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KoKo Taylor Queen of the Blues Award
Outstanding contribution to preserving traditional Blues Shirley Johnson. Through the years, Chicago has been home to some of our finest blues women, and vocalist Shirley Johnson ranks near the pinnacle of this distinguished group. A veteran of over fifty years as a blues vocalist, with a notable career in gospel before that, she is beloved and admired throughout the city, as well as by the legions of fans who have had the opportunity to see her on overseas tours and hear her recordings, both recent and dating back to the earliest days as a recording artist. Johnson was raised in Portsmouth, Virginia, not far from where legendary R&B vocalist Ruth Brown was born. Like Brown, whom she has cited as one of her idols along with such stalwarts as Koko Taylor and Etta James |
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"The Hook" Blues Award - Tribute to John Lee Hooker
Outstanding contribution to preserving traditional Blues Bentonia, Mississippi native Jimmy “Duck” Holmes is our most honored and distinguished carrier of this legacy. Born in 1947, he received his first guitar as a Christmas present before he was ten years old; after hearing a neighbor picking guitar on his front porch, he approached the man and asked for a few pointers. That man was Henry Stukey himself, and those informal lessons were the beginning of a musical journey that would ultimately earn Jimmy Holmes international blues renown. |
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Denise LaSalle Recordings Of Excellence Award
Unique Style & Sound Quality Producing Blues & Soul Music Betty Padgett, Florida-based vocalist is a leading light in contemporary southern soul Blues. Born in Newport, New Jersey, she moved with her family to the Sunshine State in the early 1960s. Like so many others, she got her start singing in church, but she soon heard the siren call of soul music and R&B. As soon as she was old enough, she was frequenting hipster hangouts like the Downbeat Club in Fort Lauderdale. She led her own group, Betty & the Q’s, for a while, and in 1971 she signed on with Joey Gilmore and & TCB Express Band, with whom she stayed for the next 17 years, garnering national and international acclaim. In 1975 |
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Willie Mitchell Artist Award
Outstanding accomplishments as an artist in Blues & Soul Born in Chicago in 1952, Stan Mosley grew up idolizing soul men such as Wilson Pickett, Bobby Womack, and David Ruffin – singers who could convey tender-hearted vulnerability in gruff, world-toughened tones that bespoke the grit and determination of a survivor. In his teens he began working with various bands around Chicago; after moving to St. Louis, he joined the Sharpees, who worked for a while as Shirley Brown’s back-up group. In 1993, he released his first album under his own name, Stan Mosley Standing Tall, on his own Stand Up label. But he considered himself a songwriter, first and foremost; by the end of the 1990s, he’d written songs that had been recorded by Tyrone Davis, Artie “Blues Boy” White, and Johnnie Taylor. |
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King of the Blues Awards - A Tribute to B B King
Young Blues Artist preserving traditional Blues heritage Sean “Mack” McDonald. who was born in 2001 and is an Augusta, GA native. One of the leading lights of this generation and is already establishing himself as one of the music’s most promising and inspiring purveyors. A musical prodigy who started out on piano when he was two years old and switched to the guitar a few years later, McDonald counts as his inspirations such legendary blues figures as Robert Johnson, T-Bone Walker, Louis Jordan, B.B. King, and Jimmy Reed, as well as soul-jazz fretboard great Bill Jennings and R&B legend Pete “Guitar” Lewis, whose work with the Johnny Otis Revue helped define the swinging, blues-charged West Coast rhythm-and-blues sound of the 1950s. |
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Benny Latimore "Let's Straighten it out" Award
Preserving Blues & Soul Music Heritage behind the scenes Jack Dappa Blues Heritage Preservation Foundation. Established in 2011 by folklorists and African American Music scholars Lamont Jack and Denise N. Pearley, the Jack Dappa Blues Heritage Preservation foundation represents an ongoing, multi-faceted project dedicated to “raising cultural and ethnic awareness of African American Traditional music as it pertains to the Black Experience in America.” Through their website (https://www.dapafoundation.org/) and the various live events, workshops, lectures, musical performances, and other public events they sponsor, the Foundation documents and celebrates Black music of all eras, genres, and generations as an irreplaceable facet of African American life and cultural expression. |
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Bobby Blue Bland Award
Outstanding Blues Vocal Stylist and performer in the Blues arena Born in 1952, Gerald McClendon grew up in a house filled with music; he has remembered singing along with the radio and immersing himself in his mother’s record collection, which included albums featuring such vocalists as Billy Eckstine, Billie Holiday, Arthur Prysock, Joe Williams, and Ray Charles. Early on, he discovered that he had a knack for manipulating his voice to approximate what these vocal geniuses were doing. Growing up during the latter days of the doo-wop era, he also sang on street corners with other boys and performed in revues and talent shows in school. Among his schoolmates was a girl named Yvette Stevens, who would eventually go on to fame as Chaka Khan. Yvette led a vocal trio, and they enlisted young Gerald as their choreographer – a taste of what awaited all of them in the years ahead. |
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Bobby Rush Blues Entertainers Award
Outstanding Tradition Blues Entertainer Keith Johnson Born in 1993, carries the blues in his heart and his soul – but also in his blood. Johnson's great-uncle was none other than Muddy Waters, the man who pretty much defined the sound that was destined to become known worldwide as “post-war Chicago blues.” Johnson embraced gospel music as his first love; by the time he was a teenager, he was a member of the Delta Sensations. But he also listened to contemporary R&B and southern soul, which spurred his musical curiosity and eventually motivated him to learn more about his famous uncle and the music he had brought to the world. When he was in his mid-teens, he has remembered, he began to learn, and play, some of the songs Muddy himself had recorded; by the time he was enrolled in Delta State, his interest in his family’s blues legacy had deepened., and he began playing the blues in earnest. |
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Millie Jackson Classy & Sassy Award
Outstanding Female Artistary & Style that keeps it Real in Blues & Soul Music Candice Ivory, known as the “Queen of Avant Soul” – a vocalist and songwriter with deep soul roots, who's also imbued with a fearless, exploratory aesthetic that she shares with her contemporaries in jazz, classical music, and other boundary-pushing genres. “The blues was always the voice of freedom, “ she proclaims, summoning the spirit of her great-uncle Will Roy Sanders, who for years led the Fieldstones, Memphis’s legendary juke-rocking blues aggregation. Candice Ivory channels that freedom, along with the impetus to attain and claim it, every time she sings. |
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"The Muddy Award" Tribute to Muddy Waters
Outstanding Music Contributions to the Blues Born Willie Crawford in Houston, Mississippi in 1937, Buck arrived in Chicago in 1953. In Mississippi he had been introduced to the blues listening to records on the family’s wind-up Victrola, and he also heard the music on radio station WDIA, broadcasting from Memphis – he has remembered hearing B.B. King’s famous show on WDIA that was sponsored by the patent medicine Pepticon. When a visiting celebrity like King would come through town, young Willie would sit outside the club with his ears attuned. |
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The "Lucy Award" Tribute to Albert King
Being on Fire, Feeling, Funk Blues & Soul Johnny Rawls’ story encompasses the full spectrum of contemporary blues. Born in Columbia, Mississippi in 1951, he began his professional career in the late 1960s on the southern chitlin’ circuit, where he worked in show bands around the Gulf Coast area before landing a gig as musical director in the band of fabled vocalist O.V. Wright. He also served for a time as Little Johnny Taylor’s bandleader. After Wright passed away in 1980, Rawls went out on his own. Along with multi-instrumentalist L.C. Luckett, he did some recording in his adopted hometown of Milwaukee; he also appeared on gospel LPs with the Luckett Brothers, a popular Milwaukee-based aggregation led by members of L.C.’s extended family. |
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William Bell Soul & Blues Award
Outstanding accomplishments as an Artist, arranger, writer & producer Born in Jackson, Mississippi; a city known as a breeding ground for some of the hottest Soul, Blues and Gospel talents in the history of music. At the age 15 years old, Vick Allen produced and recorded his first CD; the CD was recorded in Jackson, Mississippi and served its purpose of getting his music and his name circulating in the Jackson music community. After graduating from high school, Vick started singing professionally with the popular gospel group “The Canton Spirituals.” Vick later ventured out on his own as a soul singer sharing the stage with such artists as Bobby “Blue” Bland, and Willie Clayton. Vick Allen is a well-known singer, producer, performer, and musician in both the Gospel, R&B and Blues genres. |
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Jus' Blues Legends Blues Award
Outstanding contribution to preserving traditional Blues Born on October 26, 1947, in Magee, Mississippi, Hense Powell was raised in a large family of seven siblings on a working farm. His father, Reece Powell, was an educated man who instilled in him the value of learning. His father’s love for music led him to purchase a piano, which became young Hense’s first instrument. By age 12, Hense had taught himself to read and play music, starting with hymns, classical pieces like Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata”, and later mastering boogie-woogie and rock 'n' roll. His musical journey expanded in 1959 when he received a new trumpet, leading to his versatility as both a pianist and brass player. |
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Ruben Hughes Radio Personality Award
Preserving Blues & Soul Radio Programming Curtis Muldrew ask D J Godfather, Texarkana legendary Dj Godfather for 50 years of service. Dj Godfather started D-Jaying in 1974 playing in clubs, parties and special events around the city. In 1994 DJ Godfather was hired by Joe Al broadcasting company with a two hour blues show on Saturday mornings while still playing in clubs, parties and special events. His fame and notoriety grew while working with such artist like Little Milton, Bobby Rush, Mel Waiters, Sir Charles Jones, King George, and the Boss,Wendell B. Now employed at Town square media Magic 93.3, he is known as the king of Saturday morning… |