Muddy Awards: A Night To Remember (2009)

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Muddy Awards: A Night To Remember (2009)

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    After 21 years of the Cascade Blues Association presenting the annual Muddy Awards show, honoring those artists, venues and events that truly made a difference over the past year, one thing is very apparent: it just keeps getting better in presentation every year. Very little glitches this time, which made the night run quite smoothly. And the performances . . . well, they were just out of this world! Fantastic!!
   The night opened with an outstanding set from this year’s Journey To Memphis winners, The Karen Lovely Band, who drove all day from Ashland to take part in the festivities. Following the actual naming of this year’s recipients, the all-star set of past and present Muddy nominees, pieced together by this year’s hosts The Strange Tones, proved to be one of the best hour-and-a-half of live music ever showcased at the awards show. If this set had happened anytime else, it’d probably have been nominated for best performance in itself. Just a run-through the guests involved is incredible on paper alone: (in order of appearance) Bill Rhoades, Norman Sylvester, Ty Curtis, Hank Shreve, Boogie Bone’s Jake Johnson and Steven Dee Williams, Rae Gordon, Jim Wallace, Rick Welter, Kevin Selfe, The Troublemakers’ Rich Layton and Lisa Mann. Wow!!
   The Muddy Awards themselves saw a lot of familiar faces and also some first time winners, which is always nice. The night’s big winners were Curtis Salgado, Lisa Mann and the Karen Lovely Band, all winning two categories each. Duff’s Garage was also a big winner, taking home their third straight prize landing themselves in the Muddy Awards Hall of Fame for Venue of the Year. Congratulations to all those nominated and winners alike. A big thanks go out to The Melody Ballroom, David Grafe, Terry Allan and all the CBA Board of Directors for another great year of helping to put on a sensational event. And to all of our friends who helped announce the winners and each of you who attended. We’re all winners with the great blues talent and community we have in our area!

Here are this year’s winners:

Best Contemporary Act: Kevin Selfe & The Tornadoes
Best R&B Act: Curtis Salgado Band
Best Traditional Blues Act: Bill Rhoades & The Party Kings
Best New Act: Karen Lovely Band
Best Regional Act: Ty Curtis Band
The “Duffy Bishop” Female Vocalist: Lisa Mann
Male Vocalist: Curtis Salgado
Electric Guitarist: Phil “Suburban Slim” Wagner
Acoustic Guitarist: Terry Robb
Bass: Lisa Mann
Drums: Jimi Bott
Harmonica: Hank Shreve
Keyboards: D.K. Stewart
Horns: Brad Ulrich
Venue: Duff’s Garage
NW Recording of the Year: The Insomniacs “At Least I’m Not With You”
National Recording of the Year: Elvin Bishop “The Blues Rolls On”
Performance of the Year: The Karen Lovely Band at the Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival
NW Blues Event of the Year: Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival
The Hurley Award: Sheldon Phillips
Back What You Believe In Award: (tie) John Etten & Betsy McBride
Lifetime Achievement: Peter Dammann

[See the nominees here]

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"Leave The Light On"

Sena Ehrhardt Band

Blind Pig Records

Okay, I am not going to mince any words here. The Sena Ehrhardt Band’s debut Blind Pig recording, Leave The Light On, is absolutely one of the finest first discs to roll down the track in some time. Believe me on this one. The Minneapolis-based outfit shines throughout the disc, with Sena’s passionate vocals and her father Ed’s guitar work just outright on fire. It’s full of emotion fueled by stories of unrequited love and those low-down friends who aren’t being totally honest with you. Sounds like the blues to me.

The band really knows how to lay down a groove. Be it straight-ahead down the gritty alley style blues, or maybe a touch of funk and soul laid down underneath. Every track is a winner, written by the father-daughter team. They’re catchy and memorable. There’s a lot of power coming out of the three instrumentalists in the band. Ed Ehrhardt on guitar, Steve Hansen on bass and Tim Hasler laying down the drums are a formidable combination to start things out, but add Sena in and this is a monstrous blues combo you’re not soon to forget.

Sena is one of those strong voiced ladies that will take you by the collar and tell you flat out to pay heed. She’s laying it all on the line to you, so listen up. What she has to tell you here is worth listening to. With tracks like the slow blues of “Last Chance,” or the John Lee Hooker electrified boogie beat of “Hear Me,” the funky “Leave The Light On” or the rockin’ “My Bad” the album comes at you from all angles and makes for quite the convincing collection. I keep coming back to the tune “Lovers Can’t Be Friends;” it is truly a classic example of how modern blues should relate its’ theme with a precise guitar delivery and smoky vocals.

Sena Ehrhardt has the qualities that we fell in love with from vocalists like Renee Austin or Robin Rogers. Keep that name in your mind. I foresee that we’ll be hearing a lot from her in the future. I certainly hope so.

Total Time: 40:40

My Bad / Leave The Light On / On The Clock / Lovers Can’t Be Friends / The Best Thing / Same Team / Last Chance / You’re The One / Hear Me / Fool Out Of Me

Reviewed by Greg Johnson

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Muddy Awards: A Night To Remember (2009)

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"Leave The Light On"

Sena Ehrhardt Band