Blues Music Award Winners 2016

The Blues Foundation held its 37th annual Blues Music Awards ceremony on May 5th, 2016 in Memphis, Tennessee. Blues fans, industry professionals, and talented musicians all gathered at the Cook Convention Center in downtown Memphis to honor the best of the blues. Legendary Chicago bluesman Buddy Guy won both “Album of the Year” and “Contemporary Blues Album of the Year” BMAs for his Born To Play Guitar album. Perennial Blues Music Award winners like Duke Robillard and Ruthie Foster were also honored, the former with the “Acoustic Album of the Year” award (for his album The Acoustic Blues & Roots of Duke Robillard) and the latter with her fourth Koko Taylor Award for “Best Traditional Blues Artist.”

The most satisfying story of the evening was the comeback of beloved blues-rock guitarist Walter Trout. After suffering from Hepatitis C and liver failure, and struggling through a life-saving transplant and subsequent therapy, Trout came roaring back in 2015 with the critically-acclaimed album Battle Scars. The album walked off with the well-deserved “Rock Blues Album of the Year” award, Trout’s song “Gonna Live Again” earning the “Song of the Year” award.

The late Otis Clay was posthumously honored with his first two Blues Music Awards for “Soul Blues Artist of the Year” and “Soul Blues Album of the Year” for This Time For Real. Pianist Victor Wainwright earned the coveted “B.B. King Entertainer of the Year” award, while the late New Orleans R&B legend Allen Toussaint won his first BMA, the “Pinetop Perkins Piano Player of the Year” award.

The night before the Blues Music Awards ceremony, the Blues Hall of Fame inducted musicians Elvin Bishop, Eddy Clearwater, Jimmy Johnson, John Mayall, and the Memphis Jug Band along with Malaco Records partners Tommy Couch Sr. and Wolf Stephenson, all worthy and influential members of the blues music community. We have a complete list of 2016 Blues Music Award winners below.

• Acoustic Album of the Year: Duke Robillard’s The Acoustic Blues & Roots of Duke Robillard
• Acoustic Artist of the Year: Doug MacLeod
• Album of the Year: Buddy Guy’s Born to Play Guitar
• B.B. King Entertainer of the Year: Victor Wainwright
• Blues Band of the Year: Victor Wainwright & the Wild Roots
• Best New Artist Album: Mr. Sipp’s The Mississippi Blues Child
• Contemporary Blues Album of the Year: Buddy Guy’s Born to Play Guitar
• Contemporary Blues Female Artist of the Year: Shemekia Copeland
• Contemporary Blues Male Artist of the Year: Joe Louis Walker
• Historical Blues Album of the Year: Slim Harpo’s Buzzin’ the Blues (Bear Family Records)
• Instrumentalist of the Year - Bass: Lisa Mann
• Instrumentalist of the Year - Drums: Cedric Burnside
• Instrumentalist of the Year - Guitar: Sonny Landreth
• Instrumentalist of the Year - Harmonica: Kim Wilson
• Instrumentalist of the Year - Horn: Terry Hanc
• Koko Taylor Award: Ruthie Foster
• Pinetop Perkins Piano Player: Allen Toussaint
• Rock Blues Album of the Year: Walter Trout’s Battle Scars
• Song of the Year: Walter Trout’s “Gonna Live Again”
• Soul Blues Album of the Year: Billy Price and Otis Clay’s This Time for Real
• Soul Blues Female Artist of the Year: Bettye LaVette
• Soul Blues Male Artist of the Year: Otis Clay
• Traditional Blues Album of the Year: Cedric Burnside Project’s Descendants of Hill Country
• Traditional Blues Male Artist of the Year: John Primer