Norwell's Tedeschi, Marshfield's Geraci earn Blues Music Award nominations

The 2023 Blues Music Awards nominations have a lot of South Shore and Boston flavor.

The BMAs are considered the equivalent of the Grammys for blues artists. Most of the nominated artists are frequent performers in the region.

The Blues Foundation has released the list of nominees for the 44th installment of the awards, which will be handed out May 11 in Memphis, Tennessee.

Most notably, Marshfield's Anthony Geraci is nominated again for the Pinetop Perkins Piano Player of the Year Award, something that is practically an annual event for the keyboardist. But more importantly, the band of the year category features Geraci and the Boston Blues All Stars among its five nominees, which also include the Tedeschi Trucks Band and such familiar touring acts as Southern Avenue, Rick Estrin & the Nightcats, and John Nemeth and the Blues Dreamers.

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Among the other categories, Arlington's Mudcat Ward is among the nominees for outstanding instrumentalist-bass, and Boston's "Sax Gordon" Beadle was nominated for outstanding instrumentalist-horn.

The BB King Entertainer of the Year category is packed with acts that have played at the North River Blues Festival, which is the John Hall-produced fest that is part of the Marshfield Fair every August. Those nominees include Sugar Ray Rayford, octogenarian Bobby Rush and Tommy Castro.

Looking at acts that have played at local venues such as the The Spire Center, The C-Note, The Narrows Center and The North River Blues Festival, there are many familiar names. Singer Shemekia Copeland is nominated for album of the year for her "Done Come Too Far," again as best contemporary blues album, and as outstanding vocalist, while the song John Hahn penned for her album, "Too Far to Be Gone," is nominated for best song. One of the other nominees for best song is "The Blues Don't Lie," written by former Bostonian Tom Hambridge for Buddy Guy.

The nominees for blues rock artist of the year could be a diary of a year for South Shore fans, featuring Albert Castiglia, Tinsley Ellis, Tommy Castro and Walter Trout. Ellis and Castiglia are also nominated for blues rock album of the year.

Pawtucket, Rhode Island, guitar master Duke Robillard is nominated for traditional blues male artist of the year, along with his Rhode Island pal Sugar Ray Norcia, and Robillard's excellent "They Called It Rhythm and Blues" is nominated for traditional blues album of the year.

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The contemporary blues female artist of the year category offers more familiar names in Vanessa Collier and Janiva Magness. Former Cambridge resident and ex-Roomful of Blues frontman Curtis Salgado is nominated as soul blues male artist of the year and as outstanding vocalist. 

Members of the Memphis-based Blues Foundation vote on the awards.

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This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Norwell's Susan Tedeschi nominated for Blues Music Award