The Blues Foundation‘s 46th Annual Blues Music Awards were held at Renasant Convention Center on Thursday, May 8th, and once again a regional wunderkind, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram of Clarksdale (who appears in the cinematic vampiric smash Sinners), snagged the title of Best Instrumentalist on the guitar. Other big winners were Ronnie Baker Brooks (Contemporary Blues Album, Contemporary Blues Male, Song of the Year for “Blues In My DNA”); Sue Foley (Acoustic Blues Album, Traditional Blues Female); John Primer (Traditional Blues Male, Traditional Blues Album for Crawlin’ Kingsnake with Bob Corritore); and Curtis Salgado (Soul Blues Male, Soul Blues Album). The venerable Keb’ Mo’ was recognized as Acoustic Blues Artist of the Year.
Complete list of the 2025 winners:
Acoustic Blues Album: One Guitar Woman, Sue Foley
Instrumentalist – Horn: Vanessa Collier
Blues Rock Artist: Tommy Castro
Instrumentalist – Harmonica: Billy Branch
Soul Blues Female: Thornetta Davis
Instrumentalist – Piano (Pinetop Perkins): Eden Brent
Instrumentalist – Bass: Bob Stroger
Instrumentalist – Drum: Kenny “Beedy Eyes” Smit
Blues Rock Album: Life is Hard, Mike Zito
Contemporary Blues Male: Ronnie Baker Brooks
Traditional Blues Album: Crawlin’ Kingsnake, John Primer & Bob Corritore
Traditional Blues Male: John Primer
Instrumentalist- Guitar: Christone “Kingfish” Ingram
Contemporary Blues Album: Blues In My DNA, Ronnie Baker Brooks
Soul Blues Album: Fine By Me, Curtis Salgado
Traditional Blues Female: Sue Foley
Contemporary Blues Female: Ruthie Foster
Soul Blues Male: Curtis Salgado
Acoustic Blues Artist: Keb’ Mo’
Band of the Year: Rick Estrin and The Nightcats
Best Emerging Artist: Revelation, Piper & The Hard Times
Instrumentalist- Vocals: Ruthie Foster
Album of the Year: Blame It On Eve, Shemekia Copeland
Song of the Year: “Blues In My DNA,” Written by Ronnie Baker Brooks
B.B. King Entertainer of the Year: Mr. Sipp (Castro Coleman)
