Auction Ends: Jan 18, 2014 11:30 PM CST

Memorabilia

Autographed "Got to get back" CD and photo from the Bo-keys band

Item Number: 6

Estimated Value: Priceless
Sold: 55 USD to md297532d

Number of Bids: 5 - Bid History

Item Description

The Bo-Keys were formed in 1998, when Memphis bassist Scott Bomar, 24 years old at the time, was asked to put together a backup band for singer-songwriter Mack Rice ("Mustang Sally"). Instead of turning to college buddies, Mr. Bomar reached into his mother's record collection.

There he found the names of musicians he had long admired but were nearly forgotten. He didn't have to go far to find them. While teaching at the Stax Music Academy in Memphis—a program that mentors at-risk youth—Mr. Bomar met guitarist Charles "Skip" Pitts, who had played on recordings by Rufus Thomas, Isaac Hayes and Al Green. Recruited next were drummer Howard Grimes and keyboard player Archie Turner—both '70s session musicians at Memphis's Hi Records.

Then horns were added: trumpeter Marc Franklin and saxophonists Jim Spake, Derrick Williams and Kirk Smothers. The result is a spring-loaded funk band that has all of the trampoline punch of its Memphis forebears—Booker T. & the MGs, the Mar-Keys, the Bar-Kays and Pac-Keys.

Over the 10 years that followed its founding, the Bo-Keys recorded for the movies ("Hustle & Flow") and behind other artists (Cyndi Lauper's "Memphis Blues"). In 2008, the Bo-Keys released "The Royal Sessions," their first album. Mr. Bomar won an Emmy last year for the soundtrack to the 2009 documentary "I Am a Man: From Memphis, a Lesson in Life."

On "Got to Get Back," the band glazes its already authentic groove with earthy cameos by legendary Memphis singers Otis Clay, William Bell and Percy Wiggins, and blues-harp player Charlie Musselwhite, who also plays blues harp.

Funky organ-horn bands are a dime a dozen today. The Bo-Keys, however, are different. Most of the band's musicians have been there and done that. Now they're doing it again.