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All Music Guide:
Author of the blues classic "Going Down," Don Nix is one of the more obscure figures in Southern soul and rock. As a producer he has worked with Freddie King, Jeff Beck, and Furry Lewis, among others; as an artist, he has released solo albums on Shelter and Elektra, as well as smaller labels like Icehouse.
Born in Memphis, Nix attended Messick High School with Donald "Duck" Dunn and Steve Cropper of the famed Stax house band Booker T. & the MG's. After graduation, Nix spent a short stint in the Army before returning to Memphis, where he joined Dunn and Cropper, along with Wayne Jackson, Packy Axton, Terry Johnson, and Smoochy Smith, as a saxophonist in the Mar-Keys.
The group scored a smash hit with the instrumental "Last Night" on the Satellite label (later Stax/Volt), and Nix went on the road with the group, while a house band from Memphis attempted to recorded follow-up hits under the Mar-Keys' name.
After the success of "Last Night" fizzled, Nix returned to Memphis and spent the next several years as a horn for hire, occasionally playing gigs with a re-formed version of the Mar-Keys or backing Stax stars such as William Bell and Carla Thomas.
In the mid-'60s, Nix began making trips to L.A. to visit Leon Russell and Carle Radle, friends he'd met through touring. The friendship with Russell, a big producer at the time, landed Nix a position in Dick Clark's Caravan of Stars backing one of Russell's acts, Gary Lewis & the Playboys. Their friendship also provided Nix the opportunity to see how a session was put together, and he began engineering and producing at studios around Memphis such as Stax and Ardent.
Nix spent the next several years writing and producing for artists such as Freddie King, Albert King, Sid Selvidge, and Charlie Musselwhite. In 1970, he signed a recording deal with Shelter Records (co-owned by his old friend Leon Russell) and released a solo album, In God We Trust. The album didn't sell very well, and after a few more attempts, Nix returned to recording other artists, producing records for John Mayall and the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section.
Absent from the record industry throughout most of the '80s, in recent years Nix has relocated to Nashville and began writing and producing again. He published a book about his experiences titled Road Stories & Recipes, and re-recorded many of his classic tracks with musicians such as Brian May and Steve Cropper for 2002's nostalgic Going Down.
Wikipedia:
Don Nix (born September 27, 1941, Memphis, Tennessee) is a songwriter, composer, arranger, musician, and author. Although cited as being "obscure", he is a key figure in several genres of Southern rock and Soul, R&B, and the Blues. He was instrumental in the creation of the trademark "Memphis soul" and Stax Records.
A native of Memphis, Tennessee, Nix began his career playing saxophone for The Mar-Keys, which also featured Steve Cropper, Duck Dunn and others. Don Nix came from a musical family, including his brother, Larry Nix, who became a mastering engineer for Stax and later, Ardent Recording Studios in Memphis, TN. 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 later evolved into Booker T & The MG'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, The Beatles' George Harrison and John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers. One notable achievement was the collaboration with Harrison, Russell and many others in the production of The Concert for Bangladesh - a star-studded benefit concert at Madison Square Garden in 1971.
Throughout his career, Nix worked behind the scenes as producer, arranger, musician and many other roles for artists such as Lonnie Mack, Furry Lewis, Freddy King, Albert King, Delaney, Bonnie & Friends, Isaac Hayes, The Staple Singers, Jeff Beck, Brian May, Eric Clapton and many others. He wrote and produced many solo albums and with groups Don Nix and the Alabama State Troopers, John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers, the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section and Larry Raspberry and the Highsteppers.
The song "Goin' Down", originally released by the band Moloch on their eponymous album in 1969, became a blues standard and was covered by Freddie King, Jeff Beck, Deep Purple, JJ Cale, Marc Ford, Bryan Ferry, Pearl Jam, Gov't Mule, Sam Kinison, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Joe Satriani and many others. Nix himself released a version of the song in 1972 as a single on Elektra Records. This song was also featured by Stan Webb on the 1972 Chicken Shack album Imagination Lady. The song "Black Cat Moan" was covered on the album Beck, Bogert & Appice.
