The Blues Music Awards are universally recognized as the highest honor given to Blues artists. The presenting sponsor will once again be The Gibson Foundation. 2012 Blues Music Awards sponsors include ArtsMemphis, BMI, Blue Mountain Artists, Catfood Records, Eagle Rock Entertainment, FedEx, First Tennessee Foundation, Gibson Foundation, Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise, Memphis Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Sierra Nevada Brewing Company, Sony/Legacy and the Tennessee Arts Commission.
She is regarded as having bridged the gap between rhythm and blues and rock and roll, and is the winner of six Grammys and 17 Blues Music Awards. She was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1993, the Blues Hall of Fame in 2001, and the Grammy Hall of Fame in both 1999 and 2008. Rolling Stone ranked James number 22 on their list of the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time and number 62 on the list of the 100 Greatest Artists.
James received her first professional vocal training at the age of five from James Earle Hines, musical director of the Echoes of Eden choir, at the St. Paul Baptist Church in Los Angeles. She became a popular singing attraction at the church, and Sarge tried to pressure the church into paying him money for her singing, but they refused. During drunken poker games at home, he would wake James up in the early hours of the morning and force her through beatings to sing for his friends. As she was a bed-wetter, and often soaked with her own urine on these occasions, the trauma of being forced to sing meant she had a life-long reluctance to sing on demand. Read more....
Tail Dragger ( Arkansas - 1940) es un verdadero bluesman, dueño de una de las más auténticas y destacadas voces del Blues de Chicago. Esta es su primera gira en nuestra península. Dragger aprendió el blues directamente de su mentor, el gran Howlin’ Wolf.
Desde entonces por su banda han pasado nombres ilustres de la Historía del Blues como: Eddie Taylor, Hubert Sumlin, Johnny Littlejohn, Carey Bell, Big Leon Brooks…
