DIGITAL BLUES AWARDS 2009

Thanks to everyone who took the time to vote in this year’s awards. I know that the bands, musicians and venues for whom you vote really appreciate you showing your appreciation. And so to the various categories.

The Female artiste category saw a closely fought contest with a tie between previous winner Connie Lush and Bad Influence’s Val Cowell for top spot whilst Kyla Brox and Joanne Shaw Taylor were separated by just one vote in third & fourth.

In the Male artist category two were way ahead of the field and Ian Siegal was the voters’ choice just two votes ahead of Tim Aves who was couple of votes ahead of Hokie Joint’s Jojo Burgess..

Favourite Band category winners by a country mile were the excellent Hokie Joint who polled nearly three times as many votes as the Heaters in second place with The Tim Aves & Son Henry Band tying with previous category winners the Groove Doctors for third.

The Guitarist category was the one that saw the widest range of nominees with the result that Hokie Joint’s Joel Fisk just pipped Jon Amor who was, in turn, one vote ahead of the Heaters’ Paul Milligan.

In the Favourite bass player category there was a dead heat between two of the region’s finest bassists, Fergie Fulton and Rob Barry, with Pete Stroud a close third.

Hokie Joint’s dominance was again demonstrated in the Favourite harp player category as Giles King polled 50% more votes than second placed West Weston who was one vote ahead of the Cadillac Kings’ Gary Potts. 

The Favourite keyboard player award winner is the prodigious, and very busy, Paul Jobson with the Heaters’ Paul Dean and Pete Nash (the Blue Aces) tying in second and Jonny Henderson in third.

The brass section continued to fox many voters (one even misread it and voted for a well known bass player!!). The result was very close with the Kyla Brox Band’s Tony Marshall just one point clear of Karen Straw, the ever popular trumpet player from the Zoltans, who, in turn, was one point ahead of Graham Turner, an Essex stalwart.

Paul Lester was your Favourite drummer a good way clear of the multi-award winning Sam Kelly with Stephen ‘Cupsey’ Cutmore in third place whilst the Favourite soloist category was won by Essex treasure Roy Mette with Ian Siegal in second and Sean Webster and Kris Dollimore sharing third place. The duo category saw Rag Mama Rag clear winners with the Two Timers in second and the Groove Doctors Duo in third.

The Favourite CD category saw a very close result as Ian Siegal’s Mojo award winning album, ‘Broadside’ beat Hokie Joint’s ‘The Way It Goes …. Sometimes’ by one vote with Kyla Brox’s acclaimed acoustic album, ‘Grey Sky Blue’ in third.

In the Favourite Venue category, the top three were all Essex venues with the New Crawdaddy Blues Club winning the category followed by near neighbours Blues at the Farm and the Riga Music Bar in third.

Once again, the Digital Blues Personality of 2009 is the man who figures large on the Essex & UK blues scene and winner of this category in three of the past four years. So it is congratulations to Tim Aves and a big thank you from everyone who voted for him for all that he does for and on the blues scene including his popular radio show, the Blues is Back, every Sunday evening on SaintFM, his promotion of gigs in the county and his many appearances around the UK. both playing and MCing! The drummer who often sits behind Tim, Paul ‘Lazy’ Lester, came second in the category so it is a total domination by the Burnham-on-Crouch crew! Third was the ever popular Ian Siegal.

Congratulations to all and many thanks to those who voted.