These legends are headed to the Arizona music hall of fame. Here's why they're great
The Arizona Music & Entertainment Hall of Fame will induct four new members on Sunday, June 23, at the Rhythm Room in Phoenix.
The Class of 2024 includes Neko Case sideman Jon Rauhouse, blues guitarist Hans Olson, Arizona music historian John Dixon and the Rhythm Room.
Rauhouse, Olson and Bob Corritore, who owns the club, are scheduled to perform, with Corritore fronting his own band. Special guests will also take the stage.
The ceremony runs from 2 to 5 p.m. at the Rhythm Room, 1019 E. Indian School Road, Phoenix. A donation of $10 is requested.
Here's a look at this year's inductees.
The Rhythm Room
A sign outside the Rhythm Room proclaims the premises "Phoenix's Roots & Blues Concert Club."
And that's exactly what it's been since 1991, when Bob Corritore, a harmonica-playing bandleader who'd grown up in a city famous for its blues, Chicago, decided to open his own club on the former site of a club called the Purple Turtle, where he'd booked his first show in the Valley with Louisiana Red.
The Rhythm Room quickly earned a reputation as a go-to place for local blues fans. Among the legendary acts that have played there are Jimmy Rogers, Bo Diddley, R.L. Burnside, Koko Taylor, Junior Wells, Bobby Rush and local blues great Chico Chism.
In a 2020 interview with The Arizona Republic, Corritore, who also hosts a radio show, "Those Lowdown Blues," on Sunday evenings on KJZZ-FM (91.5), acknowledged that the Rhythm Room has always been more than a blues club.
"We present all different types of music, but somehow it all feels like home to us," he said. "Whether it's a cool singer-songwriter or the 5678s doing a garage-rock surf thing or some of the best blues music that ever existed or Big Sandy and the Fly-Rite Boys playing their wonderful brand of rockabilly, it all seems to be what we stand for."
Jon Rauhouse
When Jon Rauhouse started playing steel guitar in the late '70s, it wasn't popular at all.
As he told The Republic in 2021, "They were trying to excise it out of all music. So it was kind of a weird thing for me to pick up at that time. Like, 'Yeah, I'll do that. Everybody seems to not want to hear it. I'll do it.'"
Having chosen to master an instrument that wasn't popular when he was learning how to play it, he managed to carve out a niche for himself as an in-demand session and touring musician.
He's worked with Neko Case since 1999 and toured with Jakob Dylan, Billy Bob Thornton and Iron & Wine with Ben Bridwell.
In addition to playing on albums by Case, Thornton’s Boxmasters, Calexico, Dr. Dog, K.T. Tunstall, the Old 97's and Giant Sand, he's done several albums of his own, collaborating with Blaine Long on 2023's excellent "One Day Will Never Come Back."
"I've played pedal steel at Jazz at Lincoln Center and the Sydney Opera House," he told The Republic in 2021. "One week, I'm playing steel guitar at the Hollywood Bowl with Neko. The next, I'm playing outside Stinkweeds next to the Short Leash truck. And I loved both gigs."
Hans Olson
This celebrated singer-songwriter, who plays slide on an amplified acoustic guitar while blowing harmonica, which he wears in a rack around his neck, has shared the stage with Muddy Waters, B.B. King, Joe Cocker, ZZ Top, the Allman Brothers, Tom Waits, Bonnie Raitt, Boz Scaggs and Brownie McGhee.
In 1995, a Phoenix New Times reporter declared him "the Valley's consummate bluesman," noting that Olson's "fascinating slide guitar and harmonica-in-a-rack technique is recognized by industry insiders to be among the best anywhere — Chicago, L.A. and the Mississippi Delta included."
Olson was 17 when he left California for Phoenix, releasing his first album, "Western Winds," in 1973.
In 1980, he toured the country with Dave Mason, playing 100 shows together. In 1981, he recruited two legends —Al Kooper and Albert Lee — to join him on an album called "The Aspen Tapes." A year later, Tom Fogerty of Creedence Clearwater Revival recorded one of Olson's songs as the title track on his solo album, "Deal It Out."
In 1996, Olson was inducted into the Arizona Blues Hall of Fame.
In 2006, he signed with Fervor Records, going on to make three albums and a music video for the label.
In 2012, the title track of Olson's debut album, "Western Winds," was named to a list of 100 songs that define Arizona by Phoenix New Times.
In addition to his musical endeavors, Olson played a key role in establishing the Phoenix Blues Society, the Arizona Blues Hall of Fame, the Arizona Music Heritage Foundation and the Arizona Music & Entertainment Hall of Fame.
In 1986, he became a part owner in the Sun Club, which became a cornerstone of Tempe's burgeoning live music scene along the way to forcing Olson to go bankrupt after hosting early shows by Gin Blossoms and Dead Hot Workshop.
John Dixon
John Dixon has worn many hats worth noting on the local music scene since arriving in Tempe, by train, with his mom in 1953.
He became a DJ in grade school, spinning records for kids at lunchtime at his school, doing record hops at Tempe High on weekends and working in Arizona radio as Johnny D for decades, from KDKB to KEYX 100.3 AM and KWSS.
As a young man, Dixon drummed in local bands the Sonics and Stan Devereaux's band, the Trendsetters.
He worked as a record distributor, which led to a promotion gig at Capitol Records.
But Dixon, who like Olson is a co-founder of the organization about to induct him, says he'd like to think he's going in based on the work he's done as Arizona's unofficial music historian, from his archiving efforts to the Arizona recordings he's gotten released on his own label or through other bigger labels "to keep the music alive."
His website, azmusicdude.com, is packed with vital Arizona music history. And he's licensed countless Arizona songs to TV shows and films through Fervor Records since purchasing a treasure trove of local music publishing from Floyd and Mary Ramsey of Audio Recorders, where Arizona legends Duane Eddy and Sanford Classic recorded classic early rock hits.
"I've been voted in twice in the early days," he says. "And I said, 'No, I don't want it until you get some other more deserving people in there. Because it's about the people I try and support and write about in liner notes, whatever it may be. That's why this whole thing started."
Olson, Dixon says, has also had the votes to be inducted but declined the honor prior to this year.
"So when I saw that he was getting inducted, I said, 'Well, if he's going in after 30 years or whatever it's been, I'll get my plaque and go in, too,'" Dixon says.
"There's a lot of other people that are certainly more deserving and should be in there, but I thought I would go ahead and get my plaque and hope they get some other folks in there that truly deserve to be in there because they were making music in Arizona, some before I've been here," Dixon says.
Dixon figures his efforts as a DJ may be part of the equation, too, he says, "because I did play a lot of Arizona music."
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Reach the reporter at [email protected]. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @EdMasley.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: These Arizona music greats are headed to the hall of fame
