Mark Sallings & the Famous Unknowns

Mark Sallings & the Famous Unknowns

Genres: harmonica blues, blues, blues rock, saxophone, harmonica

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About Mark Sallings & the Famous Unknowns

Mark Sallings (April 11, 1952 - February 25, 2009) Throughout the history of the blues, travel-weary musicians have told countless tales of endless nights on the road, traveling from one low-paying gig to another - night, after night, after night. They do this not for the adoration, or to get rich. Heck, most of the time they're lucky if they even scrape together enough money after a gig to just cover gas expenses. They do this because they truly love what they do. Playing the blues. That was most certainly the case for Mark Sallings. The 56 -year-old Sallings' calling card was the ability to get a crowd up off its feet and get the dance floor movin' and groovin.' He switched between harp, sax, keyboards and flute, injecting the Unknowns' gritty blues with a blast of cool, Chicago-style swing. His vocals were expressive and fluid, but it was for his harmonica work that Sallings was known up and down both coasts for. Mark Sallings was born on April 11, 1952 in Searcy, Arkansas, and raised in the tiny delta town of McCrory, Arkansas. Growing up in McCrory he was smitten at an early age with the music of blues legends like Howlin' Wolf, Jimmy Reed and Lightnin' Hopkins, artists who would all have a major impact on his choice of a career. As a teenager, Sallings played the same hallowed ground that icons like Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash had played - the famed Silver Moon Club in Newport. Soon after graduating from high school, Sallings hit the road to Memphis and joined the Coon Elder Band. Playing mostly an offshoot of country music with Coon Elder Band, Sallings changed gears in the early 1980s and played straight-ahead hard rock with Rick Christian and the WhiteBoys, a group that toured with Rush and The Police, among other heavyweights. Then in 1988, The Famous Unknowns were born. Touring the world as a member of country superstar David Lynn Jones' backing band, Sallings along with guitar player Gerry Moss and bass player Jerry Bone, started playing together as a group apart from Jones, on nights that Jones had no shows scheduled to perform. It didn't take these talented musicians long at all to decide they had something special going and they embarked on their own path, playing blues, soul, funk and anything else that they took a mind to play. And the reason for the name, The Famous Unknowns? According to Sallings, it was partly "because of the time spent backing up legends or performing with them." It didn't take the Unknowns very long to become legends in their own right. Just three short years after forming, the Famous Unknowns became the first house band at B.B. King Blues Club in Memphis. But like all bands eventually seem to do, the original lineup of The Famous Unknowns went their separate way after releasing Upclose and Personal. Moss left to form Gerry Moss and the Drive. He was replaced on guitar by Tony Spinner. Bone stayed on for awhile and with Sallings, Spinner, drummer Victor Lukenbaugh and Ray Reach on Hammond B-3, released Let it be Known on Vent records in 1995. After that lineup split in various directions, Sallings embarked on a solo career. But it wasn't long after that Sallings was traveling the road with another edition of Famous Unknowns, featuring Bob Horn on guitar, Don Garrett on bass and Craig Keys on drums. Sallings was endorsed by Hohner Harmonicas and Peavey Electronics and played with some legendary names, including Albert King, Jerry Lee Lewis, B.B. King, Muddy Waters, Steve Cropper, Rufus Thomas and a host of others.

Taken from Last.fm

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