Toronto Blues Society’s annual national awards show Maple Blues Awards is going virtual on its next edition from 4 different cities! A bundle of awards will be announced next to some exciting performances from Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, and Vancouver each Monday of February! The 24th Annual Maple Blues Awards will be streamed at 8pm (EST) via Facebook. Read the full announcement here. RSVP on Facebook event page here.
The Maple Blues Awards is Canada’s national blues awards program. Its goal is to promote blues music across Canada, and to recognize outstanding achievement in the field. Winners in all categories (excluding the instrumental categories*) are decided by blues fans across Canada. Voting occurs online each November.
Nominating Panel & Steering Committee. The nominees are selected by a distinguished panel of approximately 50 blues experts who form the MBA Nominating Panel. Co-chaired by the steering committee consisting of Terry Parsons, Yanick Theriault, and Brant Zwicker, the panel includes radio hosts, journalists, and festival organizers regionally distributed across Canada. Members of the Nominating Panel are not eligible for any of the awards.
*Instrumental Categories. Winners in the guitar, harmonica, piano/keyboards, horn, drum, and bass categories are not open for public vote. Instrumental or “craft” categories are determined by a panel of experts drawn from the nominating panel.
The awards program is proudly organized by the Toronto Blues Society.
Toronto Blues Society has been receiving valuable input from the members of the Canadian blues community regarding the Maple Blues Awards procedures and voting, and as such, have been developing new policies and protocol to ensure the Maple Blues Award system is responsive and evolving, thanks to the feedback gathered from across Canada. Please note the following changes:
There is no application process for the Maple Blues Awards. Nominations are drawn from the expertise of the MBA Nominating Panel. Members of the nominating panel are required to be familiar with Canadian blues artist activity and CD releases. Artists are encouraged to service new releases to all blues radio DJs, journalists and industry professionals across Canada to increase their national profile. The list of the Panel members can be found on our website (bottom of this page) with a link to their organizations.
Recording/Producer Of The Year. Nominated recordings in this category must be released during the eligibility period: September 1, 2019 to September 30, 2020.
New Artist Or Group Of The Year. Group or individual, new to the national blues scene, who has made considerable advances artistically and/or commercially over the previous year. The nominee should be performing under its/his/her name on a regular basis and must not have been nominated in any Maple Blues Awards category previously. The award recognizes the group or individual.
On Monday, February 4th 2020, the gala evening for the 23rd Maple Blues Awards at Koerner Hall celebrated artists from coast-to-coast. The awards show not only featured heart-warming moments and great speeches from the winners, but the audience was treated to exciting performances from Big Dave McLean, Matchedash Parish, Miss Emily, Dawn Tyler Watson, Michael Jerome Browne, and the evening’s hostess Raha Javanfar (Bad Luck Woman) with special guests, students from The Regent Park School of Music, all backed by the awards house band The Maple Blues Band.
Click here to access the archive and read more details about the night.
Performances from the night and the show are available at TBS Youtube channel.
*Photo credits: Greg King
The Nominating Panel consists of industry professionals from across Canada who volunteer their time to participate.
Click here to download the communication sheet for the Panel.
NAME | ORGANIZATION | PROGRAM & STATION | CITY | PROV |
Vince Almond | CFBX | Kamloops | BC |
Brant Zwicker* | At the Crossroads (syndicated) | Kamloops | BC |
Al Forrie | Hornby Island Blues Society | Hornby Island | BC |
Grant Payne | Nanaimo Blues Society | Nanaimo | BC |
Rod Dranfield | White Rock Blues Society | Surrey | BC |
Brent Morrison | Rockin’ Blues (CJSF | CJMP) | Vancouver | BC |
Paul Norton | CFRO | CiTR | Vancouver | BC |
Ron Simmonds | CFRO | Vancouver | BC |
Cindy McLeod | Calgary Blues Music Association | The Blues Witness (CJSW) | Calgary | AB |
Cam Hayden | The Friday Night Blues Party (CKUA) | Edmonton | AB |
Holger Petersen | Stony Plain Records | Edmonton | AB |
Chris Martin | Saturday Night Blues (CBC) | Edmonton | AB |
Peter North | Dead Ends & Detours (CKUA) | Edmonton | AB |
Gord MacAulay | Canadian Blues Alliance | Saskatoon | SK |
Al Wood | Saskatoon Blues Society | Saskatoon | SK |
Paul Panchezak | Breakfast of Champions (CFMU) | Hamilton | ON |
Ken Wallis | Blues Blast (The HAWK) | Hamilton | ON |
Claude Cloutier | Kitchener Blues Festival | Kitchener | ON |
Bruce Hall | Grand River Blues Society | Kitchener | ON |
Larry Kurtz | Orangeville Blues & Jazz Festival | Orangeville | ON |
Liz Sykes | Ottawa Blues Society | Ottawa | ON |
Deborah Cartmer | CFBU | St. Catharines | ON |
Julie Hill | Blue Remedy (Radio Regent | Blues and Roots Radio) | Toronto | ON |
Eric Thom | Freelance Music Journalist | Toronto | ON |
Stevie Connor | Blues and Roots Radio | Mississauga | ON |
Andrew Galloway | Electro-Fi Records | Toronto | ON |
Lori Murray | Music By The Bay | Uxbridge | ON |
Nick Harding | Photographer | Wasaga Beach | ON |
Lee Evans | Bluewater Blues Show, 91.3 FM | Hanover | ON |
Bill King | Beaches Jazz Festival, CIUT FM, FYI Music, Photographer | Toronto | ON |
John Emms | Freelance Music Writer | Timmins | ON |
Rick Clarke | Bruce County Blues Society | Kincardine | ON |
Kris Kane | Southside Shuffle Festival | Mississauga | ON |
Jan MacDonald | Downtown Kingston Limestone City Blues Festival | Kingston | ON |
Diane Keye-Kohoko | The Afternoon Drive Time, CKRZ 100.3 FM | Ohsweken | ON |
Yannick Lambert | Donnacona Blues Festival | Donnacona | QC |
Debra Thornington | Ottawa Blues Society | Dawg’On Blues (DAWG) | Gatineau | QC |
Alexandre Petit | Viree Blues Boreale | Hull | QC |
John Detcheverry | Cha Cha In Blue (CKUT) | Montreal | QC |
Daisy Hanna | Montreal Blues Society | Montreal | QC |
Phil Brisse | Montreal Blues Society | Montreal | QC |
René Moisan | Bros Inc. | Montreal | QC |
Greg Torrington | The Blues (Stingray Music) | Montreal | QC |
David Bush | Royal Blues with Dr. Dave, K103.7 | Kahnawake | QC |
Dave Brennan | Ottawa Blues Society | Gatineau | QC |
David McCabe | Montreal Blues Society | St.-Urbain Premier | QC |
Louis Brunet | CKMN | Rimouski | QC |
Conrad Mead | 95.7 The Wolf | Fredericton | NB |
Yanick Theriault | Cigare & Whiskey (CFBO) | Grand Moncton | NB |
Sandy MacDonald | Freelance Music Journalist | Halifax | NS |
Bruce Morel | Music Marketing International Inc. | Dartmouth | NS |
Cathy Prothro | East Coast Blues Society | Dartmouth | NS |
Gene Bellows | Blues in the Night (VOBB) | Bonne Bay | NL |
Terry Parsons* | Blind Lemon Radio (CHMR) | St. John’s | NL |
*The panel is led by a steering committee consisting of Brant Zwicker, Yanick Theriault and Terry Parsons.