(KIRKLAND, WA) – The Washington Blues Society’s annual Best of the Blues Awards, otherwise known as the ”BB Awards”, returned to the Kirkland Performance Center on Sunday, June 29th to honor musicians and artists nominated by blues society members in twenty nine award categories.
Brian Lee and the Orbiters received awards in the Best Blues Act and the Little Bill and the Blue Notes Traditional Blues Act categories, and guitarist Mark Riley was honored for Slide Blues Guitar and Lifetime Achievement. Riley joins a select group of musicians in the Washington Blues Society Hall of Fame, and Alice Stuart and the Formerlys is the first band inducted in the Hall of Fame.
Bandleader, C.D. Woodbury received Blues Songwriter and Electric Blues Guitar awards, and the C.D. Woodbury Band received the BB Award for Washington Blues Recording, “Monday Night”, and band-mate Mike Marinig won for Best Blues Horn.
The Stacy Jones Band was honored in the Chris Leighton Blues Drummer (Rick Bowen) and Blues Female Vocalist (Stacy Jones) categories. Bowen also picked up his second plaque as Best Blues Writer. The August 2014 Bluesletter will have complete coverage of the awards; a list of BB Award winners is below:
2014 Washington Blues Society Best of the Blues (“BB Awards”) Winners
Mark DuFresne Blues Male Vocalist Sammy Eubanks
Blues Female Vocalist Stacy Jones
Electric Blues Guitar CD Woodbury
Slide Blues Guitar Mark Riley
Blues Bass Polly O’Keary
Chris Leighton Blues Drummer Rick Bowen
Blues Horn Mike Marinig
Paul Green Blues Harmonica Jim McLaughlin
Blues Piano/Keyboards Arthur Migliazza
Acoustic Blues Guitar Rod Cook
Blues Act Brian Lee & the Orbiters
Little Bill & the Blue Notes
Traditional Blues Act Brian Lee & the Orbiters
Solo/Duo Blues Act Son Jack, Jr. & Michael Wilde
New Blues Band Jesse James & the Mob
Blues Performer James King
Blues Songwriter CD Woodbury
Blues Recording “Monday Night” by the CD Woodbury Band
Blues Club Highway 99 Blues Club
Blues Writer Rick Bowen
Blues Image Patti Allen Bluesletter Cover (Photo by Tom Hunnewell)
Blues Graphic Artist Dennis Hacker
Blues DJ Jonathan “Oogie” Richards
Keeping the Blues Alive Paul Quilty & Willow Stone
Lifetime Achievement Award Mark Riley
Hall of Fame Mark Riley
Hall of Fame Band Alice Stuart & the Formerlys
Non Festival Blues Event Washington Blues Society Blues Bash at the Red Crane (Shoreline, WA)
Blues Festival Sunbanks
Open Blues Jam The Madison Pub
