Some blues notes: Blues Blast winners, Bye Week Blues, harpist Norton Buffalo dies

Blues Blast, the online blues magazine with a set of awards that lets the public (you) vote on favorites, has announced its winners from this year's poll. They are all interesting choices. You can see all the nominees in those categories here.

Here's the list:

Best Contemporary Blues Recording
The Insomniacs - At Least I'm Not With You

Best Traditional Blues Recording
Various Artists - Chicago Blues: A Living History

Best Blues Song
Albert Castiglia - "Bad Year Blues"

Best Blues Band
Nick Moss & the Flip Tops

Best Male Artist
Elvin Bishop

Best Female Artist
Robin Rogers

Best New Artist Debut Recording
Chris James & Patrick Rynn - Stop And Think About It

Sean Costello Rising Star Award
Kilborn Alley Blues Band

Food bank wins on the bye week

Don Vecchio of the Blues Society of Western Pa. reports that the Bye Week Blues show at Moondog's on Sunday raised $2,000 and a dozen cases of food for the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank.

Norton Buffalo dies

Harp player Norton Buffalo, who played with -- among many others -- the very fine blues slide guitarist Roy Rogers, has died at the age of 58. He had played with the Steve Miller Band for years, and was regarded as one of the most versatile harp players around, having recorded on 180 albums with all kinds of musicians. Here's his obit, from the San Francisco Chronicle.

Here's a video of Buffalo and one of his best-known songs, "Ain't No Bread in the Breadbox":