#sameasiteverwassameasiteverwas

[plungermusic]

And you may ask yourself, am I right, am I wrong …

Having seen the nominations for the latest iteration of blues awards Plunger found itself humming the only Talking Heads song it ever liked*, and it’s hardly surprising.

Other than the return from Hall Of Fame quarantine of Laurence Jones in Young Artist**, the list of this year’s nominees shows a surprisingly smooth continuity from the previous scheme, for all the “new and improved” hoopla.

If you have a large pool of nominators and use a simple count to elect the nominees then what you get, what you’ll always get, is the current ‘faves on the scene’. Maybe that’s why they’ve called them finalists this time round.

And you can’t argue that that’s not all very democratic… but maybe there should be some leeway for the primary selection process to allow more out-of-left-field, less-hyped, smaller-PR-budget, overlooked talent to be given a chance of exposure for the voters to think about?

So, in a rare instance of ‘being serious’ here are Plunger’s nominees for Best of 2017 (listed strictly alphabetically, and sticking fairly close to the letter of the “is it blues?” and “are they proper British?” rules…)

Male vox: Surely Ian Siegal resides in Amsterdam now? So with him out, and looking beyond the obvious ‘rock’ types, we have three of the finest Adam’s Apple-wobblers out there

Tommy Hare Ally Marinelli Tom Walker

Female vox: Seriously, within acts linked/linking themselves with the blues scene, it’s criminal these three aren’t already included in any ‘real’ list

Lorna Fothergill Lil Rice Jade Danielle Williams

Band: Is it blues? We don’t care. It’s certainly no less ‘blues’ than most of the existing list

Maker Mike Ross Band Walrus

Acoustic act: Again, excluding any ‘Pirates of The Caribbean Lobster Barbecue’, these three should surely feature?

Jack Hutchinson Mike Ross Lucy Zirins

Young (but come on, not that young) artist: Plunger have added an extra rule, so it’s now <25 and >12. Which gives us this…

Joe Anderton Connor Selby Lucy Zirins

Festival: No contest. It’s in summer. It’s at the end of a tube line. Sorted.

Ealing

Album: Very tricky category for Plunger. Excluding EPs as not technically albums, that drops most of Plunger’s favourites out of contention. So it’s this.

Lavendore Rogue - A Night In The North***

Songwriter: The Lennon & McCartney of Walrus are a shoo-in, plus the poetic lyrical genius behind Du Bellows

Rosco Levee Mike Ross Jade Danielle Williams

Please feel free to add your own suggestions... you’ll be wrong of course and we’ll delete them without a second thought.

* “Once In A Lifetime” if you hadn’t worked it out

** Isn’t he 25 now? Doesn’t that rule him out? Ah, what do we know…

*** Also winner Best Live Album!