Each year, The Blues Foundation presents the Keeping the Blues Alive (KBA) Awards to individuals and organizations that have made significant contributions to the Blues world.

The Blues Foundation will present the 2012 KBA Awards during a recognition brunch Saturday, February 4, 2012, at the Doubletree Hotel in downtown Memphis, Tennessee. The KBA ceremony will be part of the International Blues Challenge (IBC) weekend of events.

Unlike the Blues Music Awards, the award recognizing the past year's best in recordings and performance voted on by thousands of The Blues Foundation's members, the KBAs are awarded to non-performers strictly on the basis of merit by a select panel of Blues professionals.

Noted educator, author, journalist, and KBA Chairman Art Tipaldi notes "The KBA may be awarded for the recipient's work in the past year but most often reflects a lifetime of work; we don't view the recipient as the winner of a 'best of the year' category. Consistent with this philosophy, the committee generally refrains from awarding the KBA to an individual or organization more than once. Rather, we select a new deserving winner each year, except in rare cases when a significant period of time has elapsed since the first award."

 
The 2012 Keeping the Blues Alive Awards recipients are:

Agent: Rodgers Redding - Macon, Georgia

Club: Red's Lounge - Clarksdale, Mississippi

Education: Dan Treanor - Arvada, Colorado

Festival-US: White Mountain Boogie 'N Blues Festival -

North Thornton, New Hampshire

Festival-International: Rawa Blues Festival - Katowice, Poland

Film, Television and Video: Treme, David Simon and Eric Overmyer, Executive Producers - New Orleans, Louisiana

International: Mike Lecuyer - Saint Michel de Montaigne, France

Journalism: Scott Barretta - Oxford, Mississippi

Literature: Life by Keith Richards - New York, New York

Manager: Toni Ann Mamary - Totowa, New Jersey

Organization: Blues Society of Western New York - Buffalo, New York

Photography: Aigars Lapsa - Riga, Latvia

Print Media: Soul Bag - Clichy, France

Promoter: George Wein -New York, New York

Radio: Commercial: Ted Todd-KKZX-FM - Spokane, Washington

Radio: Public: Harvey Stauffer-WVPE-FM - Elkhart, Indiana

Record Label: Severn Records - Annapolis, Maryland

Congratulations to all!

The Blues Foundation: Keeping the Blues Alive