HELENA-WEST HELENA – Veteran bluesman Bobby Rush will be the recipient of the 2007 Sonny Payne Award for Blues Excellence presented annually each October by the Delta Cultural Center, a museum of the Arkansas Department of Heritage, during the Arkansas Blues and Heritage Festival in historic downtown Helena-West Helena. The DCC’s Sonny Payne Award for Blues Excellence – called “The Sonny” – recognizes individuals who have strongly influenced the blues music of the Arkansas Delta. The honor is named for “Sunshine” Sonny Payne, longtime host of the Peabody Award-winning “King Biscuit Time” program broadcast each weekday from the DCC Visitors Center at 141 Cherry Street on radio station KFFA-AM.

The Sonny Award presentation is to be a part of Rush’s festival-closing performance as headliner on Saturday evening, October 11, during the final evening of the three-day Arkansas Blues and Heritage Festival (formerly the King Biscuit Blues Festival).

The Sonny Award is traditionally given to a blues musician with distinguished status and a lengthy career, and additional consideration is given to those with ties to Arkansas, said DCC Assistant Director Terry Buckalew.

“The 2008 recipient of ‘The Sonny,’ Bobby Rush, is deserving on all counts: After years of recording and touring, he has emerged as one of the elder statesmen of blues, while remaining an exciting and memorable live act,” Buckalew said, noting that Rush spent a portion of his youth in Pine Bluff where his father was a minister.

Previous recipients of the “Sonny” include Robert Lockwood Jr. and Houston Stackhouse (posthumously) in the award’s inaugural year of 2002, Sam Carr and Pinetop Perkins (2003), Cedell Davis and John Weston (2004), James Cotton and David “Honeyboy” Edwards (2005), Michael Burks and Willie “Big Eyes” Smith (2006), and Hubert Sumlin (2007).

Born as Emmit Ellis Jr. on Nov. 20, 1940, in the north Louisiana town of Homer, Bobby Rush was wearing a fake mustache in his early teens so that he could play area juke joints. His passion for music and performing only heightened when the family moved to Chicago in the mid-1950s; soon he was performing in bands that included Freddie King, Luther Allison, and Earl Hooker. When the family moved back South, Rush found himself performing with Elmore James and others during trips to Pine Bluff to visit his parents.

Rather than dedicating himself to the Chicago blues circuit, Rush became a champion of the so-called “chitlin circuit,” living a nomadic lifestyle performing along a long-established route of working class nightclubs from the Windy City to the north, north Florida to the southeast, and east Texas to the west. In these joints, night after night, Rush perfected his increasingly bawdy material, as well as his skills as a businessman and band leader. In 1971, Rush would enjoy his first hit, “Chicken Heads,” on the Galaxy label, and later followed it with “Bow-Legged Woman” on Jewel Records. A steadily-increasing reputation brought Rush to the attention of producers Leon Huff and Kenny Gamble who produced his 1979 LP “Rush Hour” on their Philadelphia International label. In the 1980s, he moved to Jackson, Miss., and recorded for LaJam, his albums for the label including “Gotta Have Money” (1984) and “What’s Good for the Goose Is Good for the Gander” (1985). He’d also record for Ichiban, Malaco, and Waldoxy.

Tragedy struck in 2001, when Rush’s tour bus crashed, killing one band member and injuring others, including Rush. After recuperating, he returned to the spotlight in a big way, and on his own label, Deep Rush – a longtime dream. He released “Undercover Lover,” and then “Live From Ground Zero,” both on CD and DVD. Rush’s life on the road and his stage show were also highlighted in Richard Pearce’s documentary, “The Road to Memphis,” part of Martin Scorsese’s acclaimed PBS film series “The Blues.”

In 2004, Rush demonstrated his appreciation of traditional Delta blues with the well-received “Folk Funk,” which included the guitar work of Alvin Youngblood Hart. The following year saw the release of two discs, “Hen-Pecked” and “Night Fishin’,” assuring his core audience he had not forgotten them or the risqué numbers which had brought him fame.

The Year of Bobby Rush came in 2007 with the release of “Raw,” another album of stripped-down blues, focusing on Rush’s voice, his guitar, and harmonica. The disc would be awarded Acoustic Blues Album of the Year at the 2008 Blues Foundation Music Awards, and would win Rush recognition as Acoustic Blues Entertainer of the Year. And if there was any concern Rush’s new focus would cost him in other areas, he also took home the award for Soul Blues Male Artist of the Year.

Currently, Rush is promoting his newly released soul blues album, “Look At What You Gettin’.”

Gallery hours at the DCC Visitors Center at 141 Cherry Street and the nearby DCC Depot at 95 Missouri Street are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturday. Admission is free. “King Biscuit Time,” the nation’s longest-running blues radio program, is hosted each weekday at the DCC Visitor’s Center by “Sunshine” Sonny Payne, from 12:15 to 12:45 p.m. “Delta Sounds,” hosted by DCC Assistant Director Terry Buckalew and Payne, is broadcast each Friday from 1 to 1:30 p.m.

For more information, interested persons can call the Delta Cultural Center at (870) 338-4350 or toll free at (800) 358-0972 or visit the DCC online at www.deltaculturalcenter.com

The Delta Cultural Center shares the vision of all seven agencies of the Department of Arkansas Heritage – to preserve and promote Arkansas heritage as a source of pride and satisfaction. Other agencies within the department are the Historic Arkansas Museum, the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, the Old State House Museum, the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, the Arkansas Arts Council, and the Natural Heritage Commission.

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