Buddy Guy To Receive Lifetime Achievement Award From The Blues Foundation
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Foundation will publicly honor blues legend Buddy Guy with a Lifetime
Achievement Award. The Foundation has commissioned for this special
occasion a one-of-a-kind award from Patterson & Barnes, who also
created the original artwork that serves as the basis for the 2010
poster. There will also be an oral and video presentation, as well as
a special musical tribute, all in the legend's honor. Buddy Guy will
be at the ceremony to receive this honor.
In speaking about this great honor, The Blues Foundation's Executive
Director Jay Sieleman said "Buddy Guy has been a mentor and
inspiration to five generations of musicians in multiple genres while
he has continued to innovate. He has greatly expanded the blues
definition while maintaining the anchor characteristics that first
defined the genre, and with this distinction, we are proud to present
him with this honor and tribute."
Buddy Guy's strikingly unique guitar style enervated his elder Muddy
Waters' Folk Singer album in the early '60s, expanded on the vision of
his contemporary Junior Wells on Hoodoo Man Blues in the mid-'60s, and
was a beacon to the British Invasion rockers Eric Clapton and Jeff
Beck in the late '60s.
Soldiering on through the '70s and '80s, his visibility and stature
refocused through the '90s and into the 21st century with a series of
recordings that underlined to the commercial pop world that he not
only was the inspiration for countless musical icons from Jimi Hendrix
psychedelics to John Mayer pop, but was still transforming while many
of his disciples were reprising decades-old hits.
He obliterated the perceived chasm between blues and rock, leaving the
term "crossover" to awkwardly define the efforts of lesser artists in
both camps trying to bridge the racial, generational and stylistic
borders of each. And he did it with a sense of dynamics and bravado
that are rare in artists of any age, but which have been consistent
for him throughout his career. You knew you were experiencing a Buddy
Guy lick in the first few lines of any number he did in 1960, and the
same can be said today. Buddy has been nominated for 41 Blues Music
Awards and has received 28 such Awards.
Past recipients of this prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award include
Bobby "Blue" Bland, Ruth Brown, Ray Charles, Ahmet Ertegun, John Lee
Hooker, Etta James, B.B. King, Sam Phillips, Koko Taylor and Jerry
Wexler.
The Blues Music Awards are universally recognized as the highest honor
given to Blues artists. The presenting sponsor is The Gibson
Foundation and the sustaining sponsor is BMI. Additional 2010 BMA
sponsors include ArtsMemphis, band Village, Casey Family Programs,
Eagle Rock Entertainment, FedEx, Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise,
Memphis Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Sierra Nevada Brewing
Company, I55 Productions, and the Tennessee Arts Commission. For
tickets, please visit www.blues.org or call (901) 527-2583.
The Blues Foundation is Memphis-based, but world-renown as the
organization dedicated to preserving our blues music history,
celebrating recording and performance excellence, supporting blues
education and ensuring the future of this uniquely American art form.
Founded in 1980, the Foundation has 3500 individual members and 185
affiliated local blues societies representing another 50,000 fans and
professionals around the world. Its signature honors and events make
it the international center of blues music. Its HART Fund provides the
blues community with medical assistance while its Sound Healthcare
program offers musicians health insurance access. The Blues
Foundation's Blues in the Schools programs and Generation Blues
scholarships expose new generations to blues music. Throughout the
year, the Foundation staff serves the worldwide Blues community with
answers, contact information and news.