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Legends at Legends: Billy Boy Arnold, John Primer, Lurrie Bell and Billy Branch.
I know you were there Thursday night at the famous Buddy Guy’s Legends. I may have missed you because it was sro, but I have no doubt that you got your tickets in time to have enjoyed the world-class entertainment. The Second Annual Blues Blast Music Awards honored blues musicians in eight catagories. As usual, the show was short on talk and long on great entertainment. With over twenty first-class live blues acts over the course of the night, this was an awesome value for the lucky ticket holders. You know Lordy told you about this a long time ago, so I don’t want to hear about it if you missed this show. Excellent stage management and extremely good looking but short-winded presenters kept this show on track, and interesting. Then there were the awards.
The classy Mrs. Willie Dixon, Marie presented The Lifetime Achievment Award to our late queen Koko Taylor. The award was accepted by daughter Cookie.
The Best Contemporary Blues Recording considered Shemekia Copeland (Never Going Back), Janiva Magness (What Love Will Do), Nick Moss & the Fliptops (Live at Chan’s Volume 2), John Nemeth (Love Me Tonight) and Curtis Salgado (Clean Getaway). The award went to The Insomniacs (At Least I’m Not With You).
Up for The Best Traditional Blues Recording was Guy King (Sweetheart Like You), Shirley Johnson (Blues Attack), B.B.King (One Kind Favor), Mannish Boys (Lowdown Feelin’), John Primer (All Original) and the winning recording was Chicago Blues: A Living History (Various Artists). That’s kind of funny. I must have hundreds of recordings by that band Various Artists, but listen to the artists on the winning record: Billy Boy Arnold, Billy Branch, Lurrie Bell, Kenny Smith, Billy Flynn, Mathew Skoller and so on.
The Best Blues Song went to Albert Castiglia for Bad Year Blues. At Least I’m Not With You by the Insomniacs (I love that title), Mr. Coffee by Chris James & Patrick Rynn and Let Life Flow by Kenny Neal were in the mix to make choosing most difficult as was See That My Grave is Kept Clean by B.B. King and Twenty Years of B.B. King by Curtis Salgado.
The Best Blues Band Award was presented by that fat guy from Chicago Blues Beat. He handed the award to Nick Moss & the Fliptops. The stellar bands in the running were The Insomniacs, Kilborn Alley Blues Band, Mannish Boys, Lil’ Ed & the Blues Imperials, and Watermelon Slim and the Workers. Between Eden Brent, Shemekia Copeland, Diunna Greenleaf, Shirley Johnson, Janiva Magness and Robin Rogers, the blues fans choose Robin Rogers as the year’s Best Female Artist. The Best Male Blues Artist went to Elvin Bishop. He was in fine company with Lurrie Bell, Bobby Jones, Nick Moss, John Nemeth and John Primer.
Mind you that these awards went quickly enough to give live music the lion’s share of show time.
There is a Best Debut Recording Award that considered Eden Brent (Mississippi Number One), Cedric Burnside & Lightnin’ Malcom (2 Man Wrecking Crew), Dave Herrero (Austin to Chicago), Chris James & Patrick Rynn (Stop and Think About It) and Joanne Shaw Taylor (White Sugar). James & Rynn from in from Arizona with Bob Corritorre nailed that one. What? Arizona by way of the Windy City.
The Sean Costello Rising Star Award was presented by none other than Sean’s parents to the Kilborn Alley Blues Band. Kilborn, like the other choices Eden Brent, Cedric Burnside & Lightnin’ Malcom, Albert Castiglia, Dave Gross and Joanne Shaw Taylor are truly promising a great future in our blues music.
There you have the nominees and the awards. That’s kind of dry material, but I wanted you to know all the names. It is cliché, but truly there were no losers in this competition. Look for these names on the ChicagoBluesBeat calendar. Many, if not all will stop through Chicago and you need to catch them. Some of these acts are getting increasing airplay on the Sirrius/XM blues station.
Finally, a word of appreciation is in order for the vision and the work behind Blues Blast. The project is the brainchild of Bob Keiser, a blues fan. Bob edits and publishes the Illinois Blues Blast Newsletter. This is a free subscription that is loaded with quality content, including reviews and news. Already Illinois Blues Blast is a misleading moniker. This publication generates national and international readership. I didn’t know they had Boston Chicken in Chicago.
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