Muddy Awards - General Membership Meeting - Nov 5, 2009

Grand Ballroom at The Melody
(615 SE Alder Street, Portland)
Thursday, November 5th, 6:30 pm

    Yes. It’s that time of year again for the Cascade Blues Association’s members to gather and celebrate the best of our Blues community. The Muddy Awards are celebrating their 21st anniversary and we’re inviting everybody to come down and see why this event has endured for so long. Heck, the Muddy Awards is even older than a number of those nominated this year!
    Annually we send out ballots to our members and ask for them to select those artists, venues and events that they feel made an impact in our region during the preceding year in 20 different categories. Two other awards are also presented, The Back What You Believe In Award chosen by the CBA Board of Directors and The Hurley Award given to a worthy stage crew member who consistently goes beyond the call of duty to help produce a terrific event.
    Besides the awards, there is also plenty of music to keep everybody happy. Opening the night will be the winners of this year’s Journey To Memphis competition, The Karen Lovely Band. Karen has been seeing quite a lot of attention this past year, including reaching the #1 spot on XM’s BB King’s Bluesville for “Picks to Click” and also debuting in the Living Blues magazine’s charts at #13. While preparing to represent the Cascade Blues Association in Memphis for the International Blues Challenge, Karen has also been working on a follow-up to her outstanding debut CD, Lucky Girl.
    Following the Karen Lovely Band, we’ll get right down to the awards. With special host emcee Shel Bailey from 97.1 CHARLIE FM radio and individual presentations by your CBA Board and other affluent members of the Blues community. Lots of familiar faces adorn the final ballot this year as well as many new faces. It’s always one of the most exciting nights for the Blues in Portland.
    The fun doesn’t end with the awards. If you’re a long-time member of the CBA or have attended the Muddy Awards in the past, you know what’s coming next. Each year we select a band leader to put together a grouping of past and present Muddy Award recipients and nominees for a massive jam to close out the night. This year’s band leader is not just an individual, but a whole band who’ll serve as the core of the all-star line-up they’ve invited; none other than Muddy Award Hall of Fame members The Strange Tones! One of Portland’s most beloved rockin’ blues bands, The Strange Tones alone are worth seeing. But when special guests start sitting in, you know that this night will have the house jumping!
    Remember, the Muddy Awards are held upstairs in the Grand Ballroom at The Melody (615 SE Alder Street). And make special note once again, this is not our usual monthly Wednesday night meeting. In order to use the larger room we move the Muddys back to the first Thursday of the month. And we also start half-an-hour earlier and go an extra half-hour on the other end, too. So mark it down: Thursday, November 5th at 6:30 pm. Don’t you dare miss out. And feel free to dress up if you’d like. It is a special occasion after all, but don’t feel that it’s necessary. We’d never turn you away.
    A special pre-Muddy congrats go to all this year’s nominees and recipients! You’re all winners here!!

Greg Johnson
CBA President