Norwegian nominations to Blues Music Awards

Blues Music Awards is the Grammy of the Blues, and truly one of the big events in the Blues. This year the show takes place in Memphis May 6th. It is very good news for our blues scene to see that there are some Norwegian productions among the nominees this year.

Louisiana Red & Little Victor’s Juke Joint's ”Back to the Black Bayou” was recorded in Juke Joint Studios (www.jukejointstudio.com ) at Notodden last year, and is one of the best CDs from Red in a long time. On bass, Red and Victor brought in Bill Troiani (is it OK to call him Norwegian now?) and Alex Pettersen to play the drums. Other Norwegian musicians are Håkon Høye, Reidar Larsen, Jostein Forsberg and Peter Lundell (we call him Norwegian as well!), while Espen Liland is responsible for the cover design and Morten Omlid is contributing producer.
The record is nominated in two catagories, "Album of the Year" and "Traditional Blues Album of the Year". Red is also nominated for "Acoustic Artist of the Year" and "Traditional Blues Male Artist of the Year". The record was also selected as the album of the year in France, by Académie Charles-Cros.

Super Chikan also preferred Juke Joint Studios for his recording of his album "Chikadelic". He was backed by the Notodden-band, Spoonful of Blues, and together they came up with a record that shows they had a good time in studio. The record is nominated to "Traditional Blues Album of the Year", and Super Chikan himself is nominated in the category ”B.B. King Entertainer of the Year” and "Traditional Blues Male Artist of the Year". The song ”Fred’s Dollar Store” is nominated to "Song of the Year".

Both these records are released on Bluestown Records (www.bluestownrecords.com ), a big compliment for the Notodden label.
As we all know, the Norwegian Kid Andersen has joined Rick Estrin in his band The Nightcats (picture), and they have also received nominations: "Band of the Year" and "Contemporary Blues Album of the Year".

My guess is that it will be a lot of Norwegians at the Cook Convention Center in Memphis this year when the prizes are handed out. Tickets can be bought for $125 at The Blues Foundations website (www.blues.org ).

Nina Hanssen