The 2008 Blues Music Awards were announced in the Mississippi Delta on Thursday, May 8. The winners selected by the vote of the Blues Foundation's members are. 1. DVD - Kenny Wayne Shepherd – 10 Days Out: Blues from the Backroads 2. Traditional Blues Male Artist - Hubert Sumlin 3. Traditional Blues Female Artist - Koko Taylor 4. Acoustic Artist - Bobby Rush 5. Acoustic Album Bobby Rush - Raw 6. Pinetop Perkins Piano Player - Honey Piazza 7. Instrumentalist-Guitar - Bob Margolin 8. Soul Blues Male Artist - Bobby Rush 9. Soul Blues Femal... <more>

The Tunica Convention and Visitors Bureau has announced a Delta Blues Tour set for Thursday May 8. This tour is being sponsored by Cline Tours, owned by John McCommon. The tour will accomodate 54 persons and there is no charge. Blues Music Award ticket holders can sign up at the Mississippi Delta Tourism Association table in the lobby of the Grand Veranda hotel beginning Wednesday morning. The bus will leave the Veranda Hotel promptly at 8 am. People should be ready to board at 7:45 The tour will be led by Luther Brown, director of the Delta Center for Culture and Learning at De... <more>

Audrey Rohrer of Mishawaka, IN is the winner of the contest jointly sponsored by the House of Blues Radio Hour and The Blues Foundation. They entered the contest after listening to Elwood Blues's show about the upcoming Blues Music Awards. Her husband Jeffrey is a huge Blues fan. The two of them will be attending the 2008 Blues Music Awards, where they will have two nights accomodation, complimentary tickets and $250 in spending money. Eric Henderson of St. Lucie West, Florida is the winner of First Prize. The First Prize is a ... <more>

For the second year, XM Satellite Radio's Bluesville channel (Exit 74) will broadcast the Blues Music Awards in their entirety. Bill Wax will be bringing you all the action beginning at 7:30 on the east side of town and continuing until the last note. Sleep advisory: The show will end when Best New Artist nominee The Insomniacs have had enough. For those on the west side of town, the broadcast will begin at 4:30, which means you can begin to listen on your commute home from work.

It just keeps getting better at The Blues Foundation's Blues Music Awards. As of March 27, the following 2008 Blues Music Awards nominees have confirmed their attendance for the 29th edition of the biggest night in Blues music that will be presented at the Grand Casino Event Center in Tunica Mississippi on Thursday May 8. Tickets are still available for $75 and be obtained at www.blues.org or by calling 901.527.2583. Bettye LaVette; Big George Brock; Big James Montgomery; Bob Corritore & Dave Riley; Bob Margolin; Bob Stroger; Bobby Rush; Bruce Katz; Bryan Lee; Calvin "Fuzz" Jones; Dar... <more>

The Blues Foundation is proud to announce that its 2008 Blues Music Award poster is now available in the Blues Store. The poster is created by 2008 Keeping the Blues alive recipient Jen Taylor of Vividpix and is based on a painting by Memphis artist John Robinette, who specializes in scenes that evoke the Mississippi Delta. The major change to the original is the addition of The Blues Foundation logo to the top of the shack. The price for this magnificent work is a mere $50 in the Blues Store. It measures 24x36 and is reproduced on 100# gloss cover stock with a protective aqueous coating, w... <more>

The following esteemed individuals and recordings have been selected for induction into the Blues Hall of Fame by The Blues Foundation's Hall of Fame committee; chaired by Jim O'Neal, founding editor of Living Blues, and David Sanjek, recently of the BMI Archives. The induction ceremony will be conducted in association with The Blues Foundation's Charter Member Dinner on Wednesday, May 7, at the Tunica RiverPark in Tunica, Mississippi, the night before the 2008 Blues Music Awards. The 2008 inductees include living performers Jimmy McCracklin and Hubert Sumlin, as well as late artists Johnny... <more>

We previously announced the free shuttle service between the Memphis airport and the Grand Casino Resort on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. In addtion, we can now announce a shuttle between Tunica and Clarksdale for Friday. Read on. Blues Foundation Partner Alonzo Grant and his Tennco Express will be providing a shuttle service between Memphis International Airport and the Grand Casino and Resort's Verandah hotel on Wednesday, May 7, Thursday, May 8 and Friday, May 9. There will be no charge for this service. If you wish to use this service, please contact them directly at 901.522.0001 o... <more>

It is a great help to us and helps cut expenses if members looked at their membership card and renew online or sent a check before the month of expiration. That will save The Blues Foundation the cost of printing and mailing renewal notices.

For the first time ever, you can get a DVD of the 2007 Blues Music Awards. Well not all seven hours, but one-hour of highlights, including acceptance speeches by the winners and multiple performances by the nominees. Among the performances, a one-of-a-kind peformances by Tab Benoit with Lousiana LeRoux and Janiva Magness on frottoir (rubboard) and the Legendary Rhythm and Blues Revue, with nominees Tommy Castro, Deanna Bogart and Ronnie Baker Brooks, with their buddy Magic Dick. Get a copy in the Blues Store.

INTERNATIONAL SONGWRITING COMPETITION (ISC) ANNOUCES 2007 BLUES WINNERS April 15, 2008 - The International Songwriting Competition (ISC) is pleased to announce its 2007 winners, including the winners in the Blues category. The Blues winners includeJack de Keyzer (Toronto, ON, Canada) for his song "That's The Only Time" (First Place) Robin Rogers and Tony Rogers(Charlotte, NC, USA) for their song "Color-Blind Angel". Robin Rogers is a member of The Blues Foundation.(Second Place) Peter David Harper (Perth, WA, Australia) for his song "Just What You're Look... <more>

The “Queen of the Blues,” Koko Taylor, and Native American blues band Indigenous will headline shows at THE Auditorium May 29 and 30, respectively, as part of the 2008 Eureka Springs Blues Weekend. The complete weekend lineup, including 70 shows at 15 venues in 4 days, was announced today by city Special Events Coordinator, Janet Alexander, and event producer, Charles “Rags” Ragsdell. “Earlier this year, Eureka was proud to host the King of the Blues, B.B. King,” commented Ragsdell. “And now we’re bringing the Queen of the Blues to town in the same year—fantastic!” Blues Weekend begins ... <more>

Toronto's Shakura S'Aida, who won second place at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis, returned home with a new number one fan - Thomas Ruf, the founder and president of the German blues label, Ruf Records. Ruf was one of the judges at the Memphis event, and "blown away" by her performance, he invited her to take part in eight Blues Caravan 2008 dates across Europe later this month and in early May. S'Aida is replacing Candye Kane, an American singer who has been sidelined by illness. S'Aida will tour with Virginia-based singer and guitarist Deborah Coleman and Dani Wilde, a you... <more>

Put an ad on The Blues Foundation website and reach up to 20,000 blues consumers each month. Rates start at only $50.00 per month for a side banner ad. The Blues Foundation offers 3 locations for ads on our website: 1. Welcome Page Top Banner - this appears at the top of the welcome page, which is the 1st page most visitors to our site see. The content is usually a photograph. Ads are in a random order rotation so that a different ad appears each time the page is accessed or refreshed. Only 5 ads are now allowed in this location. The maximum size is 500W X 80H pixels. Maximum resolution is ... <more>

Dominican University is presenting this spring the first-ever national academic symposium on the blues and gospel music. The Blues & The Spirit Symposium will bring together nationally renowned scholars and experts on African American music and culture, and nationally and locally revered blues and gospel performers to discuss the shared history of these two genres and their impact on contemporary music. One of the panelists who will be involved in the symposium is Fernando Jones who just recently received The Blues Foundation’s 2008 Keeping the Blues Alive Award for education. Another panelist... <more>

Beyonce is to star as blues legend Etta James in a new film about the 50s record label Chess. The "Irreplaceable" singer will star as legendary blues singer Etta James in Darnell Martin's "Cadillac Records," according to The Hollywood Reporter. She will also serve as one of the movie's executive producers. Beyonce will also record four songs for the film’s soundtrack, donating a portion of her royalties to the Survivor Foundation, a charity for recovering addicts. Oscar winner Adrien Brody is also set to star as Leonard Chess, the label's founder, while other musicians portrayed in the ... <more>

Now that Blues fans have returned home from crusin' the Caribbean on the Legendary Rhythm and Blues Cruise or crusin' Beale Street during last week's International Blues Challenge, recently retired teacher Art Tipaldi (and Keeping the Blues Alive Committee Chairman) has two at home assignments for every fan. This year, the Foundation honored Kenny Wayne Shepherd's film, 10 Days Out and Arthur Flowers' book, Another Good Lovin' Blues, with Keeping the Blues Alive awards. If as a fan and lover of the blues you have not watched or read either, that is you... <more>

Chicago is setting the stage for the 25th Annual Chicago Blues Festival, a lakefront tradition in beautiful Grant Park, June 5-8, 2008, with opening night headliners that honor the city’s first blues festival. Just as in 1984, opening night pays tribute to Muddy Waters featuring headliners Johnny Winter and James Cotton, performing Thursday, June 5 at the Petrillo Music Shell. Winter hasn’t performed at the event since the very first Chicago Blues Festival, creating a much anticipated and exciting show! For more than 30 years, the native Texan has been one of the most respected sing... <more>

Exploring the “Home of the Blues,” the Chicago Blues Audio Tour narrated by Chicago-local Buddy Guy has found an astonishing audience in just six months. The podcast has been downloaded more than 97,000 times and is currently averaging over 1,000 downloads per day. The free, 50-minute tour combines an interactive map, tour stop directions, archival photos, video, music clips, and interviews – a true multimedia experience unlike anything else available. Listeners are able to follow the tour either by downloading to a portable media player or by virtually experiencing Chicago on a home comp... <more>

Village Square, the folks behind the harmonica necklaces you have seen for years at your favorite Blues festivals around the country are now offering black guitar pick necklaces featuring The Blues Foundation's logo. (When you order in bulk, you can further customize them with your own name or logo). The pick rests on an adjustable size knotted cord with assorted bead colors. The best prices are when ordered in bulk for your own fundraising purposes. Part of the proceeds will go to The Blues Foundation in the form of in-kind donation of necklaces for our use. Check them out ... <more>

Creating the Mississippi Blues Trail is one of the Mississippi Blues Commission's primary projects. The Mississippi Blues Trail will be composed of scores of historical markers and interpretive sites, and will include locations throughout the state. The Trail will be developed in phases as funding becomes available. "Phase 1" of the trail will consist of 11 markers that will focus on higher profile locations. For more information and a list of markers that have already been erected, click here. A distinguished panel ... <more>

The first four episodes of The Blues Radio Series hosted by Keb' Mo are now available on The Blues Foundation's website under the What is the Blues? icon. The series will be permanently located here. The series was produced by the Experience Music Project and Ben Manilla Productions for the presenting station WGBH in Boston with major support coming from Volkswagen. This 13-part series was created as part of the Year of the Blues and provides a wonderful history of the Blues with both music and incredible narrative and interviews. Epi... <more>

Looking for Blues music on your radio dial. A very helpful website for finding Blues radio programs is Mary4Music. When you go to the Blewzzman's site, you might just find something more of bluesy interest to you. And check out www.MountainofBlues with host and producer Michael Cloeren. Then there is Bluesville on XM Satellite Radio with host and good friend Bill Wax.

For information on summer blues festivals. Visit Blues Festival Guide or check out the list at Blues Revue. The Blues Festival Guide lists 530+ Blues Festivals in 2007. In case you are wondering. Here's how they breakdown by month. January = 12 February = 16 March = 12 April = 20 May = 58 June = 99 July = 105 August = 102 September = 69 October = 22 November = 17 December = zero