independent blues awards

Chris “Bad News” Barnes Hokum Blues Vizztone Label Group Chris Barnes has been a writer and performer for The Carol Burnett Show, Saturday Night Live, Seinfield, 30 Rock, and Curb Your Enthusiasm. He began his blues music career opening for acts at the legendary blues club, Tramps, where he would take audience suggestions and improvise […]

Corey Dennison Band Night After Night Delmark Records Corey Dennison hails from Chattanooga, Tennessee. He got his first guitar when he was six years old. He used to hang out with his harp playing uncle so his early influences were Junior Wells, Albert Collins and Albert King. Dennison also fell in love with the soul […]

Jimmy Carpenter Plays The Blues Vizztone Label Group Saxophonist Jimmy Carpenter began playing professionally in 1980. He toured with both Tinsley Ellis and Jimmy Thackery. In 2004 Carpenter played on “Whiskey Store Live” with Thackery and Tab Benoit. He settled in New Orleans shortly thereafter and found work with Walter “Wolfman” Washington and Eric Lindell. […]

Benny Turner My Brother’s Blues Nola Blue Records Once Benny Turner and his older brother Freddie left Texas for Chicago his brother began to make a name for himself as Freddie King. Freddie became a guitar god while Turner backed him up on bass. Turner left for awhile to play with R n’ B singer […]

Wee Willie Walker And The Anthony Paule Soul Orchestra After A While Blue Dot Records  Born in Hernando, Mississippi Wee Willie Walker’s career spans six decades as he is one of our last real soul singers. He recorded nine sides for the Memphis based Goldwax label in 1968. More recently between 2004 and 2011 Walker […]

Milligan-Vaughan Project Mark One Records Malford Milligan is a Texas based soul, blues and rock singer who attended the University of Texas. He started a local Monday night blues jam and wound up beginning a life in music. In 1994 Milligan helped form the band Storyville with David Grissom, David Holt and Stevie Ray Vaughan’s […]

Johnny Rawls Waiting For The Train Catfood Records Johnny Rawls was born in Hattiesburg Mississippi in 1951. Having mastered the guitar Rawls’ schoolteacher arranged for him to back musicians when they were on tour through Mississippi. In 1975 Rawls joined O.V. Wright’s band and became his musical director until Wright’s passing in 1980. The Ace […]

Mindi Abair and The Boneshakers The East-West Sessions MindiAbair.com In 1979 Randy Jacobs was a core member of the funk pop band “Was (Not Was)” an early project of producer Don Was (Bonnie Raitt, Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones) where he worked with singer Sweet Pea Atkinson. He was also a member of 1993’s Soul […]

Jonny Lang Signs Concord Music Group Jon Gordon Langseth, Jr. a.k.a. Jonny Lang was born in Fargo, North Dakota in 1981. He started playing guitar at the age of twelve. His father took him to see the Fargo based “Bad Medicine Blues Band” and Lang was hooked. He started taking lessons from the bands guitar […]

Steve Howell and Jason Weinheimer A Hundred Years From Today Out of The Past Music Texas born Steve Howell now lives in the greater Shreveport, La. area. He has immersed himself in the rural blues of the south. Howell re-creates obscure traditional country blues with his finger picking style and warm voice. His third album […]

Walter Trout We’re all in this together Provogue/Mascot Label Group Walter Trout was born in Ocean City, N.J. After moving to LA he worked with Big Mama Thornton, John Lee Hooker and Joe Tex before becoming Canned Heat’s guitarist in 1981. In 1985 he left them and joined John Mayall and The Bluesbreakers where he […]

 Scott Ellison Good Morning Midnight Red Parlor Records Scott Ellison hails from Tulsa, Oklahoma. In 1977 guitarist Ellison backed up country music star Jesseca James and in 1981 joined up with Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown. In the mid 1980’s Ellison relocated to Los Angeles and found work with The Box Tops, The Marvalettes, The Drifters, The […]

Double Duty  Kim Simmonds Jazzin’ on the Blues Panache Records Savoy Brown Witchy Feelin’ Ruf Records Guitarist Kim Simmonds was born in Wales in 1947. In 1965 he founded the band Savoy Brown. Their first album was 1967’s “Shake Down” which wasn’t issued in the U.S. Both “Blue Matter” and “A Step Further” were released […]

Paul de Lay Band Live at Notodden ‘97 Little Village Foundation De Lay was an original, a chromatic harp player who incorporated a jazzy tone into his music; and an inventive songwriter with the ability to express his personal feelings in the songs that he wrote. He had a keen sense of humor, loved a […]

Lew Jetton & 61 South Palestine Blues Coffee Street Records Lew Jetton is a former local radio and television meteorologist and news anchor. In 1994 Jetton joined the Paducah, Ky based blues band “61 South”. When their lead singer left the band Jetton became their frontman. The band opened for Luther Allison, Koko Taylor, Little […]

Rick Estrin & The Nightcats Groovin’ in Greaseland Alligator Records Rick Estrin was born in the San Francisco area in 1949. He fell in love with the Blues and began playing harmonica at the age of fifteen. His style has been compared to both Sonny Boy Williamson II and Little Walter Jacobs. Early in his […]