The
Blues Foundation has announced that Blind Pig Records will
receive the 2005 Keeping the Blues Alive Award in the record label
category. The Keeping the Blues Alive (KBA) awards honor the men,
women and organizations who preserve, celebrate and support blues
music. Presented in 17 categories, the KBAs are awarded to non-performers
strictly on the basis of merit by a select panel of Blues professionals.
Noted educator, author, journalist, and KBA Chairman Art Tipaldi
notes, "The KBA is awarded for the recipient's lifetime body
of work; we don't view the recipient as the winner of a "best
of the year" category."
Blind
Pig Records, one of the leading independent blues labels in
the world, got its start in 1977 in the basement blues club
of the Blind Pig Cafe in Ann Arbor, Michigan that had been established
several years earlier by label co-founder Jerry Del Giudice.
Today, with its home office in San Francisco and offices and
a warehouse in Chicago, Blind Pig is recognized worldwide as
one of the premier purveyors of American roots music.
In
addition to preserving the music of the genre's grand masters
such as Muddy Waters, Otis Rush, and Pinetop Perkins, the label
has been highly influential in establishing the careers of the
next generation of blues performers such as Tommy Castro, Deborah
Coleman, and Roy Rogers. Blind Pig has also shown a dedication
to discovering and exposing the talents of the newest wave of
blues and roots artists such as Nick Curran, Renee Austin, and
Big Bill Morganfield. With a philosophy of going beyond any
strict adherence to the traditional blues idiom, Blind Pig's
repertoire also encompasses the freshest forms of contemporary
blues, roots rock, gospel, zydeco, R&B, and soul music styles.
In the words of Billboard magazine, "Blind Pig can rightfully
lay claim to representing the state of the art in blues."
Attesting
to the label's reputation for excellence, the Blues Foundation
said in its announcement of the award, "What co-founders
Edward Chmelewski and Jerry Del Giudice began in 1977 has grown
into one of the most well known blues labels in the world. From
the very first Blind Pig artist, Boogie Woogie Red, to first
generation blues men like Johnny Shines and Jimmy Rogers to
the most recent recordings by Rod Piazza and Magic Slim, consumers
will never go wrong with any Blind Pig product."
The
Keeping the Blues Alive (KBA) Awards ceremony will take place
Saturday, February 5 in Memphis, Tennessee, held in conjunction
with the International Blues Challenge (IBC).
The
Blues Foundation, whose mission is to preserve Blues history,
celebrate Blues excellence and support Blues education, is a
nonprofit corporation headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee, the
home of the Blues. With more than 100 affiliated Blues organizations,
and membership spanning some twenty countries, the Foundation
is perhaps best known for annually bestowing the W.C. Handy
Awards, considered the "Grammy" of the blues field.
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