FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE / PLEASE UPDATE LISTINGS

Colin Linden to Host Maple Blues Awards at the Phoenix Concert Theatre

What: Canada’s national blues award programme
Where: Phoenix Concert Theatre, 410 Sherbourne Street, Toronto
When: Voting – November 14 to December 14, 2005 online at www.mapleblues.ca
Gala – Monday January 16, 2006
Website: www.torontobluessociety.com

Juno and Grammy Award-winning blues legend Colin Linden will host the Ninth Annual Maple Blues Awards at the Phoenix Concert Theatre (410 Sherbourne Street, Toronto) on January 16. As a blues composer, recording artist, and producer, Linden has worked as a guitarist, songwriter, and producer with some of Canadian blues’ brightest lights including Bruce Cockburn, Sue Foley, Paul Reddick, roots icons Blackie and the Rodeo Kings, and most recently Roxanne Potvin. Linden is again nominated in the Producer of the Year and the Blues With a Feeling categories in recognition of a lifetime of achievements in the blues.

In addition to hosting the gala, Linden will appear with the Maple Blues Band as one of four special musical guests. Reflecting the regional diversity of the nominees, the other performers are Halifax’s Garrett Mason, Vancouver’s David “Hurricane” Hoerl, and Ottawa’s Roxanne Potvin.

Garrett Mason, son of legendary East Coast bluesman Dutch Mason, exploded onto the blues scene earlier this year and leads all Maple Blues Awards nominees with nods in six categories including Recording of the Year, Electic Act of the Year, Songwriter of the Year, and Guitarist of the Year for his debut album I’m Just a Man, which also won this year’s Juno for Best Blues Album. At the young age of 22 Garrett Mason is poised to be one of the brightest stars on the Canadian blues scene.

Stepping out of the prolific Ottawa blues scene comes 24 year-old blues purist Roxanne Potvin. Last year Potvin earned her first Maple Blues Award nomination for New Artist of the Year, likely based on the strength of her first CD, 2003’s Careless Loving. In September 2005, Potvin entered the studio with Linden to begin recording her sophomore album. Potvin has established herself as one of the most promising talents carrying the blues tradition and is nominated for Female Vocalist of the Year.

David Hoerl is “Canada’s Top Harp Blower” according to West Coast Blues Review (1995) and Real Blues Magazine (1996-2004). A founding members of Vancouver’s The Twisters, he has recorded three CDs, the latest, “The Twisters- Live at Harvest Fest”, released in 2003. A veteran of the Canadian blues scene, David received his fourth Maple Blues Awards nomination as Harmonica Player of the Year this year.

In recognition of another lifetime full of achievements, the Blues Booster Award for outstanding contribution to the blues will be presented to promoter, publicist, journalist, editor and music-industry fixture Richard Flohil. Over a span of over 40 years in the business, Richard has presented such artists as Sleepy John Estes, B.B. King, Miles Davis, and Muddy Waters and has been associated with blues, jazz, and folk festivals over the years as a programmer, consultant and host/MC.

The Maple Blues Awards, Canada’s national award programme that promotes and recognizes outstanding achievement in blues music, has announced their nominees for 2005. The nominees are selected by a distinguished panel of blues experts from across Canada, and winners are selected by the votes of Canadian blues fans. Voting is online from November 14 until December 14, 2005 at www.mapleblues.ca.

The full list of nominees is available at www.mapleblues.ca. The winners will be announced at a spectacular gala presentation at the Phoenix Concert Theatre (410 Sherbourne Street, Toronto) on Monday, January 16, 2006. Tickets are available through Ticketpro (www.ticketpro.ca, 1-866-908-9090)

The Maple Blues Awards are supported by FACTOR and the Government of Canada through the Canadian Music Fund, GALAXIE – CBC’s Continuous Music Network, the SOCAN Foundation, SOCAN, the Ontario Arts Council, the City of Toronto through the Toronto Arts Council, and KMP Designs Inc.

Media Contact:
Toronto Blues Society
416-538-3885
[email protected]