Your Complete Guide to the Chicago Blues Scene
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Your Complete Guide to the Chicago Blues Scene |
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Blues Blast Music Awards 2011
October 27, 2011
Buddy Guy’s Legends, Chicago, IL
by Liz Mandeville
Thursday, October 27: Dateline -- Chicago!
Buddy Guys Legends was the place
and Blues Blast Magazine’s “2011 Blues Blast Music Awards” was the draw.
Blues royalty from all over the country had turned out to celebrate
another year of the Blues, to mourn our losses, fete our accomplishments
and, best of all, play some great music.
Nominees in all eight categories (Best Female, Best Male, New Artist
Debut CD, Rising Star, Contemporary Recording, Traditional Recording,
Song and Band) gave stellar performances throughout the long night of
blues, booze and BBQ.
As I arrived, nominees in the Female Artist category were treating us to
a small sampling of their art.
Gina Sicilia, a fashion statement in a black, strapless, bubble
dress, was belting one out as we situated our camp with photographer
extraordinaire, Queen Bee
and Denise Lynch, both from
Lansing’s Capitol Blues Society in Michigan, who’d come to support their
local heroes The Vincent Hayes
Project. Their finely
wrought CD, Reclamation, was
up for a Best New Artist Debut CD and the band gave a fine live
performance led by Vincent Hayes, with his guitar and voice as the focal
point, tight pocket rhythm section and the unusual combo of piano on one
side and organ on the other.
Theirs was one of the most dynamic, musically interesting
performances of the evening, although they didn’t win the award.
That honor went to Chris O’Leary Band; more on that later.
Gina was swiftly followed by nominee
Karen Lovely who treated us
to a rendition of her powerful hit “Still the Rain.” The tune, written
by Dennis Walker and Alan Mirkitani, which could easily be translated
into a screenplay, was also nominated for Best Blues Song.
The honor went to the title track from Buddy Guy’s Grammy winning CD,
Living Proof, co-written by
producer Tom Hambridge and
Buddy Guy. More on them
later.
Oozing attitude, Karen Lovely paced the stage like a caged tigress,
growling out the disturbing lyric with passion. She was accompanied in
her short but powerful set by Chicago’s
Kate Moss on bass.
Despite the early hour we were almost finished with all the female
performances for the evening. Master of ceremonies,
David Bernston, and stage
announcer James Skyy Dobro
Walker, kept things moving by bringing out
Teeny Tucker, daughter of
Tommy “High Heeled Sneakers” Tucker, another nominee for Best Female
Artist, to the stage.
Teeny brought a trio of female back-up singers and was paired with
Vincent Hayes’ pianist, Steve
Doc Yankee and harp impresario
Bob Corritore along with
members of her road band. Teeny Tucker took the place by its tail and
shook it, with a set paying tribute to the great Etta James. Wailin’
like Koko Taylor to a big fanfare she gave us “Tough Lover” and followed
with an energetic “I’d Rather Go Blind.”
Next, Cookie Taylor Threatt,
daughter of the late Queen of the Blues, presented the award for Female
Blues Artist of the Year. It went to the late Robin Rogers and was
accepted by her husband Tony, who was also her guitarist. Tony played a
brief set with singer Sharrie
Williams in honor of his wife.
After that it was Men Men Men! Bob Margolin protégé, young
Matt Hill debuted a new song
he’d just written, called “Same Old Fuckin’ Thing.” Matt, known for his
wild stage antics, was a nominee in the Sean Costello Rising Star
category, but the honor went to
Trampled Under Foot, the youthful family band from Kansas City that has done
so well since winning the IBC in 2008. Guitarist and Albert King Award
winner, Nick Schnebelen, was
there to accept the award for his talented family.
SO many great performances followed, I’ll just highlight a few:
Peter Parcek, New Artist Debut nominee, looks like his hand isn’t moving at all, but he’s just played the most interesting three hundred notes you’ve ever heard. Peter was joined onstage by members of Vincent Hayes Project for a truly enjoyable guitar workout.
Chris
O’Leary’s “Dress Blues” showed us why he’d garnered the coveted New
Artist Debut CD award.
Bob Corritore
and Dave Riley treated us to
a “Harp Salute.” They’d been nominated in the Traditional Blues
Recording category, but the prize went to our dearly departed
Pinetop Perkins and
Willie “Big Eyes” Smith for
their Grammy winning Joined
At the Hip CD. They were and continue to be sorely missed.
Traditional Blues CD nominees
Rich Del Grosso and John
Richardson gave us some blues from the country with much mandolin; I
thought of my old pal Yank Rachell.
Blues Band of the Year nominee, Wisconsin’s
Reverend Raven heated up the
joint with his tasty guitar and tight band, the Chain Smokin’ Altar
Boys.
There was a momentary break in the action as Blues Blast Magazine
presented a Lifetime Achievement Award to Earwig Music label president,
Michael Frank. Frank, who
has just lost longtime musical partner,
Honeyboy Edwards, mentioned
that he’s started a Honeyboy Edwards Foundation and aims to raise funds
in Honeyboys’ name to continue his legacy.
After that it was a mixing of bands that gave us a sampling of
Rob Blaine, Sugar Profits, Eddie
Turner, Nick Moss and others. At
the same time there was a second Blues Blast party in progress on the
second story of Legends where nominees sold their CDs and merchandise,
so I went upstairs to a quieter clime to do a little networking with
friends. Notably, Lori Lewis
was there representing the Windy City Blues Society.
She was snapping photos of
Jimmy Burns who dropped by
to talk about his newest project for Delmark (you’ll see it reviewed
here in CBG in the near future). Kate Moss stopped by to talk about the
record label biz, while Nick Moss wasn’t far behind to discuss his work
with Curtis Salgado and his band The Flip Tops, not to mention a new CD.
Reverend Raven came up to cool off after his smoking set and we all went
downstairs to see who was going to win the coveted Male Blues Artist
Award.
Of course it went to living legend,
Buddy Guy, who also won for
Contemporary Blues Recording and Best Song, racking up three big wins
that night. Buddy treated us to
a rare, singing only, performance that gave new meaning to the phrase “takin’
it in the alley.” After being plied with corn liquor (or maybe cognac), Buddy was coaxed
up on the stage to sing. His was an exercise in band control as he
snapped the all-star line-up (which included producer Hambridge
on drums, keyboardist
Marty Sammon and bassist
Melvin Smith) down to the
barest whisper as he sang some of the most filthy, suggestive lyrics
I’ve ever had the pleasure to hear, and I’ve been to the West Side!
As the crowd egged him on, a
great time was had by all.
I regret missing the late night jam that followed; I understand that
Candye Kane’s guitarist, Laura
Chavez, did a terrific guitar showdown with Nick
Schnebelen from
TUF. Even the
cleaning service people,
normally anxious for the place to clear out so they can get to work,
enjoyed the show and were in no rush to start performing their
duties. I’m also really sorry
to have missed Memphis singer/songwriter/bandleader
Reba Russell, who was the
opening act of the night. She is an immense talent who, ruefully, is
rarely seen north of the Mason-Dixon Line and is someone I can’t say
enough great things about. Having seen her several times in Memphis and
at the King Biscuit Fest, Reba’s inclusion on the bill was one of the
treats I’d anticipated but just missed. Nevertheless, Blues Blast Music
Awards 2011 proved to be a long, fun night jam-packed with stellar blues
talent from all over the country from the first note to last call.
Mark your calendars for next
year’s fifth annual Blues Blast Awards show to be held October 25, 2012.
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