou and was featured performances were cut to recorded the dance song
singer and who later be- tions in the Midwest. on a show that became acetate and released to “Two-Step Side-Step,” writ-
came a TV host, has died. Her big break came a year the Midwestern Hayride, a the public. In the 1950s, she ten by Murry Wilson, whose
She was 91. later when she was signed country and western radio signed with record com- sons became rock legends
Her husband, Milton Okum, to a contract to perform program on WLW in Cincin- panies as a country music as the Beach Boys. A year
said that she died in a Cin- on a barn dance show, the nati. singer. later, her first rock ‘n’ roll
cinnati nursing home early Brush Creek Follies. She was This led to tours and even- She had Top 10 country hits record, “Daddy-O,” rose
Tuesday. known as Sally Carson and tually several performanc- with “Tennessee Wig Walk” to No. 14 on the Billboard
Born Mary Joan Kath in her group was The Rhythm es at the Grand Ole Opry in and “Seven Lonely Days.” chart.
Towanda, Illinois, Lou be- Rangers. The show was Nashville. Each of the records sold She was a member of the
gan playing the violin and broadcast nationwide. Bonnie Lou was a popular about 750,000 copies. Rockabilly Hall of Fame.q

Album inspired by Sandy Hook victim gets Grammy nominations

This photo shows Jimmy Greene in Central Park in New York. For saxophonist Greene, whose “It’s amazing, but to be composition on “Saludos/
daughter died in the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting, earning Grammy nominations for his album in- honest with you I wish the Come Thou Almighty King,”
spired by late daughter is “bittersweet.” Greene earned his first pair of Grammy nominations this album never had to be the opening track of his lat-
week, including best arrangement, instruments and vocals for “When I Come Home” and best made,” Greene said in a est album.
jazz instrumental album for “Beautiful Life,” which he created in honor of Ana Marquez-Greene phone interview earlier “It was important for me
and also features her vocals. this week. “I wish my little also to have people hear
girl were here; that I didn’t her own voice. She loved to
(Jimmy and Dena Katz/Jimmy Greene via AP) have to pay tribute to her, sing and she had a beauti-
that I could have her here. ful singing voice,” he said.
MESFIN FEKADU tions for his album inspired and vocals for “When I It’s very bittersweet.” Greene made the album
AP Music Writer by his late daughter is “bit- Come Home” and best “Beautiful Life,” Greene’s — which also features his
NEW YORK (AP) — For sax- tersweet.” jazz instrumental album for 10th album as a band 11-year-old son Isaiah —
ophonist Jimmy Greene, Greene earned his first pair “Beautiful Life,” which he leader, was released last with the help of Norman and
whose daughter died in the of Grammy nominations created in honor of Ana year. He started working David Chesky of Chesky
2012 Sandy Hook shooting, this week, including best Marquez-Greene and also on the album not long af- Records, who helped fund
earning Grammy nomina- arrangement, instruments features her vocals. ter his 6-year-old daughter and produce the album.
was gunned down with 19 “It wouldn’t have hap-
other first graders and six pened without them, and
adults at Sandy Hook Ele- they sought no profit from
mentary School in Newton, this at all. A portion of the
Connecticut. proceeds from “Beautiful
“It was incredibly painful Life” will benefit two orga-
at the time the songs were nizations: The Artists Collec-
written. It was a few months tive, where Greene studied
after she was killed,” he and taught, and The Ana
said. “I was at my work sta- Grace Project, founded
tion where I compose and by his wife Nelba Marquez-
my face wet with tears do- Greene, a marriage and
ing a lot of the writing, but family therapist.
I really felt like I wanted “(We’re) trying to promote
the world to hear a little bit empathy and compassion
about how my daughter in young kids to hopefully
lived.” prevent these instances of
Greene said Ana enjoyed gun violence like the one
singing and he juxtaposed that took my daughter’s
home video recordings life,” he said of The Ana
of her voice with his own Grace Project.q

B.B. King’s Mississippi gravesite getting memorial courtyard

EMILY PETTUS Delta Interpretive Center in the Mississippi Delta cot- 1920s by Texas bluesman memorial courtyard will be
Associated Press Indianola. ton country where he first Blind Lemon Jefferson. paid partly by King’s es-
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The courtyard, with bench- sang and played guitar on King’s grave was kept tate and partly by private
Nearly seven months after es, eventually will be sur- street corners as a young clean, but not extrava- donations to the museum.
blues legend B.B. King died, rounded by walls that man and where he con- gant, in the first few months Mississippi’s economic de-
his Mississippi gravesite is alternate between solid tinued to play annual con- after his burial. velopment agency is also
being turned into a serene panels engraved with song certs until a year before his On Sept. 15 — the day contributing about $50,000
spot where blues fans can titles and wooden slats death. before what would have because it’s a tourist at-
pay their respects. that allow breezes to pass “One kind favor I’ll ask of been his 90th birthday — traction.
At ceremony Friday a black through the space. you / One kind favor I’ll ask the site was surrounded “He was a great man, and
granite marker will be un- King was 89 when he died of you / It’s one kind favor I’ll by a chain-link fence and we are honored to have
veiled, engraved with his May 14 at his home in Las ask of you / Please see that marked only by a patch his final resting place here
signature, that will become Vegas. my grave is kept clean,” of artificial turf and a large at the place that bears his
the centerpiece of a me- He was buried two weeks King sang on his Grammy- wreath of purple silk flow- name,” museum director
morial courtyard outside later at the museum in In- winning 2008 album — a ers. Malika Polk-Lee said in a
the B.B. King Museum and dianola, the hometown in standard recorded in the Expenses to develop the statement this week.q