Don Nix - Passing Through - 2008
Don Nix started out as guitar player who fell under the spell of the music brought into Memphis homes on Dewey Phillip’s “Red, Hot, and Blue” radio program. Joining forces with childhood friends guitarist Steve Cropper and bassist Donald “Duck” Dunn, Nix made the switched to saxophone as a member of the Royal Spades. The other horn player was the mercurial Charles “Packy” Axton, a man who loved music almost as much as he loved alcohol. The plot thickens when Axton’s mother, Estelle, forms a partnership with Jim Stewart to open a recording studio fronted by a record store. The operation becomes a focal point of the area’s musical community, eventually becoming the celebrated Stax Record label.
A native of Memphis, Tennessee, Nix came from a musical family (his brother, Larry Nix, became a mastering engineer for Stax and for the Ardent Recording Studios in Memphis). Don Nix began his career playing saxophone for the Mar-Keys, which also featured Steve Cropper, Duck Dunn and others. The hit instrumental single "Last Night" (composed by the band as a whole) was the first of many successful hits to Nix's credit. Without Nix, the Mar-Keys evolved into Booker T. & the M.G.'s.
As a producer, Nix worked with other artists and producers, such as Leon Russell of Shelter Records; Gary Lewis and the Playboys in Dick Clark's Caravan of Stars; George Harrison, of the Beatles; and John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers. One notable achievement was his collaboration with Harrison, Russell, and many others in the production of the "Concert for Bangladesh", Nix agreed that he organized backing chorus group for benefit concert at Madison Square Garden in 1971
Throughout his career, Nix worked behind the scenes as producer, arranger, and musician and in other roles for artists including Lonnie Mack, Furry Lewis, Freddie King, Albert King, Delaney, Bonnie & Friends, Isaac Hayes, the Staple Singers, Jeff Beck, Brian May, Eric Clapton, and many others. He wrote and produced albums for solo artists and for groups, such as Don Nix and the Alabama State Troupers, John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers, the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, and Larry Raspberry and the Highsteppers.
His song, "Going Down", originally released by the band Moloch on their eponymous album in 1969, has become a rock-and-roll standard, having been covered by Freddie King, Jeff Beck, Deep Purple, JJ Cale, Marc Ford, Chicken Shack, Bryan Ferry, Pearl Jam, Gov't Mule, Sam Kinison, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Joe Satriani, the Who, Led Zeppelin, Sammy Hagar, Joe Bonamassa, Sturgill Simpson, and others. Nix released a version of the song as a single for Elektra Records in 1972. The song "Black Cat Moan" was covered on the 1973 album Beck, Bogert & Appice. The Rolling Stones performed "Goin' Down" with John Mayer and Gary Clark, Jr. live on Pay-Per-View television on December 15, 2012, as part of the Stones' 50th Anniversary Tour.
02. She's My Rock
03. Roads
04. I Wrote It on the Wall
05. Passing Through
06. World Keep on Turning
07. I Don't Know Why I Care About You
08. Where's the Problem
09. I Belong to My Songs
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