2006 Blues Music Awards!

Maui’s own Jazz Alley TV crews travel to Memphis, Tennessee to produce a TV Special on the Blues Foundation for the 2006 Blues Music Awards!

Director/Producer and Host, Ken K. Martinez Burgmaier is thrilled to have been asked to document the event. “It is extremely exiting to be asked to document such a wonderful and respected event with the worlds finest Blues artists and great timing for us all at Jazz Alley TV with the celebration of our 15th year for being on TV”.

The Blues Foundation has set the 2006 Blues Music Awards for Thursday May 11, 2006 at the Memphis Cook Convention Center in downtown Memphis, Tennessee.

The Blues Music Awards attendee block is sold out!

So far close to 50 nominees have confirmed their attendance at the Blues Music Awards May 11 at the Cook Convention Center in Memphis, Tennessee on May 11.
Those attending the event will be hangin' with Tab Benoit, Elvin Bishop, Jimi Bott, Mookie Brill, Big George Brock, Nora Jean Bruso, DuWayne Burnside, Sam Carr, Tommy Castro, Shemekia Copeland, Kirk Fletcher, Rich Del Grosso, Billy Gibson, Zac Harmon, Mitch Kashmar, Denise LaSalle, Magic Slim and the Teardrops, Janiva Magness, Bob Margolin, Big James Montgomery, Nick Moss & the Flip Tops, Paul Oscher, Calvin Owens, Sista Monica Parker, Rod Piazza & the Mighty Flyers, Bobby Purify, Ann Rabson, Bobby Rush, Mem Shannon & the Membership, Eddie Shaw, Willie "Big Eyes" Smith, Bob Stroger, Hubert Sumlin, Larry Taylor, Otis Taylor, The Hollywood Blue Flames, The Mannish Boys with Johnny Dyer and Finis Tasby, Eddie Turner, Michael “Mudcat” Ward and Kim Wilson. Most of these folks will be on stage at one time or another. We also expect some very special guests joining in the festivities. There are still seats left for the reception, dinner, awards, performances, dancing, networking and all around fun. Past special guests have included: Bonnie Raitt, B. B King, Eric Clapton, Robert Cray and a host of other Blues Legends.

The 2006 Blues Music Awards are also sponsored by BMI, FedEx, the Greater Memphis Arts Council, Memphis Convention and Visitors Bureau, Blues Revue, Jazz Alley TV, Sierra Nevada Brewing Company and the Stanford Group Company
The 2006 Blues Music Awards will once again be the blues party of the year. Check out the nominees below. Most of them will be in attendance and most will be performing as well. The show was virtually sold-out and critically acclaimed in both 2004 and 2005. Cocktail party, dinner, awards, performances. And the mingling!!
The event brings together Blues performers, industry representatives and fans from all over the world to celebrate the best in Blues recordings and performances from the previous year. Each year, the Foundation presents The Blues Music Awards to the artists selected by its members. They are universally recognized as the highest honor given to Blues artists. As always, a pre-party will immediately precede the Awards and feature the 2006 IBC winner.

About The Blues Foundation
The Blues Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee, the home of the Blues. With more than 140 affiliated Blues organizations, and membership spanning the globe, the Foundation serves as the hub for the worldwide passion for Blues Music. A twenty-five person Board of Directors governs the Foundation, supported by an esteemed Advisory Board. Funding for The Blues Foundation comes from membership dues, private donations, corporate sponsorships, grants from private foundations, government agencies and arts organizations and merchandise and event ticket sales. Contributions to The Blues Foundation, including membership dues, are tax deductible to the fullest extent allowable by law.
Organized and founded in 1980, The Blues Foundation's mission is to preserve Blues history, celebrate Blues excellence, support Blues education and ensure the future of this uniquely American art form.

PRESERVATION OF BLUES HISTORY - The Blues Foundation seeks to preserve and to highlight the rich history of Blues through the following:
The Blues Hall of Fame - Each year the Foundation acknowledges the pioneers of Blues through its inductions into the Blues Hall of Fame. The Blues Hall of Fame inductions have been held in Memphis, Los Angeles and Washington, DC.
The Lifetime Achievement Award - The Blues Foundation has periodically paid special tribute to a legend of Blues with its Lifetime Achievement Award, traditionally presented in Los Angeles. The HART Fund - Through its Handy Artists Relief Trust (HART Fund), the Foundation provides financial assistance to Blues artists and their loved ones in tough times arising from illness, accident and other similar circumstances.

CELEBRATION OF BLUES EXCELLENCE - The Blues Foundation celebrates the best current developments in Blues through the following:
The Blues Music Awards Awards® - What were formally known as the Handy Awards represent the highest accolade afforded musicians and songwriters in Blues music. The show is presented each spring in Memphis and is syndicated across America on noncommercial television stations.
Acoustic Album of the Year
A Ship Called Love - Eric Bibb
Down In The Delta - Paul Oscher
Birthright - James Blood Ulmer
In Your Arms Again - John Hammond
Sweet Lovin' Ol' Soul - Maria Muldaur
Acoustic Artist of the Year
Rory Block
Doug MacLeod
Paul Oscher
Eric Bibb
Corey Harris
Album of the Year
Think of Me - Little Milton
Sadie Mae - Nick Moss & the Flip-Tops
About Them Shoes - Hubert Sumlin
Anything Can Happen - Magic Slim & the Teardrops
That Represent Man - The Mannish Boys
B.B. King Entertainer of the Year
Magic Slim
Buddy Guy
Marcia Ball
Little Milton
Bobby Rush
Band of the Year
Magic Slim and the Teardrops
Fabulous Thunderbirds
Holmes Brothers
Rod Piazza & the Mighty Flyers
Little Charlie & the Nightcats
Best New Artist Debut
Mitch Kashmar - Nickels and Dimes
Billy Gibson - The Billy Gibson Band
Duwayne Burnside - Under Pressure
Zac Harmon - The Blues According to Zacariah
Eddie Turner - Rise
Comeback Album of the Year
Better To Have It - Bobby Purify
Black Coffee - Al Kooper
Club Caravan - Big George Brock
Flash Forward - The Siegel-Schwall Band
Soul Sanctuary - Hollywood Blue Flames
Contemporary Blues Album of the Year
Gettin' My Groove Back - Elvin Bishop
Fever For The Bayou - Tab Benoit
Live! Down The Road - Marcia Ball
Soul Shaker - Tommy Castro
The Soul Truth - Shemekia Copeland
Contemporary Blues Female Artist of the Year
Janiva Magness
Marcia Ball
Shemekia Copeland
Debbie Davies
Susan Tedeschi
Contemporary Blues Male Artist of the Year
Kim Wilson
Tommy Castro
Alvin Youngblood Hart
Sonny Landreth
Tab Benoit
Historical Album of the Year
Stompin' At Mother Blues - J.B. Hutto, ( Delmark Records)
The Great Johnny Adams Blues Album - Johnny Adams, (Rounder Records)
Hoochie Coochie Man: Complete Chess Recordings, Volume 2, 1952-1958 - Muddy Waters, (Chess/Hip-O Select)
Strictly Live in '85...Plus! - James Harman, (Pacific Blues)
The Essential Taj Mahal - Taj Mahal, (Legacy Recordings)
Instrumentalist-Bass
Bob Stroger
Bill Stuve
Larry Taylor
Mookie Brill
Michael "Mudcat" Ward
Instrumentalist-Drums
Willie "Big Eyes" Smith
Jimi Bott
Sam Carr
Sam Lay
Popsy Dixon
Instrumentalist-Guitar
Ronnie Earl
Hubert Sumlin
Kirk Fletcher
Bob Margolin
Charlie (Little Charlie) Baty
Sonny Landreth
Instrumentalist-Harmonica
Charlie Musselwhite
Kim Wilson
James Cotton
Rick Estrin
Carey Bell
Instrumentalist-Horn
Mark Kazanoff
Eddie Shaw
Calvin Owens
Sax Gordon
Big James Montgomery
Greg Piccolo
Instrumentalist-Other
Rich DelGrosso - Mandolin
Otis Taylor - Banjo
Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown - Fiddle
Sonny Rhodes - Lap Steel
Robert Randolph - Pedal steel
Pinetop Perkins Piano Player of the Year
Marcia Ball
Honey Piazza