blog post WCMA Blues Award nominees

The Western Canadian Music Association (WCMA) encompasses music industry associations from the four western provinces and three territories. Every year, BreakOut West, the conference, festival, showcase and award show is presented by the WCMA, in a different city. As BreakOut West approaches in September, we will dig a little deeper into one of the key events on the Canadian music calendar.

Last week the WCMA announced the nominees for the 2012 Western Canadian Music Awards. The nominees for blues recording of the year are:

Brandon Isaak, Bluesman’s Plea
Isaak left Whitehorse, Yukon, in 1999 to join Vancouver-based blues band the Twisters. Bluesman’s Plea is the guitar player/songwriter’s first solo disc. In 2010, Isaak was chosen to write a song for CBC’s Great Canadian Song Quest.

David Gogo, Soul Bender
Gogo has been touring and recording for almost 30 years, with 11 discs to his credit. Soul Bender was also nominated for a 2012 Juno Award.

Kenny “Blues Boss” Wayne, An Old Rock On A Roll
Born in 1944, this transplanted American played piano with folk, pop and rock acts like Delaney and Bonnie, Billy Preston and the Doobie Brothers during the ’60s and ’70s, before settling into blues and boogie. Vancouver became his home in the early ’80s.

Murray Porter, Songs Lived & Life Played
Porter is a singer, songwriter and piano player. He was nominated for a Juno Award with his previous outfit, the Pappy Johns Band. Throughout his 30-year career he has shared stages with B.B. King, Etta James, the Neville Brothers and the Funk Brothers. Porter is Mohawk, from the Six Nations in southern Ontario.

The Harpoonist & the Axe Murderer, Checkered Past
It’s a strange name for a band of any sort, least of all a blues band. The Vancouver-based duo of Shawn Hall and Matthew Rogers simultaneously pull together vocals, harmonica, guitar and drums for their deeply rooted blues style.

The Western Canadian Music Awards will be handed out at the annual BreakOut West conference and showcase, Sept. 30 in Regina.