Living Blues Award Winners Announced!

The results are in for the 25th annual Living Blues Awards, with a pair of legends – Taj Mahal and Mavis Staples – taking the “Blues Artist of the Year” award in their respective categories (male and female) as voted on by Living Blues magazine’s writers and editors.

The entire list of award winners is available on the Living Blues website, along with the readers’ choices for the best of the year, but we’ve listed some of the recording award winners below (click on the links to buy the albums from Amazon.com).  

Album of the Year
Taj Mahal & Keb’ Mo’ – TajMo (Concord Records)

New Recordings (Contemporary Blues)
Mr. Sipp – Knock A Hole In It (Malaco Records)

New Recordings (Southern Soul)
Don Bryant – Don’t Give Up On Love (Fat Possum Records)

New Recordings (Best Debut)
Jontavious Willis – Blue Metamorphosis (self-produced)

New Recordings (Traditional & Acoustic)
Rhiannon Giddens – Freedom Highway (Nonesuch Records)

Historical (Pre-war)
Various Artists – Blue 88s: Unreleased Piano Blues Gems 1938–1942 (Hi Horse Records)

Historical (Post-war)
Jimmy Reed – Mr. Luck: The Complete Vee-Jay Singles (Craft Recordings)

Blues Book of the Year
Lynn Abbott and Doug Seroff – The Original Blues: The Emergence of the Blues in African American Vaudeville (University Press of Mississippi)

DVD of the Year

Various Artists – I am the Blues (Directed by Daniel Cross, Film Movement)