Best Local Blues Act

Night Train

Our winners for Best Local Blues Act are not so much a working band as they are a night out with the boys for a good old-fashioned hootenanny. Meet Night Train, a collection of the area's top young blues demons and the collective linchpin that is shaping the current scene. Knowledgeable, well-schooled in sub-genres (all of which they play as well as anybody out there), and impassioned to the point of full-blown fervor, the lads are hell-bent on bringing a little tradition and a lot of fun into your world. Eschewing the commercial trend of Chicago-style guitar jack-offs (Johnny Lang, Mike Welch, and 90 percent of the generally insufferable Alligator Records artist roster) in favor of a refined and jazzier style, Night Train reach back into the past to Big Bill Broonzy to Joe Turner to the Nat King Cole Trio. They jump a little, they rock a little, they boogie woogie till the hooch is all gone. Then they'll blow lightly in your ear while you're looking at the lights of the city.

Made up from the core trio of guitarist Troy Gonyea, bassist Jeff Berg, and Mark "Stevenson" Stevens on the 88's, Night Train have expanded into a free-for-all for various heavies (most recently guitarist Nick Adams and the Curtain Society's Duncan Arsenault), who have been sighted taking a turn playing it cool. Not to be confused with a band in it for the long haul, the Train have the distinction of being the first side-project ever to win -- the Troy Gonyea Trio came up short in our Roots/Swing category -- which goes to show that the local blues scene is rapidly switching to a new, younger crowd. Maybe it was the re-introduction of swing, or maybe Troy and the Boys are pulling a major Johnny Appleseed-type of audience cultivation. Or maybe folks realize a good thing when they hear it. If Night Train never play again, they've already left a legacy to a new generation of kids who never knew what hit them.

-- John O'Neill