Five Alligator Artists Receive 10 Living Blues Critics and Readers Awards

Living Blues magazine, in its new July/August issue, announced the winners of of the 30th Annual Living Blues Critics and Readers Awards.

This year, five Alligator artists received a total of 10 awards: five Readers Awards and five Critics Awards.

Leading all artists with four wins is blues and soul vocalist Shemekia Copeland. She received both the Readers and the Critics Award for Blues Artist of the Year (Female), and also won the Readers Award for Most Outstanding Blues Singer.

Copeland's 2022 Grammy-nominated release, Done Come Too Far, won the Critics Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album of 2022. Additionally, the album's producer, musician Will Kimbrough, won the Critics Award for Producer Of The Year.

Grammy Award-winning guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Christone "Kingfish" Ingram won the Readers Award for Blues Artist Of The Year (Male), and the Critics Award for Most Outstanding Musician (Guitar).

Blues icon Charlie Musselwhite won both the Readers and Critics Award for Most Outstanding Musician (Harmonica).Texas pianist/vocalist Marcia Ball won the Readers Award for Most Outstanding Musician (Keyboards). And Kenny "Beedy Eyes" Smith (drummer for The Cash Box Kings) won the Readers Award for Most Outstanding Musician (Drums).