Don Nix

Don Nix, the songwriter behind the blues staple "Going Down," stood as one of the more understated presences in Southern soul and rock. Production work placed him alongside Freddie King, Jeff Beck, and Furry Lewis, while his own releases came out on Shelter and Elektra plus smaller outlets such as Icehouse.

Memphis was his birthplace, and he attended Messick High School together with Donald "Duck" Dunn and Steve Cropper from the renowned Stax house band Booker T. & the MG's. Upon finishing school he served briefly in the Army, then returned to Memphis and took up saxophone in the Mar-Keys with Dunn, Cropper, Wayne Jackson, Packy Axton, Terry Johnson, and Smoochy Smith.

The group notched a major success on the Satellite label (later Stax/Volt) with the instrumental "Last Night," after which Nix joined the road lineup even as another Memphis ensemble tried to deliver follow-up hits under the same name. When the momentum from "Last Night" faded, he settled back in Memphis and spent several years as a freelance horn player, sometimes reuniting with a re-formed Mar-Keys or accompanying Stax performers such as William Bell and Carla Thomas.

Midway through the 1960s he began traveling to Los Angeles to see Leon Russell and Carle Radle, two friends made during earlier tours. The bond with Russell, already an established producer, opened a spot for Nix in Dick Clark's Caravan of Stars supporting Gary Lewis & the Playboys. That same connection let him watch sessions being assembled, prompting him to start engineering and producing at Memphis studios including Stax and Ardent.

He devoted the following years to writing and producing for Freddie King, Albert King, Sid Selvidge, and Charlie Musselwhite. Shelter Records, co-owned by his longtime friend Leon Russell, signed him in 1970, and he issued the solo album In God We Trust, then Living by the Days the next year. Neither sold strongly, and after further attempts he again concentrated on other artists, producing records for John Mayall and the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section.

After largely stepping away from the industry through most of the 1980s, Nix settled in Nashville and resumed writing and producing. He published the memoir Road Stories & Recipes, and in 2002 he re-recorded many signature tracks with musicians such as Brian May and Steve Cropper for the retrospective Going Down. I Don't Want No Trouble followed in 2006 and Passing Through appeared soon after, both on his Section Eight Productions imprint; in 2009 he released Hobos, Heroes and Street Corner Clowns on Concord's reactivated Stax label. Real Gone Music reissued Living by the Days in 2013. Don Nix died on December 31, 2024, at the age of 83.