Winners have been revealed at the 2026 Blues Music Awards held on Thursday, May 7, in Memphis, Tennessee. The awards were voted on by the members of the Blues Foundation.<\/p>\n
View the full list of winners below, which are bolded.<\/p>\n
Acoustic Blues Album<\/strong><\/p>\n Catfish Keith, \u201cSugar for Sugar \u2013 Vol. 1 2025 Summer Sessions\u201d Acoustic Blues Artist<\/strong><\/p>\n Catfish Keith Album of the Year<\/strong><\/p>\n Blood Brothers Mike Zito & Albert Castiglia, \u201cHelp Yourself\u201d B.B. King Entertainer of the Year<\/strong><\/p>\n Castro Coleman (Mr. Sipp) Band of the Year<\/strong><\/p>\n Anthony Paule Soul Orchestra Best Emerging Artist Album<\/strong><\/p>\n Brody Buster, \u201cRedemption\u201d Blues Rock Album<\/strong><\/p>\n Blood Brothers Mike Zito & Albert Castiglia, \u201cHelp Yourself\u201d<\/strong> Blues Rock Artist<\/strong><\/p>\n Ana Popovic Contemporary Blues Album<\/strong><\/p>\n Brandon Santini, \u201cWhich Way Do We Go?\u201d Contemporary Blues Female Artist<\/strong><\/p>\n Carolyn Wonderland Contemporary Blues Male Artist<\/strong><\/p>\n Brandon Santini Instrumentalist \u2013 Bass<\/strong><\/p>\n Benny Turner Instrumentalist \u2013 Drums<\/strong><\/p>\n Chris Layton Instrumentalist \u2013 Guitar<\/strong><\/p>\n Chris Cain Instrumentalist \u2013 Harmonica<\/strong><\/p>\n Billy Branch<\/strong> Instrumentalist \u2013 Horn<\/strong><\/p>\n Greg Piccolo Instrumentalist \u2013 Piano (Pinetop Perkins Piano Player)<\/strong><\/p>\n Anthony Geraci Instrumentalist \u2013 Vocals<\/strong><\/p>\n Candice Ivory Song of the Year<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cMile After Mile\u201d \u201cBye Bye Blues\u201d \u201cCan\u2019t Catch a Break\u201d \u201cUpside\u201d \u201cWho Was That?\u201d Soul Blues Album<\/strong><\/p>\n Dave Keller, \u201cLa Brea\u201d Soul Blues Female Artist<\/strong><\/p>\n Annika Chambers Soul Blues Male Artist<\/strong><\/p>\n Alabama Mike Traditional Blues Album<\/strong><\/p>\n Bobby Rush & Kenny Wayne Shepherd, \u201cYoung Fashioned Ways\u201d Traditional Blues Female Artist (Koko Taylor Award)<\/strong><\/p>\n Diunna Greenleaf Traditional Blues Male Artist<\/strong><\/p>\n Billy Branch International Blues Album<\/strong><\/p>\n Brandon Isaak, \u201cWalkin With The Blues\u201d
Doug MacLeod, \u201cBetween Somewhere and Goodbye\u201d<\/strong>
Erin Harpe, \u201cLet The Mermaids Flirt With Me: A Tribute to Mississippi John Hurt\u201d
Hudspeth & Taylor, \u201cKimuziki Live in Des Moines\u201d
Johnny Iguana, \u201cAt Delmark\u201d<\/p>\n
Doug MacLeod
Eric Bibb
Kevin Burt<\/strong>
Rhiannon Giddens<\/p>\n
Bobby Rush & Kenny Wayne Shepherd, \u201cYoung Fashioned Ways\u201d
D.K. Harrell, \u201cTalkin\u2019 Heavy\u201d<\/strong>
Larry McCray, \u201cHeartbreak City\u201d
Tommy Castro & The Painkillers, \u201cCloser To The Bone\u201d<\/p>\n
Rick Estrin
Ronnie Baker Brooks<\/strong>
Ruthie Foster
Vanessa Collier<\/p>\n
John Nemeth and the Blue Dreamers
Southern Avenue
Tedeschi Trucks Band<\/strong>
Vanessa Collier Band<\/p>\n
Allison August, \u201cAugust Moon\u201d
Sean McDonald, \u201cHave Mercy!\u201d<\/strong>
Robbin Kapsalis, \u201cTHE BLUES IS IN THE HOUSE\u201d
Kyle Rowland, \u201cNOT HOLDING BACK!\u201d<\/p>\n
Devon Allman, \u201cBLUES SUMMIT\u201d
Kent Burnside, \u201cHill Country Blood\u201d
Tom Hambridge, \u201cDown The Hatch\u201d
Walter Trout, \u201cSign Of The Times\u201d<\/p>\n
Kenny Wayne Shepherd
Kirk Fletcher
Tommy Castro<\/strong>
Walter Trout<\/p>\n
Carolyn Wonderland, \u201cTruth Is\u201d
D.K. Harrell, \u201cTalkin\u2019 Heavy\u201d<\/strong>
Monster Mike Welch, \u201cKeep Living Til I Die\u201d
Southern Avenue, \u201cFamily\u201d<\/p>\n
Danielle Nicole<\/strong>
Ruthie Foster
Samantha Fish
Vanessa Collier<\/p>\n
Castro Coleman (Mr. Sipp)
Chris Cain
Christone \u201dKingfish\u201d Ingram<\/strong>
D.K. Harrell<\/p>\n
Larry Fulcher
Michael \u201dMudcat\u201d Ward
Rodrigo Mantovani
Scot Sutherland<\/strong><\/p>\n
Chris Peet
Derrick D\u2019Mar Martin<\/strong>
Tom Hambridge
Tony Braunagel<\/p>\n
Christoffer \u201dKid\u201d Andersen
Derek Trucks<\/strong>
Joanna Connor
Ronnie Baker Brooks<\/p>\n
Bob Corritore
Brandon Santini
John Nemeth
Kim Wilson<\/p>\n
Jimmy Carpenter
Mark Kaz Kazanoff
Regi Oliver
Trombone Shorty<\/strong><\/p>\n
Bruce Katz
Dave Keyes
Jon Cleary
Marcia Ball<\/strong><\/p>\n
Danielle Nicole<\/strong>
John Nemeth
Shemekia Copeland
Susan Tedeschi<\/p>\n
written by Brandon Santini & Jeff Jensen<\/p>\n
written by Larry McCray & Charlie Walmsley<\/p>\n
written by Tommy Castro & Christoffer Andersen<\/strong><\/p>\n
written by Tierinii Jackson, Tikyra Jackson, Ori Naftaly, Dylan Altman & Marshall Altman<\/p>\n
written by Emmett Ellis Jr. & Kenny Wayne Shepherd<\/p>\n
Jimmy Burns & Soul Message Band, \u201cFull Circle\u201d
Johnny Rawls, \u201cMake Them Dance\u201d<\/strong>
Tad Robinson Band, \u201cSoul In Blue\u201d
The Soul of John Black, \u201cSoul Salvation\u201d<\/p>\n
Candice Ivory
Kat Riggins
Thornetta Davis<\/strong>
Vaneese Thomas<\/p>\n
Curtis Salgado<\/strong>
John Nemeth
Johnny Rawls
Tad Robinson<\/p>\n
Buddy Guy, \u201cAin\u2019t Done With The Blues\u201d<\/strong>
Charlie Musselwhite, \u201cLook Out Highway\u201d
Maria Muldaur, \u201cOne Hour Mama: The Blues of Victoria Spivey\u201d
Roomful Of Blues, \u201cSteppin\u2019 Out\u201d<\/p>\n
Eden Brent<\/strong>
Maria Muldaur
Rhiannon Giddens
Teeny Tucker<\/p>\n
Jimmie Vaughan
John Primer<\/strong>
Jontavious Willis
Rick Estrin<\/p>\n
Honeybear, the Band, \u201cI Was Wrong\u201d
Hubert Dorigatti & Blues harp masters, \u201cPoor Boy\u201d
J.T.Lauritsen & The Buckshot Hunters, \u201cStill be friends\u201d<\/strong>
The Angelique Francis Band, \u201cNot Defeated\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Winners have been revealed at the 2026 Blues Music Awards held on Thursday, May 7, in Memphis, Tennessee.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":600182,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[171,975,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-782119","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-music","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116539435888294658","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=782119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782119\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/600182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=782119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=782119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=782119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}