Foley Sweeps
MBA's
It's been a banner year for Sue Foley. She opened for the legendary
B.B. King at Toronto's Massey Hall last month, and this month will open for him again in LA during her
U.S. West coast tour, which also includes performances with
Jonny Lang, John Lee Hooker, The Neville
Brothers, Hammond organ master Jimmy
Smith, and Jennifer Warnes, with venues including several Houses of Blues. She is also confirmed to make her UK debut at this year's Bishopstock Festival in Exeter alongside
Ray Charles, Taj Mahal and Johnny
Winter, and will record a live radio performance for BBC Radio 2 national radio after her festival appearance. "Love Comin' Down" was selected as a
Top 10 blues release of 2000 by internationally acclaimed UK magazine MOJO. Sue's album of outtakes and rarities from her Antone's Records era,
Back To The Blues, was released in the US in late 2000, and includes her rendition of
Bob Dylan's "Positively 4th Street" which is receiving significant radio airplay south of the border.
The stars are out
for fourth annual
Maple Blues Awards
as Sue Foley wins five
Call it a sweep. Call it a triumph. Call it a well-deserved acknowledgement of a career that's come into its own. Congratulations to Sue Foley - the Ottawa musician who took her own brand of blues to Austin, Texas, to learn with the best, and returned home to build a career that isn't about to stop soon. At this year's annual Maple Blues Awards, held February 6 at Toronto's Phoenix Concert Club, a radiant Sue Foley made no less than five trips to the podium, as a result of a non-stop performance schedule and the success of her most successful record to date, Love Comin' Down, on the U.S. label Shanachie.
Accepting her awards, she thanked the national blues community across the country for choosing her
* Entertainer of the Year
* Female Vocalist of the Year
* SOCAN Songwriter of the Year
* Long & McQuade Guitarist of the Year
In addition, Love Comin' Down was voted Recording of the Year, and Colin Linden was chosen Producer of the Year for his sterling work on the record.
If the evening was a triumph for Sue, there was plenty of good vibes to share with other pillars of the Canadian blues community. There was special applause for Morgan Davis, chosen Acoustic Act of the Year; the honour came a few days after he had attended a benefit event organized by the Toronto Blues Society, at which money was raised to help him acquire new guitars after a thief stole the tools of his profession the night before Morgan left the city for his new home in Chester, Nova Scotia. The national reach of the Maple Blues Awards was illustrated yet again when Quebec's Steve Hill, one of the evening's featured guests, was chosen Electric Act of the Year, while Vancouver's Colin James was voted Male Vocalist of the Year.
And if that demonstration of coast-to-coast diversity wasn't enough, there was enthusiasm for the choice of Nova Scotia's Carson Downey Band as New Artist of the Year - while drummer Murray Downey was voted Drummer of the Year in the instrumental category, tied with Fathead's Ed White.
Three members of the Downchild Blues Band - keyboard player Michael Fonfara, bassist Gary Kendall and sax player Pat Carey - were winners in their respective instrumental categories, while there was another tie vote in the Harmonica Player of the Year section, with Michael Pickett and Carlos del Junco sharing the honour.
It was a specially warm evening for Jack de Keyzer, who was presented with the Blues With a Feeling Award, chosen by the 500-plus members of the Toronto Blues Society as a mark of respect and an acknowledgement of a lifetime of work in the Canadian blues community. The Blues Booster of the Year award was presented to Ralph Stordeur (see below), publisher and founder of Scene Roots & Blues Magazine, a quarterly publication based in Winnipeg. The International Artist of the Year Award went to the best-known blues artist of them all, the unstoppable B.B. King - who, at 74, continues to play a staggering 240-odd concerts per year, and who last year performed in more than 30 different countries around the world.
The fourth annual Maple Blues Awards were, once again, sold-out as the blues community came together in a specially warm gathering of musicians, blues business people, and fans. Special note should be made of the contribution of Mike Bullard, who hosted the event for the second year in a row - and who had had the foresight to have Sue Foley as his guest on his television show the evening before. His dry humour, wicked one-liners, and enthusiasm for the blues all made for a special night. Meanwhile, the "house band" - the TBS All Stars - fronted by Gary Kendall, rocked out all evening, and was set to host a post-awards jam with many of the guests in the house. Props are due to Gary Kendall (bandleader/bass), Michael Fonfara (keyboards), Ed White on drums, Steve Hill (guitar), Michael Pickett (harmonica), Chris Whiteley (trumpet) and Pat Carey (sax).
- Richard Flohil
Click here to see the complete list of winners.
Ralph Stordeur is the Blues Booster of the Year. This home-grown Winnipeg resident began actively collecting blues records in the late '60s - his extensive collection
includes several thousand hard-to-find titles. A friend and fan of the Canadian blues scene for some three decades, Ralph has promoted numerous live music events and
successful fundraisers, and was also label manager, as well as publicist for Blues Scene Records. In 1997, he founded
Blues Scene Quarterly. Tirelessly devoted to uniting a group of
writers and aficionados across Canada, Ralph laid the groundwork for an unprecedented feat - a true Canadian blues magazine. After three years of publishing
BSQ, he and his
wife, Sandra (pictured above with Ralph), and
John Scoles founded SCENE Roots & Blues Magazine. In addition, Ralph acts as the Executive Director of the not-for-profit
Great Canadian Roots & Blues Association, a rapidly-growing group of music enthusiasts who, like Ralph, are dedicated to nurturing Canada's thriving roots and blues scene.