Reader’s Awards

Female Blues Artist of the Year:
Shemekia Copeland

Male Blues Artist of the Year:
Magic Slim

Best Live Performer:
Bobby Rush

Best Blues Album (New Recording):
Luther Allison, Live in Chicago (Alligator)

Best Blues Album (Historical Recording):
Various Artists, Living Country Blues (Evidence)

Most Outstanding Blues Keyboardist:
Pinetop Perkins

Most Outstanding Blues Harmonicist:
James Cotton

Most Outstanding Blues Guitarist (tie):
Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown and B.B. King

Most Outstanding Blues Singer:
B.B. King

Critics’ Awards

Male Blues Artist of the Year:
B.B. King

Female Blues Artist of the Year:
Ruth Brown

Comeback Artist of the Year:
Jimmy “T-99” Nelson

Best Live Performer:
Bobby Rush

Most Outstanding Blues Singer:
Little Milton

Most Outstanding Blues Drummer:
Sam Carr

Most Deserving of Wider Attention:
Chick Willis and George Stancell

Most Outstanding Blues Guitarist:
Three-way tie: Roy Gaines, Joe Louis Walker, and B.B. King

Most Outstanding Blues Keyboardist:
Pinetop Perkins

Most Outstanding Blues Musician:
Nutmeg Horns

Most Outstanding Blues Musician other- Fife:
Otha Turner

Best Traditional Blues Album, Best Cover Art/Photo,
and Blues Album of the Year:
Corey Harris, Greens from the Garden (Alligator)

Blues Song of the Year:
Basehead by Corey Harris

 Best Debut Blues Album: 
George Stancell, Gorgeous George (JSP)

Best Contemporary Blues Album:
Luther Allison, Live In Chicago (Alligator)

Producer of the Year (New Recordings):
Timothy Duffy

Producer of the Year (Historical Reissue):
Brett Bonner, Living Country Blues (Evidence)

Best Soul-Blues Album:
Tyrone Davis, Call Tyrone (Malaco)

Best Blues Album (Post-War Historical Recording):
Various Artists, Violin, Sing the Blue for Me (Old Hat)

Best Liner Notes:
Brett Bonner, Living Country Blues (Evidence)