Blues musician Mark Sallings, 56, was killed in a two-vehicle accident in Crittenden County on Wednesday in what friends and fans called a tragic loss to Arkansas Delta and Blues music.
Sallings, born near Helena, was an integral part of the blues and the Arkansas Blues & Heritage Festival, playing at the festival many times and also playing at the funeral of many blues artist greats.
Rayne Gordon, Sonny Boy Blues Society president, said that Sallings was a “huge” supporter of the festival, playing his harp at memorials and events for Blues Aid.
He began playing professionally at age 14. Sallings was recruited fresh out of high school and worked in Memphis as a session player at Stax Records with J.R. Brewer, Steve Cropper and Ron Capone.
He also performed with several bands.
He learned to play the “harp” in the New Orleans French Quarter, hustling tips.
“These two cities were my music school and what inspired me to pursue a career in music,” Sallings said in an interview.
Sallings signed with Coon Elder and the Brenda Patterson Band at 25 on Mercury Records and appeared on the cover of Billboard Magazine. His talent as a saxophone, harmonica and piano player earned him a Premier Player winner and several time nominee of the Memphis Chapter of the Grammy’s Recording Academy.
He has worked with many legendary performers from rock to country and blues, which spawned the name of his band, The Famous Unknowns.
In 1991, The Famous Unknowns were the first house band at BB Kings Blues Club on Beale Street in Memphis. In 1995, he was signed to Indie label of Vent Records, out of Birmingham, Ala., and released two CDs, “Let it Be Known” and “Talkin’ To Myself.”
The Famous Unknowns performed at festivals and clubs across the U.S. In 1999, Sallings headlined a festival tour, Thredbo Legends of Blues Festival in Australia.
Police said Sallings apparently lost control of his vehicle on his way to play a casino in Tunica, Miss. It collided head-on with another vehicle. The driver of the other vehicle, Darryl Harper, 36, was hospitalized in Memphis.
The Daily World
