Hall of Fame

2017 Inductees

Bill Scholer is a native Californian, born in Concord, California in 1954. As a teenager, he was greatly influenced by Jimmy Page, Albert King, Mike Bloomfield, Steve Miller and many others. From that point on he worked to become a guitarist, making many trips on a Greyhound bus to San Francisco to see guitarists Albert King, Mike Bloomfield, Steve Miller and more.

Scholer came to Davis to work for the UCD Art Department as Graphic Technician in 1981, which led him to meet Mike Henderson. Henderson was a blues guitarist who was performing with Mike Bloomfield, Albert Collins and opening for Jerry Garcia. With the encouragement of Henderson, Bill started performing in Davis coffee shops and open mics.

Teaming up with harmonica player Jim Lewis this acoustic duo opened shows for Paul Butterfield and Rick Danko, Willie Dixon, James Cotton and John Lee Hooker at the Palms. Adding drums, bass, and sax, The Bill Scholer Blues Band started hitting the clubs. This initial version of the Bill Scholer Blues Band opened shows for Los Lobos, The Chambers Brothers and The Ventures and played the Sacramento Blues Festival.

As bands do after many years, Scholer formed a newer version of the Bill Scholer Blues Band, which once represented the Sacramento Blues Society at the Oakland Art Museum at a gathering of Northern California Blues Societies and toured the Ukraine (then part of the USSR as part of the Davis Sister City Project}. Scholer went on to form other bands that played in the old Sam’s Hof Brau, Fox and Goose and the Hogshead Brew Pub in Old Sac. Each of these bands had a mixture of stellar performers.

The band took another turn in the 90’s, coming together with other current HOF members along with many other notables. Scholer continued to expand his repertoire and even played zydeco music in the Mark St Mary Zydeco Blues Band.

In 2000 Scholer performed at the Crocker Art Museum with Robert Armstrong, Keith Cary and Jim Monroe for the exhibition The Art of the Resonator Guitar.

Teaching music has always been Bill’s passion; he was awarded the California Arts Council Artist in Residency grant to teach music within the California State Prison system before relocating to Japan in 2012, where he currently resides with his wife Karla.

Fred “Deacon” Baker started his musical career early at the age of six singing gospel in the church choir and was singing solos by the age of 10. His first instrument of choice was the trumpet, which he played in high school and college marching bands. While in high school he taught himself harmonica and in college played in a jazz band that backed such notables as Doc Severinsen. His career in the Navy took him to various countries where he could expand upon his vocals and harp playing, eventually leading him back to the States, where he soon became a popular fixture, playing with Johnny Heartsman, Arbess Williams, and Omar Sharriff (all HOF members now), generally at Sam’s Hof Brau and the Torch Club. He has done studio work with Sly and the Family Stone and Sammy Hagar, television work out of Chico, CA on Channel 12, and even crossed the line playing country at the Opry Land Hotel and the Nashville Palace in Nashville.

Upon returning to Sacramento Deacon was encouraged by Ken Van Cromphaut (Obie Dee) to join his band the BluesExciters and when it folded, joined up with the Sacramento Blues Revue, with whom he continues to play to this day.

​Ken (Obie Dee) Van Cromphaut has been a fixture on the West Coast music scene for more than forty years. With formal classical training, he had a love for Gospel and Blues music at an early age. He has also donned the composer hat and is a member of ASCAP as well as being a session musician and performing artist. As a guitarist, Obie Dee has crafted a crystalline guitar tone and screaming leads, and along with his raspy vocals, they have become his signature sound. His membership in some of the best known bands include The BluesExciters (founder), performed with Mick Martin and the Blues Rockers, The Grant Urias Band, Ro Harpo, the Slim Chance Band, Sleeper, Bone Jelly, and most recently the Zola Moon Band. In addition, Ken has been active in fund-raising events such as Loaves and Fishes, MDA Telethon, and the Multiple Sclerosis Society. He is a continuing member of the Sacramento Blues Society and the now-defunct Sierra Blues Society, where he once served on the Board of Directors.

​Stan Powell started playing harmonica in the late 1970s, taking lessons from Little Charlie Baty. He began sitting in with bands in Sacramento, including Sacramento Hall of Fame members Little Charlie and Rick Estrin of the Nightcats, Ray “Catfish” Copeland, and Johnny Knox, who were each important early influences on his playing and gave him practical education on playing music. Stan continued to sit in with local bands and play at jam sessions while he lived in Arizona and southern California in the 1980s, and he had the opportunity to play with now well-known national artists like Bob Corritore, Janiva Magness, and the William Clarke band (then featuring Rick Holmstrom and Zach Zunis on guitars). Stan also played on his first recording with the Phoenix band, the Hoo Doo Kings.

Upon returning to Sacramento in 1991, Stan joined his first band, the Coolerators, which has since evolved into the current Midtown Creepers. The band has survived almost 25 years with original members Jerry McGuire and Stan Powell – while other personnel have changed, the band still includes a Nightcats alum and Hall of Fame member Liz Peel on bass, who Stan first met while taking lessons from Little Charlie. The Creepers have played at many of the notable Sacramento area clubs, including the Torch Club, Sam’s Hofbrau, the Stoney Inn, and the Sutterville Saloon (now the Powerhouse Pub), and put out their CD “All Over Town” that included a number of originals by the band.

Stan was also a member of Catfish and the Crawdaddies for about 15 years, reconnecting musically with Catfish Copeland. Stan participated in most of the band’s performances at the Sacramento Music Festival, and played on all three of the Crawdaddies’ CDs. Stan has also played with other northern California artists, including three CDs by west coast guitar wizard Kenny Blue Ray; Bobby Blues Ray’s recent “Blues Knight of the West Coast” CD; Julie and the Jukes and is currently playing original rock and roll music with Friday Night Band, having played on their first CD.

Tim Wilbur has been a first call drummer for an extensive list of Sacramento’s best musicians/bands and beyond, going back decades. It’s been said that Tim, a pro’s pro, has always been well prepared and on time for every musical assignment!

Wilbur was mentored by Ray Torres (Jimmy Reed, Freddie King, Delbert McClinton), played with Timothy Grass, co-founder, ’67-’70, a band featured in the legendary gigs in William Land Park, also Slo Loris, co-founder, ’69-‘70, horn band that gigged in the Sacramento Area/San Francisco Bay Area, opening for Tower Of Power, Savoy Brown, Boz Skaggs, Linda Tillery & The Loading Zone, Sons of Champlin, and Elvin Bishop. He also played many times in various bands with or backed the following folks: Mick Martin, Johnny Clarke, Gary Black, Johnny Nugget, Omar Sharriff, Marcus Rivers; Newell Burton (Electric Church), Craig Horton, Jimmy Z (Etta James, Rod Stewart), Roger Smith (Tower of Power), Guitar Shorty, RW Grigsby, and Steve Samuels.

Tim played in the Oldies Revue (Hughes Stadium, early ‘80s w/Johnny Heartsman), backed Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Mary Wells, the Coasters, the Drifters, Jewel Aiken, and Will Porter, in addition to playing many times at the Sacramento Blues Festival produced by the late Phil Givant in the 80’s; backed Chuck Berry there in 1992; and the Johnny Knox Trio with Jay Peterson at Sam’s Hof Brau, 1991-1992. 1995-2000 brought him into the Bill Scholer Blues Band; Kenny Blue Ray 2009-2012; Catfish and the Crawdaddies w/Ray Copeland 2012-2014; Red’s Blues, Sacramento Music Festival 2017 and The Hucklebucks 2010-present, plus the 2017 Sammies Hall of Fame.

(XX? – 2017)

Jay Peterson was the former bassist for Little Charlie and the Nightcats and unfortunately cancer took his life in May. Over the course of his music career, Jay worked with such notables as Chuck Berry, Otis Rush and Charlie Musselwhite and local luminaries like Johnny “Guitar” Knox and more recently, Kyle Rowland. Jay’s professionalism and showmanship were instrumental in taking Little Charlie and the Nightcats from working the local bar scene to being signed by Alligator records and touring the world. Jay fought and conquered some serious health issues and had really been thriving the past few years until the cancer got him.

Charlie Baty recalls “Jay Peterson has represented Sacramento around the whole world. Jay was there at the inception of the blues scene at Sam’s Hofbrau and backed Johnny Knox there for years. Jay lived here for large chunks of time twice in his life. There have been few people who have been as influential as Jay Peterson in the history of Sacramento blues.”