Bobby Rush, the forever young blues man based in Mississippi who won his first Grammy Award at age 83, and his second this year, when his Rawer Than Raw record was named Best Traditional Blues Album, is no dummy. In fact, he’ll tell you how smart he is. “I’m smart enough to know I don’t know anything,” he says. “If a man tell what he know, he won’t talk long. ‘Cos man don’t know nothing.”
It’s a typically humble statement from a man who, paradoxically, is not known for his shyness or reticence onstage. When you speak with him, you hear the humility that has kept him working doggedly through the years. “I’m not just a blues man,” he says. “I’m God’s child. I’m another kinda person, you know? And I got by in this rat race, not because I was so good, but because I was so blessed, and God had so much mercy on me. I’m not here on my own. I’m not doing anything on my own.”
With such a philosophical bent, its should come as no surprise that the songwriter and performer has also been a teacher of sorts. Since 2014, he’s partnered with the Mike Curb Institute for Music at Rhodes College as the inaugural Curb Visiting Scholar in the Arts. He continues his relationship with the college to this day through immersive student experiences and historically significant public programs. Over this time, the relationship between Rush and the college has been a part of the educational experience of well over one hundred Rhodes students.
As a visiting scholar, Rush has taught a course on “Music and Community in Memphis,” and offered lectures and performances with Rhodes students in local venues. This 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 culmination of all of this and Rush’s own storied career in music, the Rhodes Board of Trustees announced today that Rush will be this year’s recipient of the Honorary Doctorate of Humanities. The degree will be presented at the Commencement Exercises of the Rhodes College Class of 2021, to be held Saturday, May 15th, at 8:30 a.m., in the Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium. Congratulations, Dr. Bobby Rush!
