Regional artists clean up at the 21st annual Handy Awards

The Handy Awards are now a full-grown natural-born member of the musical award pantheon, way past 21, to further stretch the metaphor. Well, 21, anyway, celebrating its coming-out on May 26 at the Orpheum Theatre in Memphis, Tennessee. And several regional artists brought home small blue-note Handy statuettes to prove that they’ve come of age in the blues world, as well. The nicest surprise was sprung on Anson Funderburgh and the Rockets with Sam Myers; these Texas vets have won five Handys between them, but never for songwriting, and their win for Blues Song of the Year (for “Change In My Pocket”) was a sweet victory indeed for these hardworking veterans. Fellow Texan Susan Tedeschi made it two years in a row for Contemporary Blues Female Artist Of The Year, while Delta vet R.L. Burnside scored his first ever—and long-overdue—Handy, in the category of Traditional Blues – Male Artist Of The Year. Slidell resident and roots king Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown also scored his EIGHTH Blues Instrumentalist award—for his incomparable fiddle stylings—in the category of “Other” or “Miscellaneous.” (“Other” should probably become Gates’ real middle name, anyway. It’s the only way to describe what he does.)

The real winner, however, at least from a Southerncentric point of view, had to be the redoubtable New Orleans transplant Keb’ Mo’, who picked up his second Contemporary Blues Artist Of The Year award and his FOURTH Acoustic Blues Artist Of The Year Award, both due to the smoke still coming off of his Grammy-winning Slow Down album. Further on up the road, the wicked, wicked Wilson Pickett sealed his amazing comeback bid with no less than three Handys: Soul/Blues Male Artist Of The Year, Soul/Blues Album Of The Year, and Comeback Album Of The Year (for the amazing album It’s Harder Now, the title of which Ike Turner misread in the intro).

Most of the other winners were obvious, if mostly deserving: Charlie Musselwhite (Instrumentalist – Harmonica), Koko Taylor (Traditional Blues – Female), Etta James (Soul/Blues – Female), and B.B. King (the coveted Blues Entertainer Of The Year award). Some important wins of note, however, included Duke Robillard finally getting his rightful Guitar Instrumentalist Of The Year nod, Big Bill Morganfield’s spot-on Best New Artist award, Rod Piazza and the Mighty Flyers’ Blues Band Of The Year score (the first of many, I’d bet), and Paul Rishell and Annie Raines’ stellar Moving To The Country picking up a righteous victory for Acoustic Blues Album Of The Year. You can see actual clips of the ceremony in streaming video at www.handyawards.com. (And Shemekia, baby: you got robbed.)

The day before, a few hundred miles to the southwest, a different sort of drama unfolded: On May 25, Austin blues mentor and scenemaking legend Clifford Antone was sentenced in federal court to serve four years in prison, fined $25,000, and ordered to do 750 hours of community service in East Austin upon his release. Antone, who plead guilty to charges of being involved in distributing an estimated 3,000 pounds of marijuana in the early ’90s, was the well-loved owner and operator of Austin’s legendary club Antone’s, which since 1975 has been a cornerstone of America’s blues bar scene. Sunnyland Slim, an early supporter, has said that Antone’s “treated blues folks like royalty,” and the veterans responded in kind, with everyone from Muddy Waters to Buddy Guy rocking the boards at Clifford’s joint. Albert Collins and Albert King were regular headliners, and the Fabulous Thunderbirds were practically born and raised at Antone’s; they felt so at home there they even dedicated a song to the club, the instrumental “Down At Antone’s.” A friend to blues musicians everywhere, Antone was also said to have taken Hubert Sumlin into his home at a low point in his career, telling him, “You’ve got a home as long as I’ve got one.” Although pleading guilty to the charges against him, Antone, his friends, and associates all continue to publicly maintain his innocence. Antone had previously spent five years in prison in 1984 on a charge of possessing 1,000 pounds of marijuana.

On the medical front, some good news out of Austin. On May 10th, Austin Texas bluesman Lightning Red underwent a successful 3 1/2-hour surgical procedure to repair a major heart valve. He’s reported to be resting at home. Sadly, some haven’t been so lucky: Chicago blues vocalist Barkin’ Bill Smith left this realm on April 24, 2000 after losing his years-long struggle with pancreatic cancer. A crooner so smooth he was often compared to Joe Williams, and a shouter so loud he was given his colorful name by friend Homesick James, the Chicago scene veteran played for almost 50 years; his last solo recording was 1994’s Gotcha! on Delmark.

In these post-Jazz Fest doldrums of summer, there isn’t a whole lot shaking around town, at least as far as the blues go. But this kind of drought isn’t quite as hideous as the one Mother Nature’s been dealing us: there’s still a couple of good juke-jumpers out there, if you know where to look. For one thing, the Essence fest is in town again, and while this new tradition is geared more to the R&B lover in you, there’s still a little blues grit in their lineup, best represented by the fabulous Little Milton, who’s been in rare form of late and can be caught just so on July 3rd at the Superdome. The aforementioned Handy award winners Anson Funderburgh & The Rockets with Sam Myers make another Mid-City Rock ‘N’ Bowl appearance on the 29th, and as usual, Sam does a solo set first. This is a real beer-chugger, if you know what I mean, so get out there and rip it up. The new hit scene to make is at Live Bait, which has fast become one of the premiere music venues in town, and Her Tallness, Marcia Ball, brings her fun-loving boogie blowout there on the 28th. And if you’re the stay-at-home type, chill back at the crib and tune into Cox Metro 10 for Brint Anderson’s appearance on Louisiana Jukebox on July 27th. The George Porter guitarist will be there to promote his fine new acoustic Delta-blues CD, Notes From Clarksdale.

Blues Web Site Of The Month goes to the blues page at About.com (blues.about.com). What’s that, you say? A corporate monolith? Don’t you work for those guys, too? Yeah, guilty as charged. But this page IS excellent; the first place to go if you’re looking for blues links on the web. It’s all indexed and archived and easy to navigate with hundreds of handpicked links to take you to precisely what you want, fast. So why didn’t I mention this site before? Because it used to suck, quite frankly. But new guy John Babich has revamped the whole thing, and he’s got great blues photos of Jazz Fest 2000 to boot. And where else are you gonna find Blind Lemon Jefferson MP3s?