Grady Champion

by Richard Skelly
Guitarist, singer, harmonica player and songwriter Grady Champion released two very impressive recordings in 1999 and 2001 for Shanachie Records. Both his debut, "Payin' For My Sins" and "2 Days Short of a Week" put Champion on the national touring blues map and helped launch his career beyond the boundaries of his native Jackson, Mississippi.
Champion was the youngest of his father's 28 children, and he grew up in rural Canton, outside of Jackson. Raised on a farm, hard work became a way of life for Champion. Like so many other blues performers, he joined his church choir as an eight-year old and began singing gospel. Then at 15, his mother moved the family to Miami, Florida, where he attended high school for a year before heading back home to Mississippi for his senior year.
After he was graduated, he returned to Florida where he tried boxing, being a radio DJ and several other occupations before he settled into his career as a performer. He recorded and released his own album, "Goin' Back Home," in 1998 and began drawing ever-larger crowds to Florida blues clubs before catching the attention of Shanachie Records executives, who signed him.
Champion has not been afraid to speak his mind on his two releases for Shanachie, and he writes from personal experience with social commentary songs like "Policeman Blues" [about racial profiling] and "Children of the Corn," a song about the rising tide of youth violence.
From the inception of his relatively recent career as a blues performer, Champion has sought to tackle new lyrical themes with his original compositions. As a triple threat harmonica player, guitarist and songwriter, he accomplishes that in grand style on both "Payin' For My Sins" and "2 Days Short of a Week." Champion, along with young innovators like Shemekia Copeland and Shawn Pittman, is one of the brighter beacons when we talk about the future of blues music.