Best National Blues Act

B.B. King

National Blues Act of the Year doesn't begin to cover it. When all is said and done, B.B. King is the blues performer of the millennium. Tangible proof? Seventy-plus albums, several biographies, awards and gigs from Vegas to Vatican City. He's been the man ever since he was the Beale Street Blues Boy, starting out at a Memphis radio station when he was fresh from Itta Bena, Mississippi. But the intangibles are greater still: his guitar style -- no, just the way he bends a single note -- has had a profound impact on uncounted guitarists. That note will be heard at house parties, jukes, theaters, and arenas long after B. has gone to a greater reward. So what did he do in his 73rd year? Well, he produced a record for the first time, his fine Blues on the Bayou (MCA). Still, a mid-1960s LP, Live and Well (MCA), contains an introduction that still says it all. Over an instrumental from the band, the announcer comes to the mic: "Ladies and gentleman, it's Blues Time. I'd like for you to get yourselves together, get yourselves in the frame of mind to dig the KING, that is, the KING of the blues, Mr. B. . . . B . . . King."

-- Bill Kisliuk