Grady Champion

Grady Champion, who plays guitar and harmonica while also singing and writing songs, issued a pair of striking Shanachie Records sets in 1999 and 2001. His first effort, Payin' for My Sins, together with the follow-up 2 Days Short of a Week, placed the artist on the national blues touring circuit and extended his reach past his hometown of Jackson, Mississippi. Born the youngest of twenty-eight children to his father, Champion spent his early years on a farm in rural Canton just outside Jackson, where demanding labor shaped his daily routine. At age eight he entered the local church choir and began performing gospel music; when he turned fifteen his mother relocated the household to Miami, Florida, where he completed one year of high school before finishing his senior year back in Mississippi. After graduation he again headed to Florida and explored several pursuits, including boxing and radio announcing, before committing to music.

In 1998 he independently produced and issued the album Goin' Back Home, which steadily increased his draw at Florida blues venues and eventually attracted Shanachie executives, leading to a contract. On his two Shanachie releases Champion addressed personal observations without hesitation, most notably in the socially pointed tracks “Policeman Blues,” which addressed racial profiling, and “Children of the Corn,” which examined growing youth violence. From the start of his performing life he deliberately pursued fresh lyrical subjects in his original material. As a performer equally skilled on harmonica and guitar while also writing songs, he achieved this goal convincingly across both Payin' for My Sins and 2 Days Short of a Week.

Alongside contemporaries such as Shemekia Copeland and Shawn Pittman, Champion stands among the promising figures shaping the blues’ future. He maintained a steady recording pace well into the twenty-first century, beginning with the 2010 live set Back in Mississippi: Live at the 930 Blues Cafe. That release inaugurated an active decade that included the studio albums Dreamin' in 2011 and Tough Times Don't Last in 2012, both issued on his own Grady Shady Music label, followed by the move to Malaco for Bootleg Whiskey in 2014 and One of a Kind in 2016.