The first annual Canadian Blues Music Awards has just announced its nominees.
The ceremony, which takes place March 30 at the Phoenix Concert Theatre in Toronto, replaces the former Maple Blues Awards, which underwent a reckoning three years ago, when it’s practice of determining winners by public vote produced an all-white winners list, with the exception of Indigenous Artist of the Year Crystal Shawanda, despite the Blackburn Brothers having received nine nominations.
The Canadian Blues Music Award winners are chosen by juries of industry experts rather than by the whims of the public.
