Internationally renowned blues artist, Blues Hall of Fame inductee, and Grammy Award winner Bobby Rush, whose career spans eight decades, received an Honorary Doctorate of Humanities. degree from Rhodes College in Memphis on Saturday, May 15.
Over the past decade, “Professor Rush,” as he is known to the students in the Mike Curb Institute for Music, has forged a unique partnership with the liberal arts college. Rush was named the inaugural Curb Visiting Scholar in the Arts in 2014 and continues his relationship with the college through immersive student experiences and historically significant public programs. The relationship between Rush and the college has been a part of the educational experience of well over one hundred Rhodes students. These experiences have included Rush’s teaching of a course entitled “Music and Community in Memphis,” participation in symposia and public lectures, and performances alongside Rhodes students in Memphis area venues including Elvis Presley’s first home. During the spring 2021 semester, Rush partnered with the Curb Institute on a project involving dozens of students that culminated in a recording of an original blues version of “America the Beautiful” which will be released in recognition of Memorial Day as a celebration of unity.
“I’m on cloud nine, man,” said Rush, 87, in a phone interview with the Commercial Appeal from his home in Jackson, Mississippi. “This means everything to me.”
Camden Napier, member of the class of 2021 and Curb Institute Fellow, shared that “The opportunity to engage in a project with one of the most iconic figures in Blues music, especially in the Mid-South region, is indicative of the unique learning experienced offered at Rhodes College through the Mike Curb Institute. Working with Bobby Rush, Eddie Cotton, Fuzzy Jeffries, and Boo Mitchell on a recording at the famed Royal Studios teaches us not only about making music, but about the cultural history and significance of what it means to make music in Memphis. The lessons I learned while working on this project will be carried with me through a variety of contexts and further experiences.”
Rush was born in Homer, Louisiana, in 1933. He released his first hit, “Chicken Heads,” in 1971 for Galaxy Records. He has won twelve Blues Music Awards and in 2017, at the age of 83, he won his first Grammy Award for the album Porcupine Meat. In 2021, he won his second Grammy for Rawer Than Raw. He is inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame, Mississippi Musicians Hall of Fame, and Rhythm & Blues Music Hall of Fame.
