Curtis Salgado (born February 4 1954, Everett, Washington) is a Portland, Oregon based blues, R&B, and soul singer-songwriter. He plays harmonica and fronts his own band as lead vocalist.

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Career

Salgado was the inspiration behind John Belushi's creation of the Blues Brothers characters in the late 1970s. ^[1] They met and became friends while Belushi was in Eugene, Oregon filming the movie Animal House . The Blues Brother's debut album Briefcase Full of Blues is dedicated to Salgado and Cab Calloway's character in The Blues Brothers film is named after Curtis. For six years he performed with Robert Cray's band, and sang lead on Cray's debut album. Later in 1995 he spent a short stint as the lead vocalist with the latin rock band, Santana. In the early 90's, he also briefly studied with Jehovah's Witnesses.

Salgado was diagnosed with liver cancer in 2005 and underwent a successful liver transplant in 2006. He continues to record and perform his music. On June 13 2006 a benefit concert was held in his honor in Portland to raise funds for his medical treatment. Among those who performed were Little Charlie and the Nightcats, the alternative rock band Everclear, musician Taj Mahal, The Robert Cray Band, and rocker Steve Miller. Also in attendance was the widow of John Belushi who spoke of Salgado's part in the development of The Blues Brothers. On April 29 2007 another benefit was held in Curtis' honor, bringing Steve Miller and Little Charlie and the boys back, and adding blues guitarist Jimmie Vaughan, and harp players Charlie Musselwhite and Kim Wilson.

Curtis has been nominated for 4 of The Blues Foundation's 2009 National Blues Awards including Soul Blues Male Artist of the Year and Soul Blues Album of the year for his album "Clean Getaway ".

He is particularly popular in Eugene, Oregon where he holds free concerts generally once a year.

See also

• Music of Oregon
• List of people from Portland, Oregon
• List of harmonicists
• List of people with hepatitis C

References

1. Curtissalgado.com website