Buddy Guy To Receive Lifetime Achievement Award From The
Blues Foundation At 2010 Blues Music Awards

On May 6, 2010 at the
31st annual Blues Music Awards, The Blues Foundation will publicly honor
blues legend Buddy Guy with a Lifetime Achievement Award. The
Foundation has commissioned for this special occasion a one-of-a-kind
award from Patterson & Barnes, who also created the original artwork
that serves as the basis for the 2010 poster. There will also be an
oral and video presentation, as well as a special musical tribute, all
in the legend’s honor. Buddy Guy will be at the ceremony to receive
this honor.

(Vocus/PRWEB
) April 2, 2010 — On May 6, 2010 at the 31st annual Blues Music
Awards, The Blues Foundation will publicly honor blues legend Buddy Guy
with a Lifetime Achievement Award. The Foundation has commissioned for
this special occasion a one-of-a-kind award from Patterson & Barnes,
who also created the original artwork that serves as the basis for the
2010 poster. There will also be an oral and video presentation, as well
as a special musical tribute, all in the legend’s honor. Buddy Guy will
be at the ceremony
to receive this honor.

In speaking about this great honor, The Blues Foundation’s Executive
Director Jay Sieleman said “Buddy Guy has been a mentor and inspiration
to five generations of musicians in multiple genres while he has
continued to innovate. He has greatly expanded the blues definition
while maintaining the anchor characteristics that first defined the
genre, and with this distinction, we are proud to present him with this
honor and tribute.”

Buddy Guy’s strikingly unique guitar style enervated his elder Muddy
Waters’ Folk Singer album in the early ’60s, expanded on the vision of
his contemporary Junior Wells on Hoodoo Man Blues in the mid-’60s, and
was a beacon to the British Invasion rockers Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck
in the late ’60s.

Soldiering on through the ’70s and ’80s, his visibility and stature
refocused through the ’90s and into the 21st century with a series of
recordings that underlined to the commercial pop world that he not only
was the inspiration for countless musical icons from Jimi Hendrix
psychedelics to John Mayer pop, but was still transforming while many of
his disciples were reprising decades-old hits.

He obliterated the perceived chasm between blues and rock, leaving the
term “crossover” to awkwardly define the efforts of lesser artists in
both camps trying to bridge the racial, generational and stylistic
borders of each. And he did it with a sense of dynamics and bravado that
are rare in artists of any age, but which have been consistent for him
throughout his career. You knew you were experiencing a Buddy Guy lick
in the first few lines of any number he did in 1960, and the same can be
said today. Buddy has been nominated for 41 Blues Music Awards and has
received 28 such Awards.

Past recipients of this prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award include
Bobby “Blue” Bland, Ruth Brown, Ray Charles, Ahmet Ertegun, John Lee
Hooker, Etta James, B.B. King, Sam Phillips, Koko Taylor and Jerry
Wexler.

The Blues Music Awards are universally recognized as the highest
honor given to Blues artists. The presenting sponsor is The Gibson
Foundation and the sustaining sponsor is BMI. Additional 2010 BMA
sponsors include ArtsMemphis, band Village, Casey Family Programs, Eagle
Rock Entertainment, FedEx, Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise, Memphis
Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Sierra Nevada Brewing Company, I55
Productions, and the Tennessee Arts Commission. For tickets, please
visit www.blues.org or call (901) 527-2583.

The Blues Foundation is Memphis-based, but world-renown
as the organization dedicated to preserving our blues music history,
celebrating recording and performance excellence, supporting blues
education and ensuring the future of this uniquely American art form.
Founded in 1980, the Foundation has 3500 individual members and 185
affiliated local blues societies representing another 50,000 fans and
professionals around the world. Its signature honors and events make it
the international center of blues music. Its HART
Fund provides the blues community with medical assistance while its
Sound Healthcare program offers musicians health insurance access. The
Blues Foundation’s Blues in the Schools programs and Generation Blues scholarships expose new generations to blues
music. Throughout the year, the Foundation staff serves the worldwide
Blues community with answers, contact information and news.