By Larry Nager
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Ferguson

A rhythm & blues pioneer, a first-generation rock 'n' roller and a million-selling pop-psychedelic band will be the 2003 Michael W. Bany Lifetime Achievement winners at the Enquirer's Pop Music Awards (the Cammys), next Sunday at Jillian's in Covington.

• Flamboyant blues shouter H-Bomb Ferguson, a mainstay of the local scene who tours internationally, leads this year's class of winners. In the early '50s, Ferguson toured with B.B. King and other blues greats. In 1951, he scored a major R&B hit on Savoy Records with "Good Lovin'."

• Rusty York started as a bluegrass picker from Harlan County, Ky., before his family moved to Cincinnati in 1952. He soon switched to electric guitar and started rocking. Rusty had a major hit in 1959 with "Sugaree." In the '60s, he opened one of the area's most important recording facilities, Jewel Studios in Mount Healthy.

• The Lemon Pipers topped the national charts in 1968 with the million-selling "Green Tambourine," a chunk of candy-colored psychedelia on Buddah Records. Despite being tagged a "bubble-gum" band, the group's live shows had more in common with the harder-edged blues-rock bands of the era, thanks to virtuoso guitarist Bill Bartlett and jazz-inspired keyboardist Bob Nave.

Comedian Blair Shannon and Channel 12 morning anchor Cammy Dierking will host the awards, an informal, live-music event. Performers include the Northern Kentucky Brotherhood Singers, July For Kings, Pay the Girl, Oval Opus, the Kim Taylor Band, the Kelly Richey Band and the StarDevils (with some surprise guests). Show time is 4 p.m.

Tickets are $12.50, at Ticketmaster, 562-4949, and online at ticketmaster.com. Tickets sold at the Aronoff box office do not carry a service charge.

Ticket sales go to the Michael W. Bany Memorial Scholarship Fund for music education, named for a popular local musician killed during a 1995 robbery after a Main Street gig.

E-mail lnager@enquirer.com