Compositions
Other artists such as Rick Derringer, Barrence Whitfield & the Savages, and The Symptoms started recording his songs, and Tiven dedicated himself to primarily writing songs for other artists. In 1985 he renewed a friendship with his hero Don Covay, and they wrote, performed, and recorded together through 2001. A label approached him to make his own record, and so was formed The Jon Tiven Group who recorded two albums, Blue Guru and Yes I Ram in 1996 and 1999 respectively. The band featured Jon Tiven on guitar, Alan Merrill on lead vocals, Todd Snare on drums, and Tiven's wife Sally Tiven on bass. Tiven started having some Billboard Hot 100 chart success with covered songs recorded by Huey Lewis and the News and The Jeff Healey Band, and Tiven then submitted some songs to B.B. King to record. King's manager asked him to produce B.B. The sessions Tiven produced and wrote by B.B. King were parcelled out on several releases, including Here and There, a European release Lucille & Friends, and the Grammy-award winning box set King of the Blues. From that time on Tiven would distinguish himself in the Soul/Blues field, writing and producing new albums by Don Covay, Syl Johnson, Donnie Fritts, Freddie Scott, and Sir Mack Rice, among others. He coaxed Arthur Alexander out of retirement in 1990 and in 1998 produced and cowrote Wilson Pickett's first album in seventeen years, It's Harder Now, which won three W.C. Handy Awards and was nominated for a Grammy. Tiven continued to have his songs recorded by other artists--- Robert Cray had a top seller with the cover "24-7 Man," Johnny Winter with "I Smell Smoke," Buddy Guy with "Midnight Train," Shemekia Copeland with "Married To The Blues," Irma Thomas with "Trying To Catch A Cab In The Rain," and Australian Ian Moss with "Mr. Rain."
Read more about this topic: Jon Tiven