New York, NY. (Top40 Charts/ Shore Fire Media) - The Blues Foundation has announced additional performers at the 30th annual Blues
Music Awards, stretching the ceremony into a six-plus hour concert featuring 29 sets and 46 performers. Here are the performers newly added to the 2009 BMAs (listed below), join Bettye LaVette, Irma Thomas, and Taj Mahal, and others previously announced: https://shorefire.com/index.php?a=pressrelease&o=2842
In addition, 95-year old keymaster Pinetop Perkins will present the Pinetop Perkins Piano Player Award.
* Watermelon Slim - Blues Revue cover artist and former Oklahoma truck driver-turned-bandleader and Mensa-member who learned to play guitar while injured in the Vietnam war.
* Elvin Bishop - slide-guitar master, former Paul Butterfield Band member, and Top 20 Pop Albums veteran with "loose and funky" music (NPR Fresh Air)
* Lil' Ed & the Blues Imperials - longtime Alligator records Chicago houserockin' band lead by J.B. Hutto's slide-playing nephew.
* Bob Brozman - slide master whose playing would "would drop the jaw of any rock flashster" (Guitar Player).
* Paul Rishell & Annie Raines - Boston duo whose music is in the film "Chasin' Gus' Ghost" and of whom Atlantic Monthly raved, "There must be some physical explanation for the sheer joy they bring to the blues...lots of heat but also plenty of subtle variation under the theme."
* Doug MacLeod - acoustic blues singer-songwriter who is "a must for any serious fan of the blues and any soul who needs the healing of the blues" (Sing Out).
* Billy Gibson - Memphis-based "harmonica virtuoso" (Memphis Commercial Appeal).
* Johnny Rawls - Living Blues cover artist and "ace band leader, singer, songwriter and chitlin-circuit fave who knows all about crowd pleasing" (Minneapolis Star-Tribune).
* Delta Highway - gritty, electric Memphis-based aggregation with singer/harmonica player Brandon Santini and guitarist Justin Sulek Santini.
* Robin Rogers - Blind Pig Records vocalist of whom the Pittsburgh Post Gazette said, "no matter what she sings, Rogers pours herself into it. She's tough and tender, sometimes both at the same time."
* Steve Guyger - Philadelphia harmonica player endorsed by Hohner.
* Bill Stuve - bassist who specialized in jump blues.
* Chris James & Patrick Rynn - have backed Junior Wells, Sam Lay, and Dave Myers.
Also, harp man Jason Ricci, sax player Keith Crossan, key pounder David Maxwell, first-call blues drummer Jimi Bott, accordionist and harp blower Johnny Sansone, multi-instrumentalist Deanna Bogart, saxophone-player Terry Hanck, and keyboard player Bruce Katz will be supplements other artists' sets.
WHAT: The Blues Music Awards
WHEN: Thursday, May 7, 2009
WHERE: Cook Convention Center, 255 N. Main, Memphis, TN
TICKETS: $125, via https://www.blues.org or 901.527.2583 x10. (Tables of 10 are $1200.)
The presenting sponsor for the 30th Blues Music Awards is The GIBSON Foundation, and are also sponsored by ArtsMemphis, BMI, Casey Family Programs, Eagle Rock Entertainment, FedEx, Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise, Memphis Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Sierra Nevada Brewing Company, and the Tennessee Arts Commission.
