Born and raised in the heart
of Jackson, Mississippi, Zac
Harmon is a true disciple of the music that emanated
from the city’s
historic Farish Street district,
universally recognized as the home of such great blues
legends like the late, great Elmore James.
Harmon’s early years included stints as guitarist
for Z.Z Hill, Dorothy Moore,
McKinley Mitchell and
Sam Myers. Sam along with Jesse Robinson and Mel Brown
played a significant role in Harmon’s development
guiding his progress through the rifts of rock ‘n
roll to the true blues. At the age of 16 he was teaching
guitar at the local YMCA, instructing young men such
as Eddie Cotton to play church music. Family demands
and his own commitment to pursue an education meant
replacing music for college. However once completed
he couldn’t stay away from his calling.
Moving to Los Angeles in 1980 to pursue a
career in music, Harmon worked as a studio musician and began to make a name
for himself as a writer/producer, crafting songs for such varied notables as
Karyn White, Freddie Jackson, Evelyn “Champagne” King,
The Whispers, Cherrelle, K.C. & Jo Jo, The Mississippi Mass Choir and Children’s
Choir, Alexander O’Neal and the O’Jays. He produced songs on the
Mystical Truth album for Black Uhuru that received a Grammy
nomination in 1994.
Later, while composing songs for a movie score
and performing those songs in the studio, Harmon decided to pursue his longtime
dream of recording his first blues project. The result, Live
at Babe & Ricky's
Inn, (2002 Another Production Company) was an electrifying
testimonial to the blues, featuring eight totally original songs that truly embodies
the Mississippi blues sound.
Sponsored by the Southern California Blues Society
of Los Angeles, Harmon and the Mid South Blues Revue went on to win The
Blues Foundation’s 2004
International Blues Challenge as “best unsigned
blues band.”
That release was
followed by The Blues According To Zacariah,
which garnered major national airplay, including XM,
Sirius and the American Blues Network. XM listeners
voted Harmon “Best New
Blues Artist” in the inaugural
XM Nation Awards in 2005. In 2006, Harmon won the Blues Music Award for “Best
New Artist Debut” for The Blues According to Zacariah. Later that year,
he was featured in Blues Revue magazine, as one of the 10 artists that “…represent
the future of the blues”.
2007 saw Harmon named to the Blues Foundation’s Board of Directors and
entering into an endorsement deal with Category 5 Amplification. In 2008, he
released Shot in the Kill Zone in Europe,
recorded live at the Lionel Hampton Room in Paris. He then signed with the
Northern Blues label for his third and much-anticipated U.S. album, From
the Root that was released April 2009.
Harmon also marked his acting debut in ’09 with a major role in the
independent feature film Black and Blue, which is to be released in 2010. Also,
in 2009, he was honored for his career achievements in his beloved hometown
at the Jackson Music Awards and weeks later in Nashville, the Jus’ Blues
Music Foundation bestowed the “Little Milton” Guitar Award for “Outstanding
Guitar Player” upon him.
Zac Harmon entertained U.S. troops in Iraq and Kuwait in 2008 as one the stars
of Bluzapalooza and while headlining “The
Pizza & Pyramid Tour” of
Sicily, Italy and Cairo, Egypt in late 2009, Harmon and company made history
with a rare performance at site of the Great Pyramid and the Sphinx, making
the ensemble only the second Blues act to do so; Louis Armstrong being the
first.
More recently, Zac was featured performer for the 2010 “Mississippi
Celebrates its GRAMMY® Legacy” celebration, hosted by Mississippi
Governor Haley Barbour, where he was presented with a Peavey
Award by Peavey
Electronics founder and CEO Hartley D. Peavey. The Peavey Award honors the
state's many GRAMMY® winners and nominees as well as individuals who have
played a significant role in developing and furthering Mississippi's musical
heritage.
Zac Harmon continues to tour internationally as an ambassador for the Blues.
