Mark Jordan is a GRAMMY.com contributor.
The second week of May saw music artists from around the world convene in Memphis, Tennessee, for the 45th Annual Blues Music Awards and a host of related events, including the Blues Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony. Amid the excitement, a significant event took place on May 9: a roundtable discussion on Recording Academy membership and the GRAMMY Awards process,…
It was a big week for music in Memphis. The 45th annual Blues Music Awards, a top honor in the genre, were handed out on Thursday, May 9, in Memphis, Tenn. in a ceremony sponsored by the Recording Academy. The awards were the capstone to several days of blues-related events, including the annual Blues Hall of Fame induction ceremony the…
For more than four decades — even during the pandemic — the Memphis-based Blues Foundation has annually recognized the genre's best, including such GRAMMY-winning luminaries as B.B. King, Buddy Guy, and Stevie Ray Vaughan. On May 11, the foundation presented the 44th Annual Blues Music Awards, featuring a host of blues mainstays — as well as younger artists who combine the various…
At the 2022 GRAMMYs, Christone "Kingfish" Ingram strode onto the stage in Las Vegas and accepted the first golden gramophone of his young career. Beating out industry giants like Joe Bonamassa, Shemekia Copeland, and Steve Cropper, the 23-year-old took home the GRAMMY for Best Contemporary Blues Album. "For years, I had to sit and watch the myth that young Black…
Memphis is the cradle of blues music, a city whose history runs as deep as the Mississippi River hugging the city's limits. To celebrate that history, the Memphis-based Blues Foundation hosted six days of events, beginning with the Blues Hall of Fame induction ceremony and the 43rd Blues Music Awards. The award ceremonies preceded the four-night International Blues Challenge talent…
For a genre with as rich of a history as the blues, the honor of becoming a Hall of Famer is that much more prestigious. On May 8, artists, industry professionals, and fans gathered in Memphis, Tenn., to induct this year's class into the Blues Foundation’s Blues Hall of Fame, a class comprised of blues legends, historic recordings and more.…
The blues music community gathered at the Cook Convention Center in Memphis, Tenn., on May 9 to recognize excellence in the genre. It was at the 40th anniversary of the Blues Foundation’s Blues Music Awards, a milestone the marking of which ordinarily would have dominated the evening. But this year’s ceremony took on an appropriately bittersweet — if no less joyous —…
Some of the top tunesmiths in contemporary music converged in Memphis, Tenn., last month for three days of camaraderie and collaboration. The occasion was the second in the Recording Academy's new series of writers' retreats. The first one, held last year in Nashville, sought to stir creative juices by mixing and matching songwriters from the worlds of pop and country…
