Trombone Shorty, Dr. John, Irma Thomas and BeauSoleil avec Michael Doucet Honored with OffBeat Best of the Beat Awards

Rosebud artists have once again been honored with Best of the Beat Awards from New Orleans' OffBeat magazine. Trombone Shorty was the night's big winner, taking home five awards, with Dr. John, Irma Thomas and BeauSoleil avec Michael Doucet all scoring wins as well.

At the ceremony January 28th, Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue won awards for Artist of the Year; Album of the Year for the GRAMMY nominated Backatown; Best R&B/Funk Artist; Best R&B/Funk Album for Backatown and Best Trombonist. This makes three times since 2007 that OffBeat has awarded Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue Best R&B/Funk Band, while Trombone Shorty himself has picked up three awards for Performer / Artist of The Year and two awards for Best Trumpeter. Dr. John (represented by Rosebud for bookings outside North America) won all 3 awards he was nominated for: Best Blues Artist; Best Blues Album for his GRAMMY nominated Tribal and Songwriter of the Year. Irma Thomas was awarded Best Female Vocalist for the third year in a row and BeauSoleil avec Michael Doucet were honored with their incredible 15th award for Best Cajun Artist! In addition, Matt Perrine, a member of Jon Cleary's Piano, Bass & Drums project, won the award for Best Tuba / Sousaphonist for the third year in a row (four years ago he won in a three way tie). The Best of The Beat Award nominees are selected by the editors and writers of OffBeat and voted on by the public to select the winners.

Congratulations to all the winners! Check them out live on stage, please see Tour Dates >>

A collection chronicling JJ Cale's music released by Silvertone Records between 1989-1992, entitled The Silvertone Years, will have an international release on February 7th, 2011 from Sony Music. The physical CD, while not initially set for release in North America, will be available as a European import from outlets such as Amazon. The disc features songs from JJ's Silvertone albums, Travel-Log and Number 10, check out the track listing at sonymusic.co.uk. Whether the music is bluesy, jazzy, country, rock (or country rock), folk, or tinged with Spanish or even Flamenco guitar flavors, once you hear that guitar or the voice, you immediately know it's JJ Cale - an incredibly humble man whose very nature has inspired a deep emotional connection with die-hard fans worldwide. Enjoy the collection.

At this time, JJ does not have any tour plans.

Rosebud Artists Recognized In Village Voice 2010 Pazz & Jop Poll and More Year End Praise for Bettye LaVette and Trombone Shorty

Eleven albums and six singles released by Rosebud artists last year are recognized in the 2010 Village Voice Pazz & Jop Music Critics Poll, which calculated 712 critics' votes for the most important music of the year.

Listed among the year's top albums are:
Mavis Staples, You Are Not Alone (GRAMMY Nominated)
Bettye LaVette, Interpretations: The British Rock Songbook (GRAMMY Nominated)
Dr. John and The Lower 911, Tribal (GRAMMY Nominated)
Trombone Shorty, Backatown (GRAMMY Nominated)
Charlie Musselwhite, The Well (GRAMMY Nominated)
Bill Frisell, Beautiful Dreamers
Jackson Browne & David Lindley, Love Is Strange (GRAMMY Nominated)
Carrie Rodriguez, Love and Circumstance
Jim Lauderdale, Patchwork River
Carrie Rodriguez, Live in Louisville
Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars, Rise & Shine

Listed among the year's top singles are:
Mavis Staples, "You Are Not Alone" and "Last Train"
Bettye LaVette, "Salt of the Earth"
Trombone Shorty, "On Your Way Down," "Backatown" and "Something Beautiful"

Also recognized on the album list:
- Elvis Costello's National Ransom, which features Jim Lauderdale and for which Jim co-wrote the song "I Lost You."
- Cyndi Lauper's GRAMMY Nominated Memphis Blues which features Charlie Musselwhite and Allen Toussaint

In addition, Captain Beefheart's "Big Eyed Beans From Venus" reissue was recognized in the year's top singles list. The late Captain Beefheart was a Rosebud artist until his retirement in 1981.

There was more year end praise for Bettye LaVette from The Wall Street Journal's music critic Jim Fusilli, who chose Bettye's May show in New York City among his Five Best Concerts of 2010. He writes, "Ms. LaVette bores right to the emotional core of the lyrics and finds the universal truth in their sentiments. At one point during the show, as she unfurled her poignant, powerful reading of Jim Capaldi and Steve Winwood's "No Time to Live," I looked around and noticed that several women were crying tears of recognition." (read the article >>)

Trombone Shorty also garnered additional accolades for his breakthrough Backatown CD scoring the #2 position on JazzWeek's Top 100 for 2010 - the annual survey of airplay on jazz radio stations in the U.S.

Check out all the artists live on a stage near you, please see Tour Dates >>

Tommy Castro Featured In Blues Revue Magazine Cover Story

Tommy Castro is featured in the cover story of the January / February 2011 issue of Blues Revue Magazine, which proclaims him "the most dangerous man in the blues." Tommy is the reigning big winner from the 2010 Blues Music Awards, where he walked away with wins for Band of the Year, Contemporary Blues Album of the Year for Hard Believer, B.B. King Entertainer of the Year and Contemporary Blues Male Artist of the Year. Tommy was also awarded Best Blues Album of 2009 for Hard Believer in the 2010 Living Blues Awards. The story also highlights Tommy's work with great songwriters such as Jeff Silbar, Delbert McClinton and Bonnie Hayes, and his strong work ethic and determination. "This is not a hobby, it's my life's work. It's hard to have this as a career and hard to keep it going, so you'd better be ready to work your ass off." And that he does. Catch Tommy live on stage, please see Tour Dates >>

GRAMMY and Multiple Blues Music Award Nominee Charlie Musselwhite Featured on NPR's World Café and eTown

Charlie Musselwhite and Cyndi Lauper in Times Square for Good Morning America Taping

GRAMMY Nominee Charlie Musselwhite was featured on NPR's World Café Live, premiering January 20, 2011. Click here to find when the show airs in your area. The audio is now available on NPR's website. Charlie is also featured on the eTown radio show, airing January 19 - January 25. The show can be heard on NPR/public, commercial, and community stations, click here to find one near you. Charlie will be featured both in his own segment and as a featured member of Cyndi Lauper's band, a role he performed in throughout Cyndi's Summer and Fall 2010 tour. Charlie is also on the air hosting his own radio show, Charlie's Back Room, on KRSH in Santa Rosa, CA, Sundays 6-7pm (PST). Click here to listen to a couple shows from the archive.

Charlie's latest album, The Well, is nominated for the GRAMMY for Best Traditional Blues Album. Charlie is also featured on Cyndi Lauper's GRAMMY nominated Memphis Blues album. In addition, Charlie, a Blues Hall of Famer and 23-time Blues Music Award Winner, is tied for this year's most Blues Music Award nominations, with 5 nominations: Album of the Year and Traditional Blues Album of the Year for The Well; Best Instrumentalist - Harmonica; Traditional Blues Male Artist of the Year and Song of the Year for "Sad and Beautiful World."

On the Best of 2010 lists, Amazon chose The Well in it's Top 10 Best Blues CDs of 2010, while the Chicago Tribune picked it in their Top 20 Albums of 2010 and it was voted as one of The House of Blues Radio Hour's Top 10 Blues Albums of 2010. Downbeat also chose Charlie's disc in their Best CDs of 2010, receiving a 4-star rating. In their review of the album (December issue), Downbeat proclaimed: "Musselwhite gives it to us straight on the crown jewel in a discography dating back to the late-'60's… He's a wise man dispensing golden truths."

Charlie's hitting the road for a late-January to mid-March tour with Hot Tuna Blues: Hot Tuna with Jorma Kaukonen, Jack Casady, Charlie Musselwhite and Jim Lauderdale. Catch Charlie live on stage, both with Hot Tuna and for his own shows, please see Tour Dates >>

TROMBONE SHORTY STORE

In it's 38th week of release, Trombone Shorty's Grammy nominated Backatown returns to #1 on Billboard Magazine's Contemporary Jazz CD chart this coming week. Backatown went immediately to #1 on its release in April of 2010 and held the top position for 9 straight weeks, rarely straying from the Top 5 for the past nine months.

Aided by an intensive tour schedule that is spreading Trombone Shorty's patented high energy Supafunkrock sound to 5 continents, Backatown has recently benefited from praise on many Year End Best Of lists including being named #1 among the great Louisiana based releases of the year.

The Backatown tour continues this Spring and Summer with more dates across the European continent, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, and all over Canada and the US. Catch Shorty live on stage, please see Tour Dates >>

Big Year End Love for Rosebud Artists Across Best of 2010 Critics' Lists

A number of Rosebud artists were praised in Best of 2010 lists for their albums, songs and live shows, garnering accolades from Rolling Stone, The New York Times, Mojo, London Times, NPR, Amazon, iTunes, and Paste, among many others.

The New York Times' Jon Pareles named "Heart of Steel" by Galactic, featuring Irma Thomas, in his Top Songs of 2010. Amazon chose Charlie Musselwhite's GRAMMY nominated album, The Well, in it's Top 10 Best Blues CDs of 2010, while the Chicago Tribune picked it in their Top 20 Albums of 2010 and it was voted as one of The House of Blues Radio Hour's Top 10 Blues Albums of 2010. Downbeat also chose Charlie's disc in their Best CDs of 2010, joined by John Hammond's Rough & Tough and Beautiful Dreamers by Bill Frisell, each of which received a 4-star rating. Bill's Disfarmer album was also chosen as iTunes' Best Instrumental Jazz Album for 2010.

Bettye LaVette's GRAMMY nominated Interpretations: The British Rock Songbook placed #4 on Billboard's Best of 2010 Blues Albums chart, while she also placed as #5 Best Blues Artist of 2010. Her album also tops the list of Blues Revue's Don Wilcock's Best of the Year.

Dr. John and The Lower 911's GRAMMY nominated album Tribal was named by OffBeat in their Top 10 Best Louisiana Albums of 2010, as well as AllMusic's Favorite R&B Albums of 2010 and The Louisiana Weekly's Great 2010 CDs. The Weekly also noted Dr. John's show at Lafayette Square among the Best Live Performances in New Orleans in 2010.

Jim Lauderdale's Patchwork River was chosen JamBands.com's #5 Best CD of 2010 and The Americana Music Association picked the album in their Top 25 Albums of the Year, while also choosing Carrie Rodriguez's Love And Circumstance in their Top 20 Albums of the Year. Billboard named Loudon Wainwright III's 2010 GRAMMY Winner, High Wide & Handsome: The Charlie Poole Project, in their Top 15 Bluegrass Albums of the Year and Tommy Castro's Hard Believer in their Top 15 Best of 2010 Blues Albums.

In their list of the Best Live Performances in New Orleans in 2010, The Louisiana Weekly newspaper chose, in addition to the previously noted Dr. John and Trombone Shorty: Allen Toussaint headlining the grand finale of New Orleans Nights; The Dirty Dozen Brass Band at Lafayette Square; Irma Thomas at Lafayette Square and Jon Cleary's early evening sets at d.b.a. OffBeat's #2 pick for The Best Louisiana Album of 2010, behind Trombone Shorty, is Galactic's Ya-Ka-May, which features guests Allen Toussaint, Irma Thomas and Trombone Shorty.

CMJ, the College Music Journal, reported the year's most-played albums on College and non-commercial radio stations across the US, Canada, New Zealand and Australia on their year end charts. Placing in the Triple A (Adult Album Alternative) chart's Top 40 is Mavis Staples' You Are Not Alone; Backatown by Trombone Shorty placed in the Top 5 of the Jazz chart and Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars' Rise & Shine earned the #3 spot on the New World chart.

Geoffrey Himes, a music writer for The Washington Post among many other publications, selected five albums by Rosebud artists in his list of the Best Albums of 2010: Beautiful Dreamers by Bill Frisell; Backatown by Trombone Shorty; Bettye LaVette's Interpretations: The British Rock Songbook; You Are Not Alone by Mavis Staples and Carrie Rodriguez's Love And Circumstance.

GRAMMY Nominee Bettye LaVette on Tonight Show with Jay Leno January 12, at Carnegie Hall Tribute to Neil Young February 10, Song Featured in ABC's Detroit 1-8-7 January 4, BET Broadcast January 30 and NPR's World Café Online

Bettye LaVette just performed on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno January 12th - see her performance here. This is her second appearance on the show since releasing her latest album Interpretations: The British Rock Songbook, which is nominated for the GRAMMY for Best Contemporary Blues Album. This performance also follows Bettye's recent TV appearances on The Today Show, The Late Show with David Letterman, Good Morning America, Tavis Smiley, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson and Lopez Tonight. In addition, "Joy" from Bettye's album I've Got My Own Hell To Raise, is featured in the January 4th episode of ABC's Detroit 1-8-7 series.

Also on TV, is Bettye's collaboration with Herbie Hancock, in a recent performance at the United Negro College Fund's An Evening of Stars Tribute to Chaka Khan. It will be broadcast on BET January 30th, as well on as many local stations. Click here for listings and show times. Bettye sang Chaka's "Love Me Still" and "brought tears to the eyes of Chaka Khan and most of the rest of the audience" according to the UNCF press release.

On the concert front, on February 10th, Bettye will be featured performing at the tribute event, The Music of Neil Young at Carnegie Hall. This will be Bettye's third performance at the legendary Hall, having previously been featured in benefits in tribute to Joni Mitchell and The Who. Also performing at the Neil Young tribute will be Patti Smith, The Roots, Cowboy Junkies, Aimee Mann, Shawn Colvin, Joan Osborne, J Mascis and many more. 100% of the show's net proceeds will benefit music education programs for underprivileged youth through donations to 6 organizations, check out the beneficiaries here.

In the online realm, Bettye's recent performance on NPR's World Café is available to stream, click here to listen to it. She performed three songs from Interpretations: The British Rock Songbook live in the show's studio.

Catch Bettye live on stage, please see Tour Dates >>