And the Winners Are...

Last month, the Recording Academy (the folks that bring us the Grammy Awards) held its annual awards shindig in Los Angeles. This month, I wanted to do a brief post-mortem on the Staples Center ceremony and continue what I started last month in these screens with my "State of the Blues" address.

This year's crop of traditional blues nominations showed me that the blues is in very good hands. In the Traditional Blues category, six CDs vied for the hardware that Jimmie Vaughan took home for his Artemis Records CD, Do You Get the Blues? The others included fellow Fabulous Thunderbird alum Kim Wilson's Smokin' Joint, and a tribute to Robert Johnson's legacy, Hellhound on My Trail: The Songs of Robert Johnson (Telarc). Three other releases that I'll add to my CD collection this month include Ike Turner's Here and Now, James Blood Ulmer's Memphis Blood, the Sun Sessions, and Maria Muldaur's Richland Woman Blues. Truth be told, I still haven't heard the work of these last three nominees, but to paraphrase what Rooster Blues' website so aptly says, it's still new music if I haven't heard it.

The Contemporary Blues category included some folks I might have otherwise pidgeonholed into the Traditional Blues category. No matter, this year's nominees from small and large labels alike tell me that the blues are in fine shape on record.

I don't think I'm alone in thinking that Dr. John should have his own Grammy category. I've reviewed his Creole Moon over in our CD Reviews screens of Cosmik Debris this month, and it's a fine, fine record. It's not a blues record, and it's not a jazz record, but Creole Moon is as fine a celebration of the good doctor's talents as any he's produced in his long years behind the keyboard.

The other nominees were closer to the blues mark, and this year's Grammy winner surely needs no introduction. Delbert McClinton's Nothing Personal was one of my top ten blues CDs of last year, and I'm happy Delbert's getting the attention that he richly deserves. I thought the other three nominees showed that the Recording Academy nominators had really done their homework by singling out Buddy Guy for his Sweet Tea CD, and honoring Etta James for her Matriarch of the Blues release. Keb' Mo's The Door was also one of my favorite releases from last year, but his style is so traditional I wondered why he was slotted in the Contemporary Blues category.

Clearly, I don't know too much about the differences between the Recording Academy's Traditional and Contemporary Blues categories, as many of the artists nominated for the former category would also fit nicely into the latter category.

The Recording Academy's annual lovefest for 2002 is over. I'm going to celebrate Jimmie Vaughan's and Delbert McClinton's achievements by turning them up on my CD player, in addition to using this year's nominations list as a shopping list the next time I'm in the market for a new CD.

The Grammys are over. This year, Jimmie Vaughan and Delbert McClinton took home the trophies. When I look at the slate of nominees, in the Traditional Blues and Contemporary Blues categories, the winners are... us.

(C) 2002 - Eric Steiner