The Blues Foundation, based in Memphis, has announced the winners for the organization's 32nd annual Blues Music Awards after holding an awards ceremony on Thursday, May 5th, 2011 at the Cook Convention Center in Memphis. This year's event was a real houserockin' blow-out, running better than seven hours and featuring performances by dozens of deserving nominees (Steve Miller, Willie "Big Eyes" Smith, Bob Corritore, Manish Boys, Eddie Shaw, John Hammond, Buddy Guy). Like last year, the awards ceremony was broadcast live on XM Sirius satellite radio, on B.B. King's Bluesville channel.

There were few real surprises among this year's group of Blues Music Award nominees. There were a number of landmark albums in the blues released during 2010, among them Charlie Musselwhite's excellent The Well, Janiva Magness's The Devil Is An Angel Too, Eden Brent's Ain't Got No Troubles, and Buddy Guy's Living Proof, among others, and the aforementioned artists received multiple nominations apiece. Several artists, including Robin Rogers, John Nemeth, Tad Robinson, and Shemekia Copeland, all received one or more well-deserved nominations, and overall this year's crop of talent is pretty dang impressive. AND THE WINNERS ARE: