Hall of Fame

2022 Inductees

It’s been said the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, and in this family, definitely a truism. Leigh A. Lunetta was born July 18, 1959, and began taking music lessons from his father, Stanley Lunetta, at the age of five. Stan Lunetta was a percussionist, composer, sculptor, and well-known Sacramento Music Circus contributor for more than 50 years.
 
Leigh’s first professional gig as a drummer was when he was 12 years old, which was the beginning of a long and illustrious career of becoming proficient in playing a wide variety of genres of music, allowing his skills to be utilized in various venues and studios locally and in the Bay Area as well as Southern California. Leigh had the pleasure of playing with International Blues artists Johnny Heartsman and Frankie Lee, both of whom settled in Sacramento, other local Blues musicians Omar Sharriff and Jimmy Pailer (all HOF members), as well as many other well-known artists.
 
Leigh contributed his talents by working with the Blues In The Schools (BITS) program with Mick Martin and other musicians, performing in school assemblies. He continues to work the club scene, festivals, and other local venues.

Christopher “Chris” Fraire is a native, Northern California bassist, who has been living and breathing blues for over 50 years. Born to humble beginnings in the artists’ melting pot of Berkeley, Chris was born into music, and had it pumping through his veins early on. His grandfather, Pete Fraire, a notable Hawaiian style slide guitarist, who went on to teach guitar later in life; and his uncle, Gilbert Fraire, bassist for the Merced Blue Notes (of American Bandstand fame), served as his first true influences. As a child, Chris would watch them at various shows and special events, and knew even then that was what he was destined to do.

Like most kids growing up through the 60s, Chris listened to The Beatles and The Stones, which eventually led him to be influenced by English blues rockers like: Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, John Mayall, and Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac. Later, he would learn of Johnny Winter, who changed his course and gravitated him to American Blues artists like: Freddy King, B.B. King, and Muddy Waters.

Over the span of Chris’s lifetime, his career would lead him to work with many leaders in the industry. Some notable mentions include: working with the Merced Blue Notes, performing with Steve Shelton backing JJ Malone, and playing with J. Wood & the Blues Commandos, where they backed up the likes of heavy hitters such as Charlie Musselwhite. Later in his career, some of Chris’s shining moments as an artist include performing multiple tours across Canada with Frankie Lee, being a proud member of the Arbess Williams Band for several years, along with recording on her LP, and most recently, fulfilling a life-long dream of being featured on a movie track (Under the Palm Tree).


Chris is best known for the distinct way he wears his heart on his strings, and plucks soul from every chord. He continues to be a powerful force in the world of Blues with no end in sight.

Chris Martinez has had a long career based in the Blues, pulling together his own style of acoustic to ragtime, to bottleneck, and continuing into electric players, starting with The Three Kings (Albert, B.B. and Freddie). His father’s Texas influence prevailed, drawing Chris to players like Lightnin’ Hopkins, Billy Gibbons, Anson Funderburgh, and of course Jimmie and Stevie Ray Vaughan. This led to Chris’ long-running Blues trio “Hollywood Texas,” which was started in the early 90s.
 
It was upon various day trips for gigs in San Francisco at the Saloon and the Grant and Green, that Chris met Johnny Nitro, a well-respected musician in the Bay Area, whom Chris quotes to this day “Keep it greasy, don’t get too polished and continue to play with other artists often.”
 
He’s played with bass players Andrew Browne (Beer Dawgs) & Jay Peterson (Little Charlie & the Nightcats); was often an opening act for Commander Cody, Jimmy Rogers, and many others; played Sam’s Hof Brau in Sacramento, jamming with Johnny Heartsman, Johnny “Guitar” Knox, Steve Samuels, Omar Sharriff (all HOF members) and other local greats. All of this led to backing Arbess Williams for two years, Guitar Mac another two after that; opening for Bobby “Blue” Bland, John Hammond, Albert Collins, Little Milton, and other internationally known Blues artists.
 
On NYE in 2008, guitarist James Papastathis asked Chris to join him, bassist Steve Schofer (Mick Martin), drummer Steve Price (Pablo Cruise) and vocalist Dana Moret (Lydia Pense) and form the band “Mr. December”, which became a popular favorite in Northern California. In 2010, Chris put together a new band called “Hollywood Texas Blues” with Sacramento drummer Pete Phillis, legendary organ player Kevin Burton (Joe Louis Walker), NYC jazz bassist Zach Westfall, and toured the lower United States for two years.
 
Chris joined the Katie Knipp band in 2019 and continues to tour with them.

Saxophone Zot got his first sax in 1954 while in the eighth grade and was reading charts in concert bands until 1962. He bought a Martin tenor sax, left college and joined Doug Brown and the Omens, a Pontiac, Michigan band that played from 9 pm to 2 am, six nights a week in a local club. During that period, Zot saw a sax player in Toledo, Ohio, who, when asked to play a tune, walked through the crowd and climbed up on the bar while people put money in his horn. That was a big inspiration for Zot, and he’s been a bar walker ever since. (Although, now at 81, he doesn't do that so much anymore.) He remembers playing at the club for just over two years, where the owner let Bob Seger and his underage band sit up front to watch. Bob was looking for a record deal and asked Zot to add sax to some demos making him Seger’s first sax player.
 
The Omens passed up a guaranteed record deal, so Zot left and moved to California in 1966. He did not play for 15 years. In 1978, Johnny "Guitar" Knox, left his partners Ray "Catfish" Copeland and Jimmy Morello (all HOF members) in charge of the Blue Flames. Three years later, Zot dropped into the Shanghai Saloon in Auburn one night to sit in with his sax and dazzled everyone there with his showmanship and his playing. He was made a full-time band member shortly afterward. A couple months later, tenor saxman Marty Deradoorian joined the band. In 1983, Copeland, Morello, Deradoorian, Zot and bassist Steve Schofer were joined by Tim Barnes, formerly of Stoneground. Copeland left to form Catfish & the Crawdaddies and the band changed its name to the Fabulous Flames, releasing a well-received album entitled "Rock 'n Roll with a Whole Lotta Soul."
 
Marty and Zot have been a horn section together for over 40 years, still teaming up as guests with blues bands in Northern California to add their distinctive touch of class.

John Noxon, a life-long musician, started playing keyboard in Rock and Blues bands in the sixties in the San Francisco Bay Area. He lived in Utah, Texas, and Nevada in the late 70s-80s and returned to Sacramento in the early 1990s.
 
John has been a long-time supporter of the Sacramento Blues Society, serving in various capacities as Vice-President, Newsletter Writer, Editor, and Events Chair for 10 years, all the while directing and back-lining eighty-seven profitable shows. He initially created and chaired both the SBS Hall of Fame and the Gene Chambers Emergency Musicians Fund in the early 90s. He has continued to support our Blues in the Schools (BITS) program with his generous donations of restored Hammond organs.
 
As a musician, he has played in bands opening for Jerry Garcia, Huey Lewis, Johnny Heartsman, Coco Montoya, Tommy Castro, Van Morrison's Band, Les Dudek, Billy Preston, Larry Graham, Maria Muldaur, Guitar Shorty and many others. In addition, he has performed with Daniel Castro, Elvin Bishop, Angila Witherspoon, Lara Price, Su Mac, Gary Mendoza, Mark Herin, Chris Martinez, Sacramento Blues Revue, Marshal Wilkerson, Grant Urias, Melonnee Desiree, Val Starr and Mick Martin. Noxon currently plays keys in the Tim Noxon Rockin' Blues Band.
 
John’s community spirit spilled into organizing, playing, and back-lining music for Sacramento Loaves and Fishes’ special events, most notably on Thanksgiving.
 
He is one of the few remaining keyboard technicians with Hammond & Leslie keyboard repair experience. Noxon’s keyboards are used at Greaseland; Tanglewood and King Tide Studios.