The second week of May saw music artists from around the world convene in Memphis, Tennessee, for the 45th Annual Blues Music Awards and a host of related events, including the Blues Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony. Amid the excitement, a significant event took place on May 9: a roundtable discussion on Recording Academy membership and the GRAMMY Awards process, sponsored by the Recording Academy in partnership with the Memphis-based Blues Foundation.
The panel, moderated by Blues Foundation President and CEO Kimberly Horton, included GRAMMY-winning blues guitarist Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, GRAMMY-nominated performer Castro “Mr. Sipp” Coleman as well as Recording Academy Membership Manager Shelly Surdoval, and Senior Manager for Awards Ralph Olivarez.
A mixed audience of established and emerging performers including Shemekia Copeland and Danielle Nicole, Memphis Chapter Governor Marcella Simien, and industry veterans like Chicago producer Michael Freeman — a former Governor, Chapter President and National Trustee for the Chicago Chapter and a former Blues Foundation board member — packed a meeting room at the Sheraton Hotel Downtown for the insightful conversation.
The wide-ranging conversation, which also drew in audience members through an extended Q&A session, covered a lot of topics in depth, including membership requirements, perceptions of non-members, the intricacies of voting, and the submission process.
Here are four takeaways from the Recording Academy’s BMAs roundtable discussion:
A GRAMMY Is A Game Changer
For any artist, a GRAMMY nomination or win can mean the difference between music being a fun side hustle and making it a career. That’s especially true in the blues world.
“It definitely boosted me tremendously,” said Ingram about his 2022 GRAMMY for Best Contemporary Blues Album. “After the win, I started playing festivals like Bonnaroo. That’s what we need. We need more blues artists in that space to show that we’re still around."
Coleman, who burst on the scene a decade ago by winning the Blues Foundation’s International Blues Challenge, said he was looking forward to experiencing his own boost following his nomination earlier this year for Best Traditional Blues Album for The Soul Side of Mr. Sipp as well as his participation on a GRAMMY-winning album by the Count Basie Orchestra for which, he learned during the roundtable, he qualified for a participation certificate.
“My schedule for this year was booked before February when the GRAMMY nominations were announced,” said Coleman. “I’m really looking to see the effect of what happened in February next tour season as well as hopefully be landing another nomination.”
GRAMMY Submissions Come With Expert Assistance
“Kim [Horton] helps me with all my submissions,” said Coleman in his introductory remarks, “because I don’t like the little computers and gadgets and stuff.”
Coleman’s comment underscored that — big names like Buddy Guy and Kingfish aside — for most blues artists making music is a cottage industry where if anything gets done it's done by them. That reality makes the paperwork required for awards submissions even more daunting.
Fortunately, the staff at the Recording Academy is here to help. Several times during the panel exchange, Surdoval and Olivarez stressed that if artists had any questions or problems, they just needed to ask.
“We’ve been doing outreach to the blues community for 10-plus years at the Blues Music Awards,” said Sr. Executive Director Jon Hornyak of the Memphis Chapter in his introductory remarks. “We feel like there’s a lot more recordings from the blues community that could be entered in the GRAMMY process. And I think sometimes people think that, well, we’re not going to get a GRAMMY nomination. But every year when you look at the nominations in the blues category there are surprises and there are smaller releases and it’s not always the biggest names.”
The Recording Academy Makes Membership Accessible
Throughout the conversation, it became clear that membership was the first barrier to GRAMMY participation. To be clear, there are some intricacies to proving a prospective member's professional qualifications. But panelists and Recording Academy members in the audience took great care to demystify the process.
That process starts with letters of recommendation from two music industry peers who don’t have to be Academy members. Then applicants need to fill out a professional profile that can include related marketing and press materials; awards and honors; online materials showing a resume of work such as tour dates, music videos, discography, fan interaction, and streaming or sales stats; and proof of professional associations such as managers, publicists, or booking agents.
“I’m sure everyone in this room qualifies as a voting member,” said Larry Batiste, a trustee from the San Francisco Chapter. “It's a peer-to-peer org, so we really need people to be joiners, to be members who really know about the music so that you can vote on what you know. And it's not rocket science to join.”
And, again, if prospective members hit a snag, the panel made it clear they can always reach out for help. Joyce Ann Houston, a St. Louis-based vocalist, trumpeter, and songwriter, who as "Lady J Houston" has played with Albert King among others, found herself in just such a predicament recently.
“I was in the middle of applying, and when I reached out to Shelly for help she had already created my account,” she said. “Now I’m looking forward to being in the class of 2024, hopefully.”
There Are More GRAMMYs For Blues Artists Than Ever
Since the introduction of separate Traditional Blues Album and Contemporary Blues Album categories in 2017, there are more opportunities than ever for blues artists to participate in the GRAMMY process. And they are not just limited to those two new categories.
“We also have track categories that you can submit from your albums,” said Olivarez, who pointed attendees to GRAMMY101.com as an online guide to the complete GRAMMY Awards process. “Blues tracks would qualify in American Roots Performance and American Roots Song. We also have Americana performance [categories] because we understand that albums aren’t just one genre. And we also have craft categories: We have album notes. We have packaging. We have Producer Of The Year. We have engineering. So you can enter in those as well.”
But despite all these avenues for recognition, it was clear from the conversation that not enough artists are taking advantage of them. At one point during the discussion, Horton and Olivarez compared submission numbers; last year the BMAs had 261 total submissions compared to just 102 for the GRAMMYS.
“People just don’t think they can do it. They don’t think they can qualify to do it,” said Horton, who in her role helps a lot of artists navigate the process. “They think they have to be of a certain stature or at a certain place in their career to even submit, and that’s not true.”
Added Coleman, “I just believe that, if you don’t even try, that's a guaranteed way not to succeed.”
