Don Nix is a songwriter

Songwriter

A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...

, composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

, arranger, musician

Musician

A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....

, and author

Author

An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...

. Although cited as being "obscure", he is a key figure in several genre

Genre

Genre , Greek: genos, γένος) is the term for any category of literature or other forms of art or culture, e.g. music, and in general, any type of discourse, whether written or spoken, audial or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria. Genres are formed by conventions that change over time...

s of Southern rock

Southern rock

Southern rock is a subgenre of rock music, and genre of Americana. It developed in the Southern United States from rock and roll, country music, and blues, and is focused generally on electric guitar and vocals...

 and Soul

Soul music

Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...

, R&B, and the Blues

Blues

Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...

. He was instrumental in the creation of the trademark "Memphis soul

Memphis soul

Memphis soul, also known as Memphis Sound, is stylish, funky, uptown soul music that is not as hard-edged as Southern soul. It is a shimmering, sultry style produced in the 1960s and 1970s at Stax and Hi Records in Memphis, Tennessee, featuring melodic unison horn lines, organ, bass, and a driving...

" and Stax Records

Stax Records

Stax Records is an American record label, originally based in Memphis, Tennessee.Founded in 1957 as Satellite Records, the name Stax Records was adopted in 1961. The label was a major factor in the creation of the Southern soul and Memphis soul music styles, also releasing gospel, funk, jazz, and...

.

A native of Memphis, Tennessee

Memphis, Tennessee

Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....

, Nix began his career playing saxophone for The Mar-Keys

Mar-Keys

The Mar-Keys, formed in 1958, were an American studio session band for the Stax label from Memphis, Tennessee, in the 1960s. As the first house band for the label, their backing music formed the foundation for the early 1960s Stax sound.-Career:...

, which also featured Steve Cropper

Steve Cropper

Steve Cropper , also known as Steve "The Colonel" Cropper, is an American guitarist, songwriter and record producer. He is best known as the guitarist of the Stax Records house band, Booker T...

, Duck Dunn and others. Don Nix came from a musical family, including his brother, Larry Nix, who became a mastering engineer for Stax and later, Ardent Recording Studios in Memphis, TN. The hit instrumental single "Last Night" (composed by the band as a whole) was the first of many successful hits to Nix's credit. Without Nix, The Mar-Keys later evolved into Booker T & The MG's.

As a producer, Nix worked with other artists and producers such as Leon Russell

Leon Russell

Claude Russell Bridges , known professionally as Leon Russell, is an American musician and songwriter, who has recorded as a session musician, sideman, and maintained a solo career in music....

 of Shelter Records

Shelter Records

Shelter Records was a U.S. record label started by Leon Russell and Denny Cordell that operated from 1969 to 1981. The company established offices in both Los Angeles and Tulsa, Russell's home town, where the label sought to promote a "workshop atmosphere" with a recording studio in a converted...

, Gary Lewis and the Playboys in Dick Clark

Dick Clark (entertainer)

Richard Wagstaff "Dick" Clark is an American businessman; game-show host; and radio and television personality. He served as chairman and chief executive officer of Dick Clark Productions, which he has sold part of in recent years...

's Caravan of Stars

Caravan of Stars

In 1959, Dick Clark formed the Caravan of Stars, a road show featuring some of the most popular stars and musical groups of the day. Chubby Checker, Duane Eddy, Bobby Darin, Fabian, Buddy Holly, Annette Funicello and Bo Diddley toured with the Caravan...

, The Beatles

The Beatles

The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...

' George Harrison

George Harrison

George Harrison, MBE was an English musician, guitarist, singer-songwriter, actor and film producer who achieved international fame as lead guitarist of The Beatles. Often referred to as "the quiet Beatle", Harrison became over time an admirer of Indian mysticism, and introduced it to the other...

 and John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers

John Mayall

John Mayall, OBE is an English blues singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, whose musical career spans over fifty years...

. One notable achievement was the collaboration with Harrison, Russell and many others in the production of The Concert for Bangladesh

The Concert for Bangladesh

The Concert for Bangladesh was the name for two benefit concerts organised by George Harrison and Ravi Shankar, held at noon and at 7 PM on August 1, 1971, playing to a total of 40,000 people at Madison Square Garden in New York City...

 - a star-studded benefit concert

Benefit concert

A benefit concert or charity concert is a concert, show or gala featuring musicians, comedians, or other performers that is held for a charitable purpose, often directed at a specific and immediate humanitarian crisis. Such events raise both funds and public awareness to address the cause at...

 at Madison Square Garden

Madison Square Garden

Madison Square Garden, often abbreviated as MSG and known colloquially as The Garden, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the New York City borough of Manhattan and located at 8th Avenue, between 31st and 33rd Streets, situated on top of Pennsylvania Station.Opened on February 11, 1968, it is the...

 in 1971.

Throughout his career, Nix worked behind the scenes as producer, arranger, musician and many other roles for artists such as Lonnie Mack

Lonnie Mack

Lonnie Mack is an American rock, blues and country guitarist and vocalist....

, Furry Lewis

Furry Lewis

Furry Lewis was an American country blues guitarist and songwriter from Memphis, Tennessee. Lewis was one of the first of the old-time blues musicians of the 1920s to be brought out of retirement, and given a new lease of recording life, by the folk blues revival of the 1960s.-Life and...

, Freddy King, Albert King

Albert King

Albert King was an American blues guitarist and singer, and a major influence in the world of blues guitar playing.-Career:...

, Delaney, Bonnie & Friends

Delaney, Bonnie & Friends

Delaney & Bonnie – in ensemble called Delaney & Bonnie & Friends – was a rock/soul revue fronted by husband-and-wife singer/songwriters Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett....

, Isaac Hayes

Isaac Hayes

Isaac Lee Hayes, Jr. was an American songwriter, musician, singer and actor. Hayes was one of the creative influences behind the southern soul music label Stax Records, where he served both as an in-house songwriter and as a record producer, teaming with his partner David Porter during the...

, The Staple Singers

The Staple Singers

The Staple Singers were an American gospel, soul, and R&B singing group. Roebuck "Pops" Staples , the patriarch of the family, formed the group with his children Cleotha , Pervis , Yvonne , and Mavis...

, Jeff Beck

Jeff Beck

Geoffrey Arnold "Jeff" Beck is an English rock guitarist. He is one of three noted guitarists to have played with The Yardbirds...

, Brian May

Brian May

Brian Harold May, CBE is an English musician and astrophysicist most widely known as the guitarist and a songwriter of the rock band Queen...

, Eric Clapton

Eric Clapton

Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE, is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and...

 and many others. He wrote and produced many solo albums and with groups Don Nix and the Alabama State Troopers, John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers, the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section

Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section

The Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, also known as The Swampers, are a group of American soul, R&B, and country studio musicians based in the town of Muscle Shoals, Alabama...

 and Larry Raspberry and the Highsteppers.

The song "Goin' Down" became a blues

Blues

Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...

 standard and was covered by Freddie King

Freddie King

Freddie King , thought to have been born as Frederick Christian, originally recording as Freddy King, and nicknamed "the Texas Cannonball", was an influential African-American blues guitarist and singer. He is often mentioned as one of "the Three Kings" of electric blues guitar, along with Albert...

, Jeff Beck

Jeff Beck

Geoffrey Arnold "Jeff" Beck is an English rock guitarist. He is one of three noted guitarists to have played with The Yardbirds...

, Deep Purple

Deep Purple

Deep Purple are an English rock band formed in Hertford in 1968. Along with Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, they are considered to be among the pioneers of heavy metal and modern hard rock, although some band members believe that their music cannot be categorised as belonging to any one genre...

, JJ Cale, Marc Ford

Marc Ford

Marc Ford , is an American blues-rock guitarist. He's a former lead guitarist of the rock and roll jam band The Black Crowes and the leader of his own bands .-Burning Tree:Ford began his career with the blues-rock outfit Burning...

, Bryan Ferry

Bryan Ferry

Bryan Ferry, CBE is an English singer, musician, and songwriter. Ferry came to public prominence in the early 1970s as lead vocalist and principal songwriter with the band Roxy Music, who enjoyed a highly successful career with three number one albums and ten singles entering the top ten charts in...

, Pearl Jam

Pearl Jam

Pearl Jam is an American rock band that formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1990. Since its inception, the band's line-up has included Eddie Vedder , Jeff Ament , Stone Gossard , and Mike McCready...

, Gov't Mule

Gov't Mule

Gov't Mule is a Southern rock jam band formed in 1994 as an Allman Brothers Band side project by Warren Haynes and Allen Woody.The band released their debut album Gov't Mule in 1995...

, Sam Kinison

Sam Kinison

Samuel Burl "Sam" Kinison was an American stand-up comedian and actor. Kinison was known for his intense, harsh and politically incorrect genre humor...

, Stevie Ray Vaughan

Stevie Ray Vaughan

Stephen Ray "Stevie Ray" Vaughan was an American electric blues guitarist and singer. He was the younger brother of Jimmie Vaughan and frontman for Double Trouble, a band that included bassist Tommy Shannon and drummer Chris Layton. Born in Dallas, Vaughan moved to Austin at the age of 17 and...

, Joe Satriani

Joe Satriani

Joseph "Joe" Satriani is an American instrumental rock guitarist and multi-instrumentalist, with multiple Grammy Award nominations...

 and many others.This song was also featured by Stan Webb on the 1972 Chicken Shack album Imagination Lady. The song "Black Cat Moan" was covered on the album Beck, Bogert & Appice

Beck, Bogert & Appice (album)

Beck, Bogert & Appice is the eponymous debut album by the 70s band Beck, Bogert & Appice. They were a supergroup and power trio, with the line up of guitarist Jeff Beck who had already been a member of The Yardbirds and The Jeff Beck Group), bassist Tim Bogert and drummer Carmine Appice both...

.

Discography

SHELTER SHE-8902	IN GOD WE TRUST  (LP) In God We Trust/Golden Mansions/I'll Fly Away/He Never Lived A Day Without Jesus/Nero My God To Thee/Amos/Long Way To Nowhere/Iuka/Will The Circle Be Unbroken/I've Tried (Trucker's Lament) (personnel: Don Nix:vcl/gtr,Eddie Hinton:gtr,Furry Lewis:sl.gtr/poem on track 8,Larry Rasberry:rh.gtr,Barry Beckett:keys,David Hood:bs,Roger Hawkins:dms,J. A. Spell:fd,Jeanie Green/Marlin Green [the Mt. Zion Singers]:bckgr.vcls) (recorded at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio, produced by Don Nix) (reissue: Nippon Phonogram Records BT-5357, 1979 JAP)	1971 US
ELEKTRA EKS-74101	LIVING BY THE DAYS  (LP) The Shape I'm In/Olena/I Saw The Light/She Don't Want A Lover/Living By The Days/Going Back To Iuka/Three Angels/Mary Louise/My Train's Done Come And Gone (personnel: Don Nix:vcl/gtr,Jimmy Johnson/Tippy Armstrong/Gimmer Nicholson/Wayne Perkins:gtr,Furry Lewis:narration,Barry Beckett/Chris Stainton:keys,David Hood/Donald 'Duck' Dunn:bs,Roger Hawkins:dms + The Mt. Zion Singers [Wayne Perkins,Jeanie Green,Marlin Green]:bckgr.vcls on tracks 3, 4, 7, 8 + Shelter People [Claudia Lennear,Kathi McDonald,Don Preston,Joey Cooper]:bckgr.vcls on tracks 1, 2, 9) (recorded at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio & Skyhill Studios, Hollywood, CA., produced by Don Nix) (UK edition: Elektra K 42096, 1971/French edition: Elektra 62010, 1971/reissue: Atco-East West CD AMCY-2609, 1998 JAP)	1971 US
ELEKTRA EKS-75022	THE ALABAMA STATE TROUPERS ROAD SHOW  (2-LP) Furry's Blues/Brownsville/I'm Black/A Chicken Ain't Nothin' But A Bird/Will The Circle Be Unbroken/Amos Burke/Mighty Time/Jesus On The Mainline/Mary Louise/Yes, I Do Understand/Opening/Living In The Country/Joa-Bim/Dixie/Heavy Makes You Happy/Iuka/Furry's Rap/Asphalt Outlaw Hero/Olena/My Father's House/Going Down (recorded live at Long Beach Civic Auditorium, Long Beach, CA, October 15, 1971 & at Pasadena Civic Auditorium, Pasadena, CA October 17, 1971; personnel: Don Nix:vcl/gtr,Wayne Perkins:gtr,Tippy Armstrong:gtr,Clayton Ivey:pno,Ken Woodley:org,Bob Wray:bs,Tarp Tarrant/Fred Prouty:dms + The Mt. Zion Choir [Brenda Patterson, Mary "Bouce" Anderson, Carolyn "Pepper" Watkins, Marianne "Tweety" Watkins, Marlin Greene], produced by Don Nix)	1972 US
ENTERPRISE ENS-1032	HOBOS, HEROES AND STREET CORNER CLOWNS  (LP) She's A Friend Of Mine/The Train Don't Stop Here No More/Black Cat Moan/Rainy Night In Paris (Memphis Reject)/When I Lay My Burden Down/Sweet Sweet Surrender/We Gotta Move (Keep On Rolling)/Miss Eleana/I Need You/Look What The Years Have Done (personnel: Don Nix:vcl/gtr,Pete Carr/Eddie Hinton/Larry Rasberry/Bobby Manuel/Furry Lewis:gtr,Wayne Perkins:gtr/bcgr.vcls,Barry Beckett/Chris Stainton:keys,Steve Smith: keys/gtr,Tim Smith:gtr/pno,David Hood/Klaus Voormann:bs,Roger Hawkins:dms,Lon Price:sax,Jay Pruitt:strings,Jeanie Green/Claudia Lennear:bcgr.vcls + The Dallas-Ft. Worth Symphony Orchestra) (recorded at Apple Studio, London & Muscle Shoals Sound Studio etc., produced by Don Nix) (reissue: P-Vine P-Vine Records P-Vine Records is a record label started by Blues Interactions, Inc., a firm in Tokyo, Japan established in 1975 by Yasufumi Higurashi and Akira Kochi...  PCD-5175, 1997 JAP)	1973 US
CREAM CR-1001	GONE TOO LONG  (LP) Goin' Thru Another Chance/Feel A Whole Lot Better/Gone Too Long/Backstreet Girl/Rollin' In My Dreams/Yazoo City Jail/Harpoon Arkansas Turnaround/Forgotten Town/A Demain (Until Tomorrow) (personnel: Don Nix:vcl/gtr,George Harrison:sl.gtr, etc.) (recorded in France, England & U.S.A., produced by Don Nix) (reissue: Demon DIAB-805, 1994 UK)	1976 US
CREAM CR-1011	SKYRIDER  (LP) Skyrider/Nobody Else/Maverick Woman Blues/Do It Again/Long Tall Sally/I'll Be In Your Dreams/On The Town Again/All For The Love Of A Woman (personnel: Don Nix:vcl/gtr/sax,Rob Kendrick:gtr/sl.gtr,Roy Halle:sl.gtr,Len Groome:keys,John Fry:acc,Ernie Chapman:bs,Darell Norris:dms + The Memphis Horns + William C. Brown III Choir) (recorded at Dallasonic Studio, TX. etc., produced by Don Nix) (reissue: Demon DIAB-805, 1994 UK)	1979 US
DEMON DIAB-805	GONE TOO LONG/SKYRIDER  (CD) Goin' Thru Another Change/Feel A Whole Lot Better/Gone Too Long/Backstreet Girl/Rollin' In My Dreams/Yazoo City Jail/Harpoon Arkansas Turnaround/Forgotten Town/A Demain (Until Tomorrow)/Skyrider/Nobody Else/Maverick Woman Blues/Do It Again/Long Tall Sally/I'll Be In Your Dreams/On The Town Again/All For The Love Of A Woman (reissue of Cream CR-1001/CR-1011)	1994 UK
ICEHOUSE IHCD 9401	BACK TO THE WELL  (CD) Goin' Down The Road To Memphis/Waiting For The Help/Plastic Flowers/Angel Tears/Easy Street/Out On The Road Again/Fools Paradise/Too Dumb/Moon Madness/Dance Chaney Dance/Cruise Control/Jerimiah Gage (personnel: Don Nix:vcl/gtr/tp,Billy Crain:gtr/sl.gtr,Greg Redding:keys,Rick Steff:org/acc,Jay Spell:pno/fd,Rusty McFarland:mnd,Greg 'Fingers' Taylor:hca,David Crochan:bs,Greg Morrow:dms/perc + The Memphis Horns [Jim Spake,Andrew Love,Wayne Jackson] + William C. Brown III Choir) (recorded at Crosstown Recording Studio, produced by Don Nix) (reissue: Appaloosa AP 098, 1999 ITA)	1994 US
EVIDENCE ECD-26125	DON NIX & FRIENDS: GOIN' DOWN - THE SONGS OF DON NIX  (CD) Black Cat Moan/On The Road Again/Right Where You Want Me/Same Old Blues/Lucinda/Palace Of The King/Going Down/Going Back To Iuka/Like A Road Leading Home/One More Repossession/Living On The Highway/Plastic Flowers/Everybody Wants To Go To Heaven (personnel: Don Nix:vcl,Billy Crain/Jon Tiven:gtr,Mike Duke:pno,Reese Wynans:org,David Hood:bs,Greg Morrow:dms + Dan Penn:lead vcls on tracks 4, 6, 9,Bonnie Bramlett:lead vcls on tracks 3, 4, 9,Steve Cropper:lead gtr on tracks 4, 9,Audley Freed:lead gtr on tracks 6, 7,Tony Joe White:lead gtr on tracks 8, 13,Lesllie West:lead gtr on tracks 7, 11,Bobby Manuel:gtr intro on track 4,Brian May:gtr on track 7,Billy Lee Riley:vcl on track 8, hca on track 13,John Mayall:hca on track 8,Max Middleton:pno on track 7,Bobby Whitlock:org on tracks 7, 13,Dave Smith:bs on track 3,Michael Rhodes:bs on track 9,Susan Marshall/Jackie Johnson:bckgr.vcls on tracks 3, 5, 6, 12) (recorded at Hum Depot, Nashville, TN, produced by Jon Tiven & Don Nix)	2002 US

Books by Don Nix

• Road Stories and Recipes (1997), Schirmer Books
  Schirmer Books
  Schirmer Books or Schirmer Publishing can refer to one of several descendants of the original G. Schirmer:* G. Schirmer Associated Music Publishers, a sheet music publisher now part of Music Sales Corporation...
  
  /Simon & Schuster
  Simon & Schuster
  Simon & Schuster, Inc., a division of CBS Corporation, is a publisher founded in New York City in 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. It is one of the four largest English-language publishers, alongside Random House, Penguin and HarperCollins...
  
  , New York. ISBN 0-02-864621-5
• Who's That with Don Nix? – A photojournal of Don Nix's personal experiences.

External links

• http://www.donnixarchives.com
• http://www.jungleroom.com/nix.html
• http://www.popmatters.com/music/reviews/n/nixdon-goin.shtml
• http://koti.mbnet.fi/wdd/donnix.htm