The Blues Foundation’s annual Blues Music Awards take place in Memphis tonight, with over 100 nominees scheduled to be in attendance. The celebrations continue informally over the weekend, with multiple events scheduled in Clarksdale.
Mississippi is well represented in the Awards once again, with nominees including Dorothy Moore, Denise LaSalle, James Cotton, Otis Clay, Johnny Rawls, John Primer, Zora Young, Bobby Rush, Cedric Burnisde and recent Grammy winner Charlie Musselwhite.
Last night, the Blues Foundation held a ceremony for new inductees to the Blues Hall of Fame, and Mississippi was prominently represented. Both R.L. Burnside and Eddie Shaw — also nominated for a Blues Music Award this year — were inducted as artists, and recording inductees included Charley Patton’s epic account of the 1927 flood “High Water Everywhere, Parts I & II,” and Robert Petway’s 1941 classic “Catfish Blues.”
Post-award celebrations include the three-day Clarksdale Caravan Music Fest, which features free music on two stages in front of Cat Head Delta Blues & Folk Art and the Rock & Blues Museum (2-5 p.m. Friday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday). Acts include Robert “Wolfman” Belfour, Cash McCall, Sean “Bad” Apple, Watermelon Slim and Rip Lee Pryor, son of Lambert-born harmonica legend Snooky Pryor.
On Sunday, the Pinetop Perkins Foundation is hosting the second annual Pinetop Boogie at the Hopson Plantation Commissary in Clarksdale. A fundraiser for the Foundation, the event will feature artists including Bob Corritore, Terry “Big T” Williams, Clay Swafford and Bill “Howlin’ Madd” Perry.
On Saturday, the 23rd annual Leland Crawfish Festival (at the Buster Morlino Park and Community Center) will host a full lineup of music beginning at 11 a.m., including Dwayne Dopsie and the Zydeco Hellraisers, Jason Fratesi and the Dirt Road Jam Band, Jimmy Phillips and the Ruminators and the Lillo’s Thursday Night Band. Admission is $5.
Scott Barretta is host of MPB’s “Highway 61.” He blogs at www.highway61radio.com.