Hall of Fame

2011 Inductees

Raised in Alabama, Lena grew up singing gospel in her grandmother’s church. She moved to Sacramento with her family in 1966. In 1976, Gene Chambers heard Lena sing and encouraged her to sing the blues, taking her around town and introducing her to such influences as Johnny Heartsman, Arbess Williams, Johnny Knox and Mick Martin.

Lena performed regularly for many years with local bands before forming her own band, Lena Mosley and The Badd Shoes Blues Band,” When Mike Balma decided to record a CD entitled “The Sacramento Blues,” it featured 10 local blues bands that included Lena’s. All the groups on the recording then toured from Sacramento to Tahoe, San Francisco, Redding, stopping at many of the surrounding cities. The Rhythm and Blues Magazine interviewed and featured an article on Lena’s participation in the tour and the CD.

Lena’s performance with the Sacramento Blues Society events span many years, performing at Christmas parties, fund raisers, jam sessions and the Blues In The School program. Lena also brought the “Blues” to the CSUS Student Body, and her band regularly performed at the Sacramento Blues Festival during the many years that Phil Givant was the producer, leading to being asked by the Jazz Jubilee to perform on subsequent occasions.

In 2006, Lena joined “The Sacramento Blues Revue,” an eight person band, as the only female vocalist. Recently the group received a SAMMIE (Sacramento Area Music Award) for the “Best Blues Band,” recognizing the band as a prominent local act.

For more than 20 years, Mike Balma has contributed to Sacramento blues as a promoter and producer of blues festivals, concerts and shows and as an owner and producer of recordings by Sacramento blues musicians.

Mike volunteered for the Sacramento Blues Festival beginning in the 1980’s, eventually becoming a member of the executive staff, then went on to become President of the Sacramento Blues Society in 1992. Under his leadership with the SBS, there were 5 Blues in the Park concert series as well as the release of Sacramento Blues, a compilation CD of 16 Sacramento blues artists.

Mike is perhaps best known as the co-director of the Sacramento Heritage Festival, which was produced from 1994 to 2002 and sometimes drew over 10,000 attendees and featured many genres of music as an art form. From 1997 to 2011, Mike presented over 50 shows of multiple-themed acts in various venues, primarily the Sacramento Horsemen’s Association.

Several benefit concerts were held to generate funds for musicians and their families and thousands of dollars-worth of musical instruments were donated to a variety of Sacramento area school music programs.

During the past 20 years, Mike also produced blues programming for other Sacramento area musical programs, including the Rocklin Jubilee, Rainbow Festival, several SPCA Festivals, the Sacramento Downtown Concert Series and the Sacramento SAMMIES.

(1938 – 2012)

Omar was born David Alexander Elam in Shreveport, Louisiana and was raised in Marshall, Texas migrating to California in 1957 and settling in the Bay Area in the mid-60s. He recorded 3 LPs in 1968, 1972-73 and in 1975 he was rated the 3rd best piano player in the world by Contemporary Keyboard magazine (behind Ray Charles and Mose Allison).

After the rise of disco and changing to his Muslim name, Omar saw his gigs limited and he sank into obscurity. He relocated to the Fresno area during the 1980’s and despite his distant location, Omar frequently gigged in Sacramento throughout the 80’s at Melarkeys, the Torch Club and the Palms Playhouse in Davis and was the house band for extended stays at Sam’s Hof Brau. In 1992, he moved to Sacramento and for the next 20 years had numerous appearances at Fulton’s Prime Rib and Jazzman’s in Old Sacramento.

Omar appeared at all the major national blues festivals, including many times at San Francisco. He appeared at every Sacramento Blues Festival from 1976-1993 and every Sacramento Heritage Festival held from 1994-2005. Omar also toured nationally and internationally.

Omar’s repertoire includes over 5000 songs and dozens of outstanding, edgy original compositions, many of which involve uncomfortable subjects and brutally honest lyrics. While in Sacramento, Omar recorded 3 CDs for the Have Mercy Label and his songs also appear on both Sacramento Blues compilation CDs. In 1993, his song “House Built By The Blues” was nominated for a Handy award and Sacramento Bee music critic David Barton called it “one of the best songs of any kind to come from a local songwriter” and Omar “one of the country’s best songwriters.”

In 2011, Omar returned to live as a honored musician in his hometown of Marshall, Texas at the request of the mayor, who declared the town “The Boogie Woogie Capital” upon Omar’s return.