Courtesy the Bo-Keys
Memphis R&B band the Bo-Keys are nominated for a pair of Blues Music Awards.
A mix of familiar names and up-and-comers are among the nominees for the 33rd annual Blues Music Awards.
Nominations for the awards -- presented by the Memphis-based Blues Foundation -- were announced today. The ceremony will be held on May 10 at the Cook Convention Center.
Several groups received multiple nominations: New England outfit Sugar Ray & the Bluetones received four nominations for their album Evening. Veteran Louisiana artists Tab Benoit and Johnny Sansone are also up for awards in four categories. Husband-wife pair Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks of the Tedeschi-Trucks Band collectively were nominated for four trophies for their various projects. The all-star project, The Legendary Rhythm & Blues Revue -- Live!, spearheaded by Bay Area favorite Tommy Castro and his band, was also recognized in a quartet of categories.
Photo by Nikki Boertman
"The Legendary Rhythm & Blues Revue -- Live!," spearheaded by Tommy Castro and his band, was nominated for Blues Music Awards in four categories for.
A second group of acts are up for three nominations: Among them are legendary swamp bluesman Lazy Lester, Serbian guitar sensation Ana Popovic and soul-blues singer Johnny Rawls, who was tapped for his latest CD Memphis Still Got Soul.
Seven former winners of the International Blues Challenge (IBC) -- the amateur competition that the foundation sponsors each January -- were also nominated, most of them for the first time. This group includes Mississippians Eden Brent and Grady Champion, and Kansas City combo Trampled Under Foot.
"A few IBC winners have been nominated before but not this many all in one year," says Blues Foundation president Jay Sieleman. "And that doesn't even include some of the IBC participants who didn't win, who were also nominated. That's a really great development connecting the two events."
On the local side, Memphis R&B band the Bo-Keys are nominated for a pair of awards, singer Jackie Johnson is up for a best soul blues artist honor, while Victor Wainwright is nominated for the Pinetop Perkins Piano Player Award. British bluesman Ian Siegal's album The Skinny was also recognized; the record was produced by local Cody Dickinson and features contributions by members the North Mississippi Allstars.
The awards are voted on by the more than 4,500 members of the Blues Foundation, a nonprofit organization with 200 blues society affiliations worldwide.
Online voting for members and ticket sales have already begun. Sieleman notes sales have been brisk so far.
"We increasingly get return folks coming back to the event, and they tell other folks and it grows," he said. "We made the tickets available and within the first hour we'd already sold quite a few."
For a full list of nominees or for more information about the Blues Foundation, go to blues.org.
-- Bob Mehr: 529-2517
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