About Maple Blues Awards

 

26th Annual Maple Blues Awards

Monday January 30th, 2023   7pm

Koerner Hall
273 Bloor St W, Toronto
Tickets start at $35

BUY TICKETS HERE 

 

VOTING IS NOW OPEN

Blues fans can cast their votes online at

www.mapleblues.ca

Public voting opens November 2nd, 2022 at 10:01 am Eastern Time

and closes December 1st, 2022 at 11:59 pm Eastern Time.

Winners of the Maple Blues Awards will be announced at the gala/performance on Monday January 30th, 2023 at Koerner Hall in Toronto.

Sarah French Publicity Press Release HERE

 

These incredible blues artists will be supported by the award gala’s house band, The Maple Blues Band, who have been a cornerstone of the annual Maple Blues Awards Ceremony since 1999. The Maple Blues Band features a who’s who of musicians including the ceremony’s musical director and bandleader Gary Kendall on bass, Teddy Leonard on lead guitar, Pat Carey on tenor saxophone, Al Lerman on harmonica & acoustic guitar, Howard Moore on trumpet, Jim Casson on drums, Lance Anderson on piano, organ & accordion, Alison Young on baritone saxophone, Meirion Kelly on trombone and Roshane Wright on percussion. Following the gala, the popular after-party and nominee jam

 

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 some 53 blues experts who form the MBA Nominating Panel. Co-chaired by the steering committee consisting of Cindy McLeod, 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.

The Maple Blues Award winners will be announced on January 30, 2023 at the LIVE Maple Blues Award Show to be held at Koerner Hall in Toronto.

*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 Maple Blues Awards program is proudly organized by the Toronto Blues Society. 

MAPLE BLUES AWARDS CHANGES

Toronto Blues Society has received valuable input from the members of the Canadian blues community regarding the Maple Blues Awards procedures and voting process – and have developed policies and protocol to ensure the Maple Blues Award system is responsive and evolving. Please note the following rules:

• Songwriter Of The Year Category: Changes to this category have been made to ensure that the nominated artist(s) has contributed 50% or more towards the song writing on the recent album to be eligible in this category.
• Social Media Advertising Banned: While getting nominated for a Maple Blues Award is a wonderful achievement and excitement, not all of the nominees are regular users of social media or some may not have the budgets to execute a successful advertising campaign to solicit votes. In the pursuit of fairness for all of the nominees and transparency,

• PAID social media advertising by the MBA nominees is BANNED during the public voting period.  Anyone who breaches this rule will be disqualified!

• Regular “thank-you” posts by the nominees as well as reminders to fans for the voting deadline on social media are all still good and will also help us promote the Maple Blues Awards more! Our aim is to prevent manipulation on public voting through sponsored posts (specifically asking for votes) which may cause an inequity as we realize not all the artists may have the same budget.

 

MAPLE BLUES AWARDS APPLICATION PROCESS

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, 2021 to September 30, 2022.

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.

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MAPLES BLUES AWARDS NOMINATING PANEL

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. 

First Name	Last Name	Organization	Town	Prov
Al	Forrie	Hornby Island Blues Society	Hornby Island	BC
Brant	Zwicker*	At the Crossroads, syndicated	Kamloops	BC
Brent	Morrison	Rockin’ Blues, CJSF	Vancouver	BC
Grant	Payne	CHLY	Nanaimo	BC
Paul	Norton	One O’Clock Jump, CFRO | Code Blue, CiTR	Vancouver	BC
Rod	Dranfield	White Rock Blues Society	Surrey	BC
Vince	Almond	CFBX	Kamloops	BC
Cora	Price	Fraser Valley Blues Society	Chilliwack	BC
Deb	Rhymer	Victoria Blues Society	Victoria Island	BC
Chris	Martin	CBC Saturday Night Blues	Edmonton	AB
Cindy	McLeod	Calgary Blues Music Association	Calgary	AB
Holger	Petersen	CBC Saturday Night Blues, CKUA	Edmonton	AB
Cam	Hayden	CKUA	Edmonton	AB
Al	Wood	Saskatoon Blues Society	Saskatoon	SK
Andrew	Galloway	Electro-Fi Records	Toronto	ON
Bruce	Hall	Grand River Blues Society	Kitchener	ON
Claude	Cloutier	Kitchener Blues Festival	Kitchener	ON
Deborah	Cartmer	CFBU	St. Catharines	ON
Eric	Thom	Freelance Music Writer	Toronto	ON
Jan	MacDonald	Downtown Kingston Limestone City Blues Festival	Kingston	ON
John	Emms	Freelance Music Writer	Timmins	ON
Julie	Hill	Calling All Blues, CIUT FM	Toronto	ON
Ken	Wallis	Blues Source Canada, The Hawk	Hamilton	ON
Lee	Evans	Blueswater Blues Show, 91.3 FM	Hanover	ON
Liz	Sykes	Ottawa Blues Society	Ottawa	ON
Lori	Murray	Music By The Bay Live	Uxbridge	ON
Nick	Harding	Photographer	Wasaga Beach	ON
Paul	Panchezak	Breakfast of Champions, CFMU McMaster Radio	Hamiton	ON
Rick	Clarke	Bruce County Blues Society/Lighthouse Blues Festival	Kincardine	ON
Stevie	Connor	The Sound Cafe Magazine | Blues & Roots Radio	Mississauga	ON
Daisy	Hanna	Montreal Blues Society	Montreal	QC
Dave	Brennan	Ottawa Blues Society	Gatineau	QC
David	McCabe	Montreal Blues Society	St-Urbain Premier	QC
Debra	Thornington	Ottawa Blues Society	Gatineau	QC
John	Detcheverry	Cha Cha Cha In Blue, CKUT	Montreal	QC
Louis	Brunet	CKMN-FM 96,5	Rimouski	QC
Yannick	Lambert	Donnacona Blues Festival	Donnacona	QC
Yanick	Theriault*	Plus 90.7 FM (cfbo rebrand )	New Brunswick	NB
Terry	Parsons*	Blind Lemon Radio, CHMR	St. John’s	NFLD
Bruce	Morel	Music Marketing International Inc.	Dartmouth	NS
Cathy	Prothro	East Coast Blues Society	Dartmouth	NS

 

 

*The panel is led by a steering committee consisting of Cindy McLeod, Brant Zwicker, Yanick Theriault and Terry Parsons.