This month the Blues Foundation will host the 23rd Annual W.C. Handy Awards on May 23rd, "the Grammys of the Blues" at the Orpheum Theatre in Memphis. Dr. John will be this year's host emcee, and other performers during this star-studded celebration of the blues include B.B. King, Marcia Ball, Shemekia Copeland, Otis Taylor, Charlie Musselwhite, and International Blues Challenge winner Chef Chris and his Nairobi Trio.
The awards ceremony kicks off one of the nation's most celebrated blues evenings. Every year, Memphis' Handy Weekend features a series of events designed to appeal to Blues musicians, industry, and fans alike. Handy Weekend events include blues symposia and workshops, a children's festival, and the Handy Awards Music Festival with blues bands performing in the clubs along Beale Street, plus the Handy Artists Relief Trust Benefit Concert benefiting the Musicmakers Relief Fund.
If Dr. John's recent show at Seattle's Jazz Alley in March is any preview of Dr. John's performance at this year's Handy Awards show, Memphis is in for a real treat. He played nearly two hours with his long-time band, the Lower 911 Band, featuring Roscoe Ernest III behind the drums and David Barard on bass. Renard Poche helped out on backing vocals and guitar, and for two glorious hours the hazy grey of the Pacific Northwest was transformed into a Crescent City party, French Quarter style. The good doctor sprinkled his voodoo from his latest CD, Creole Moon, including a very funky "In the Name of You." 
My favorites included a rousing Big Maybelle hit "Candy," which landed on his 1989 Warner Brothers CD, In A Sentimental Mood, and possibly the world's greatest party song, "Mardi Gras Day" from his third LP, Remedies. Incidentally, Wounded Bird Records has remastered and brought back this old Atco gem this year, and it's about time we experience this Big Easy classic on CD. Professor Longhair's "Tipitina," and "Going Back to New Orleans" also were high points for me, and Dr. John's command of the piano and the trademark funky New Orleans beat has never been better. The Lower 911 Band's got a repertoire that's close to 200 songs, and I was surprised that the show closed with Leadbelly's "Old Cotton Fields Back Home" as it morphed into "Goodnight Irene Goodnight." After a very short break, Roscoe and David took the stage, followed by Dr. John and Renard. As they plugged in, Dr. John played the first few bars of "Right Place/Wrong Time" and the crowd lept to its feet.
Unlike the good doctor, I don't have any mojo to help me predict this year's Handy Awards in Memphis. If I had some of Dr. John's voodoo, I'd throw it Chicago way in the hopes of helping the Queen Bee Koko Taylor cross the stage as Female Artist of the Year in the Traditional Blues category. Marcia Ball is up for five Handys this year, including Blues Entertainer of the Year and Contemporary Blues - Female Artist of the Year, and I hope she leaves the stage with another Handy as she took home the Contemporary Blues - Female Artist of the Year honors in 1998. Lil' Ed and the Blues Imperials are competing for Blues Band of the Year honors, and Buddy Guy is up for three awards: Contemporary Male Blues Artist of the Year, Blues Instrumentalist/Guitar, and Contemporary Blues Album of the Year, Sweet Tea. Several of my harmonica heroes are up for the Blues Instrumentalist/Harmonica category, including Snooky Pryor, Charlie Musselwhite, and James Cotton. After his duet with Mel Brown on Toronto's Electro-Fi label, Double Shot, Snooky gets my vote. If I could vote early and often for Snooky, I would. Pinetop Perkins is one of the perennial Handy nominees, up again for Blues Instrumentalist/Keyboards, along with the evening's host, Dr. John. I'd like to hear them play together live in Memphis, but as much as I love Dr. John, I'd tip my Fedora to Pinetop. Willie Kent and Calvin "Fuzz" Jones are up for Blues Instrumentalist/Bass awards, and I'm pleased that one of my top five records of 2001 is up for Blues Album of the Year: Kid Ramos' Greasy Kid Stuff (Evidence Records). I hope that the Kid takes home the hardware, but the other four make this one of the most difficult categories from this year's Handy Awards line-up as they all are excellent: John Hammond's Wicked Grin (Virgin), Kim Wilson's Smokin' Joint (MC Records), Marcia Ball's Presumed Innocent (Alligator), and Otis Taylor's White African (Northern Blues).
Each year I'm intrigued with the Historical Blues Album of the Year category as this is one of the many ways that the Blues Foundation truly honors the heritage of the blues. Three nominees have gotten my attention: Fuel 2000's reissue of Mississippi Fred McDowell's I Do Not Play No Rock and Roll, the MCA/Chess reissue of the classic Chicago blues record Fathers and Sons, and Revenant's definitive collection of Charley Patton's work Screamin' and Hollerin' the Blues are very worthy competitors in one of my favorite Handy categories.
No matter who takes home the hardware in Memphis, though, we'll have quite a lot of shakin' going on in Memphis in May. For additional coverage on the 23rd Annual W.C. Handy Awards, check out www.handyawards.com or the The Blues Foundation's home page at www.blues.org. Both of these sites offer a real treasure trove of blues information, and one of my favorite blues reference sites is the list of Essential Blues CDs that have landed in the Blues Hall of Fame. These are the textbooks of a blues education, including Howlin' Wolf, Magic Sam, John Lee Hooker, B.B. King, Muddy Waters, among many others. If you've got a few minutes or a few hours, check out this list out to add to your blues education.
Next month, I'm going to shout about some of the best South Side blues from some up and coming Chicago-area bluesmen and blueswomen. Stay tuned for some great news about some new Chicago blues from Steve Arvey, Little Johnny Moore, Billy King, and the Chicago Blues Posse.
