WorldofBlues.com

I’m a bit of a music awards junkie. I see it as a way to see who is getting recognition for their contribution to the music world. I’m almost never disappointed with nominees as music recommendations. I normally am familiar with at least 60% of the nominees in genre that I follow like blues and its almost always new music to me if its a category I don’t follow like country. That being said I’ve even found nominees in categories like opera or trance to be awesome recommendations. But blues is always my favorite category to review and perhaps its yours too if you’re here reading this. So without further ado, some fine blues musicians from Canada and the nominees for Favourite (that’s Canadian for favorite) Blues Artist or Group are:

Colin Linden (True North Records)

Colin Linen is one of my favorite nominees in the Canadian Music Week Favorite Blues Artist Nominees list. Colin is everywhere in the music business recording, writing and producing with over 200 credits to his name. If you’re a blues fan you’ll love this video.

That Colin Linen is also available on eMusic and you can get it as part of your free trial membership.

Monkey Junk (Beefy Productions)

Monkey Junk is a great blues trio that is everywhere in the blues scene this year. They are my other favorite in the list of nominees but truth be told I’m hoping Colin Linden gets the prize. Monkey Junk is already getting theirs. They are regulars on B.B. Kings picks to click, won 5 of the 6 Maple Blues awards this year and were third place for new band of the year last year at the Blues Foundation. Their album Tiger in your tank is a great album to have in your collection.

You can read a bit more about Monkey Junk here on WorldofBlues.com.

Harrison Kennedy (Electro-Fi)

Harrison Kennedy is a new name to me. I’ll have to check it out more closely, you can too with this widget. I love acoustic blues and this album seems to have lots of that to offer.

Jim Byrnes (Black Hen)

Another new name to me is Jim Byrnes. I love the vocals and the nice touches on traditional tunes. Then there are some covers like The Band song Ophelia. Then the album finishes up with some One Life (Creole Poetry)! Sure I’m game for all that – I’ll be giving this a closer listen and you can too – here’s the widget, just click play.

Colin James (MapleMusic)

Colin James is a long time blues rocker favorite up here in Canada and he’s had some good exposure internationally as well. I think his most popular song to date has been Voodoo Thing. Anyway Colin has some new stuff and has borrowed something from his buddy Billy in ZZ Top who may have borrowed it from John Lee Hooker anyway you can check it out here on youtube. Colin is definitely a high energy act worth catching. His latest is also available on eMusic.