Best Contemporary Blues Album
Wicked by Shemekia Copeland
Shoutin' in Key by Taj Mahal & The Phantom Blues Band
Shake Hands With Shorty by The North Mississippi Allstars
Hoochie Man by Bobby Rush
Royal Blue by Koko Taylor

Robert Jr Lockwood deserves to be mentioned. He won a couple years back and his "Delta Crossroads" is a magnificent recording, even if he does do the same "old" songs. Some people play the same songs consistently the same, but folks like Lockwood, Pinetop Perkins and John Lee Hooker work those "old" songs into fresh and new versions EVERY time out!! It's a sign of being an innovator and master of your craft.

Have you heard of the BMA (Blues Music Association). It is a fairly young organization aimed specifically at gaining attention for the advancement of blues music and musicians through the media and retail.

Radio tends to focus on younger audiences, because that is the type of music that sells best. Blues is more of an adult-stylized art form that eventually most listeners come to later on.

I look at a lot of the members on this site with their adulation of Stevie Ray Vaughan and am delighted that Stevie will probably cause them to look at the earlier performers that inspired him. People like Buddy Guy, Freddie King or Elmore James. From there you look at the influences of those earlier folks and find Robert Nighthawk or Son House or Charley Patton. It's a full-circle event.

I do not find that a lot of blues musicians are playing those multitude of dates once they've gained their fame. BB King is an exception to this and it's simply because he wants to give his audience what they want. That's to see BB perform live. Many of them simply cannot do it anymore. John Lee Hooker is at an age where he can only perform a handful of shows a year, and limits most of those to the West Coast.

I do not think that the major labels purposely treat the blues as a novelty. They're in the business to make money and what's going to do that is whatever is the hot thing today. You'll find most of those hot things material in the recycled bins at your used record stores soon. But look for the blues records and you're not going to find much. Why? Because the people buying it want to keep it. It speaks to them and they can relate. Not just for the now, but always.

Fads come and go. Watching the Ken Burns Jazz series, they said that by the '70s jazz music had only amounted to 1% of sales. Yet, it continues to live as does the blues. Before SRV or Robert Cray emerged in the '80s, many people had forgotten about the blues. Today it continues to grow. Just look at the number of festivals popping up everywhere, giving those artists venues to perform.

I believe focusing on Clapton is the wrong individual. He has crossed-over to multiple genres and plays little blues today. Keb' Mo' might be a better example and I can guarantee he doesn't have to play more than 100 gigs a year anymore. Nor do the young hot shots like Jonny Lang, Kenny Wayne Shepherd or Susdan Tedeschi.

No matter what occurs in the fickleness of the listening audience. The blues will survive as they always have.

Slim

While I can empathize with your opinion about who gets the awards, I disagree on a couple of points;

Personally, when I think of Clapton, I do indeed think about the lineage of his music. He used and/or created such a plethora of musical styles (as did the other old guys and gals, like Hendrix, JP Jones, K Moon, Elvis, Janis, Muddy, ad nauseum) and I do indeed explore the "lineage" behind the great ones.

OTOH, what you say is true to an extent. It is tiring to always see the big names get the big recognition. But like Slim mentioned, this is why the associations and awards people have the "best new" artist.

Also, I think the problem of the powerful people having it easy transcends musical genres (and music itself). We hear the same lamenting from people in all musical genres, from blues to rap to rock to boy bands etc. In the case of blues, it is simply harder because there is less money to go around (as someone mentioned in another thread here.)

BTW, went to check out your web site - cool ... keep on playing!