Maurice Dollison

Maurice Dollison, Jr. has enjoyed success in a variety of guises. As blues guitarist Cash McCall, he recorded such mid-60s R&B hits as "When You Wake Up" and toured as part of Dick Clark's Caravan of Stars. A session guitarist for Minnie Ripperton, Natalie Cole, Etta James, Willie Dixon, the Temptations, the Drifters, the Coasters and the Rotary Connection, he penned top ten pop and R&B tunes for Otis Clay, Etta James, Ramsey Lewis, Phil Upchurch and Blood, Sweat and Tears. A native of New Madrid, Missouri, Dollison launched his music career at a very young age, singing with gospel group, the Belmont Singers, before his thirteenth birthday. Moving to Chicago, in 1961, he found employment as a guitarist for gospel groups including the Five Blind Boys of Mississippi, and, with his brother, Leon, the Gospel Songbirds and the Dixie Harmonizers. A staff writer for the Chess Recording Company, by the age of twenty, he wrote songs for Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Little Johnny Taylor and Little Milton. Turning to secular music in 1963, Dollison went on to record for Thomas, Checker, Ronn, Paula and Columbia. He appeared on the soundtracks of Great Balls Of Fire and Ginger Ale Afternoon and co-produced and played on Willie Dixon's Grammy award-winning album, Hidden Charm, in 1988. Dollison toured Europe, in the late-1990s, as part of the Chicago Blues Legends revue. ~ Craig Harris, All Music Guide