Digital Blues Awards 2007

First of all a big thank you to everyone who voted in this year’s awards. We saw the greatest number of votes ever, more than double last year! I know that those for whom you have voted are very pleased to receive them. We have again received votes from all over the World which has meant that there are some unusual names appearing and this year we have also seen some very well organised tactical voting which has led to a number of votes being disallowed. However, this year shows how, if a band gets its fan base motivated, it can achieve success!

Blues Personality of 2007 saw the closest of competitions with Rockin’ Armadillo Tim Aves just pipping Tim Ainslie of the Groove Doctors who in turn was just three votes ahead of Helen Turner of 3am. Last year’s winner, Connie Lush came next with Paul Lester, also of the Armadillos, coming in fifth.

In the Female Artist category, Helen Turner was the winner with last year’s winner, Jane English of the Rockin’ Armadillos in second and Connie Lush third. Kyla Brox was fourth and val Cowell of bad Influence fifth.

There was plenty of competition for the Male Artist category with last year’s second placed Tim Aves winning beating last year’s winner Ian Siegal into second by a fair margin. Third was Tim Ainslie with Mark Sibley of the NighFlies a close fourth and Roy Mette in fifth.

The Favourite Band category saw last year’s third placed 3am come out well on top with the Groove Doctors second, previous years’ winners the Rockin Armadillos third and the Heaters and the NightFlies sharing fourth place.

The Guitarist category also saw some hot competition with Tim Ainslie three votes ahead of 3am’s Iain Black and former Rockin’ Armadillo Owen Barry one vote ahead of his fellow Armadillo axeman, Alex Hall. 3am’s Tim Renton & the Heaters’ Paul Milligan shared fifth place in the category.

The Keyboards category saw a wide variety of nominees with category winner Chris Parren of 3am polling more than double the number of votes of Pete Nash of Jerimah Marques & the Blue Aces in joint second place with Paul Dean of the Heaters, the prodigious and ubiquitous Paul Jobson in fourth and Ray Bartrip, Jonny Henderson and Matt Keane sharing fifth place.

The Harp player category saw a clear winner with Mark Sibley of the NightFlies winning with the superb Eddie Armer in a well deserved second place. Last year’s winner, Luke Arnold takes third place with Tim Aves in and Steve ‘West’ Weston tying in fourth place.

The Groove Doctors’ bass player, Fergie Fulton (or Fergie Futon as one voter named him! I bet he won’t take that lying down!) has lost his crown after one year to 3am’s Trev Turley with previous multi-year winner Rob Barry of the Rockin’ Armadillos in second place and Fergie in third, Grant ‘Cheeky’ Tunbridge of the Blues Corporation & Nigel Bagge Band in fourth and Graham Helliwell fifth.

It was all change in the favourite drummer category too as previous multi-year winner Paul Lester of the Rockin’ Aramdillos was pushed into second place by 3am’s Andy Renton. Ever popular Sam Kelly was in third, the Heaters’ Paul Reynolds fourth and the NightFlies’ Wayne Bronze in fifth.

Once again the Brass category had you a bit flummoxed with many voting papers not recording a vote for anyone in this category. However, winner Graeme Turner was a clear favourite polling almost double second placed Zoltana Karen in second place. In third place was the great Frank Mead, with Dave Wright fourth and the wonderful veteran trombonist from Jools Holland’s Rhythm & Blues Orchestra, Rico Rodriguez in fifth.

Once again, Ian Siegal polled three times as many votes as second placed Roy Mette in the solo category with third placed Tim Ainslie just ahead of Jon Amor in fourth and the excellent Little Toby Walker but one vote away in fifth.

Duos is another category which many voters found problems with and so it is good, once again, to see the excellent Two Timers in first place with local favourites, Jeff Chapman & Al E Bye, the Jives, in second. Tim Ainslie & matt Keane, a duo I have not heard of before, were third whilst the excellent Bagge & Armer were fourth with Robert Plant & Alison Krauss an interesting fifth.

For the second year running, Essex Delta Blues – Vol ll – A-Z is the winner of the Favourite CD category whilst another local(ish) CD, the Groove Doctors’ ‘Highlife’ was second favourite. Roy Mette’s excellent new CD on the Blues Matters! Label, ‘Plugged’ which sees him accompanied by the Heaters was voted third whilst last years runner-ups, the NightFlies superb debut CD, ‘The Spider & …….’ was one vote behind in fourth with Jon Amor’s ‘Unknown Soldier in fifth place.  More than 40 CDs received nominations and the top three were some way clear of the rest of the field.

Finally, we come to your favourite venue and 2007 sees last year’s runner-up taking first place as you voted the New Crawdaddy Blues Club your favourite venue for 2007. Second place went to last year’s winners, the Riga Music bar whilst the very popular Blues at the farm was a close third. The beautifyl High Barn at Great Bardfield was fourth and the Swan Inn at Hatfield Peverel came fifth. Some 44 venues were nominated including clubs in Toronto, Mississippi and Ottawa. Again hearty congratulations go to everyone involved in running these venues, itself a very time consuming and often thankless task. These votes are also a thank you for the many hours spent organising and running the venues and keeping them going in the face of waning audiences. Too rarely do we say thank you!

Here at a glance are the winners in each category: