Jon Tiven

Jon Tiven (born January 3, 1955) is an American composer, guitarist, record producer, and music journalist.

He has produced albums by Wilson Pickett, Frank Black and Don Covay as well as a series of tribute albums paying tribute to the songwriting of Don Covay, Arthur Alexander, Otis Blackwell, Curtis Mayfield, and Van Morrison.

He was also the co-founder of the Memphis power pop band Prix, as well as the bands The Yankees and The Jon Tiven Group.

Tiven was born in New Haven, Connecticut.

He began his career as a music journalist in the late 1960s, writing for Rolling Stone, Fusion, Melody Maker, and a host of other magazines.

Initially an alto saxophonist, he taught himself to play a variety of instruments and became fairly adept at guitar, enough to write songs and accompany himself.

After a brief flirtation with higher education at Yale University and Sarah Lawrence College (1972–74), he dropped out to pursue his musical career.

In 1975 Tiven went to work for Chess Records in New York, but quickly saw that working inside a record company was not his calling, and travelled to Memphis to produce Alex Chilton's first solo album, Bach's Bottom.

After the Chilton sessions, Tiven formed the power pop group Prix with Tommy Hoehn, co-producing the recording of eleven songs at Memphis's Ardent Studios along with Big Star co-founder Chris Bell, who also contributed guitar and background vocals.

Tiven brought in Chilton to participate in the recordings as well.

In 1976, Tiven returned to New York, where Columbia/CBS Records offered to sign Prix after a showcase performance.

Tiven declined the offer, and then negotiated with Mercury Records, who eventually withdrew their third offer.

In 1977, Tiven licensed both the Prix and Chilton masters to Ork Records, which released a double A side Prix single and released the Chilton recordings as an EP entitled The Singer Not The Song.

After the Prix single was released, and Ork founder Terry Ork indicated he would be booking the group at CBGB, Hoehn left New York, not wanting to remain in the city any longer.

Although the group broke up, Miracle Records released another Prix single the following year.

After the break-up of Prix, Tiven began working for Big Sound Records, where he produced records by Van Duren and his own band The Yankees, but, losing faith in those running the label, he became totally independent.

In addition to playing on sessions for artists such as Major Lance ("I've Got A Right To Cry") and The Rolling Stones (I'm Going Down), Tiven honed his craft as a member of The Jim Carroll Band, as a guitarist/organist and also co-writing with Carroll the title song of the second album (Dry Dreams).

In 1985 he renewed a friendship with his hero Don Covay, and they wrote, performed, and recorded together through 2001.

Befriended by John Belushi, he formed The Tom Davis Experience featuring Al Franken with the two comedians, and had a featured acting role as well as writing five songs for their film One More Saturday Night (Columbia Pictures, 1986) produced by Dan Aykroyd.

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.

He coaxed Arthur Alexander out of retirement in 1990 and, in 1998, produced and co-wrote 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."

After the Jon Tiven Group disbanded, Tiven produced and co-wrote a series of albums with soul/blues singer Ellis Hooks.

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.

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 and blues genres, writing and producing new albums by Don Covay, Syl Johnson, Donnie Fritts, Freddie Scott, and Mack Rice, among others.

Moving from New York to Nashville in 2002, he produced a series of albums by Frank Black.

In 2004 he produced and co-wrote what would become Little Milton's last recorded effort Think Of Me, which was released in 2005 and received four W.C. Handy Awards in 2006 including Song of the Year and Album of the Year.

In 2006, he produced Sailover, by P.F. Sloan for Hightone Records, as well as What I Was Running From, the debut album by Indiana singer/songwriter Don Pedigo.

He continued to have his songs recorded by soul and blues artists, including Billy Price, Ricky Fanté, Gigi Dover, Hard Bargain featuring Arthur Canady, Rock Bottom, and Jim Quick & Coastline.

In 2007, Tiven produced and co-wrote Intuition, the first recordings in thirty-seven years by soul singer Betty Harris.

He continued his work with Ellis Hooks by producing Another Saturday Morning, the sixth album by the Alabama soul-blues musician.

Tiven also helmed the chart-topping American debut Sofa King Badass by Mason Casey.

Touring Europe with a new band Jon Tiven & the Nashville Aces, he introduced his nine-piece outfit backing Ellis, Betty, and Mack Rice.

In 2007, Tiven produced an album by former Grass Roots member Creed Bratton (also known as a cast member of the television show The Office).

In 2008, Tiven produced and co-wrote a new album by Howard Tate entitled Blue Day.

Tiven also produced a new gospel-tinged album by Garnet Mimms entitled Is Anybody Out There?.