The annual UK Blues Awards took place this past Sunday, again virtually due to the ongoing pandemic, with this year’s winners including When Rivers Meet for emerging artist of the year, band of the year, album of the year (We Fly Free) and most inspirational online performance of the year, Elles Bailey for artist of the year, Matt Long for instrumentalist of the year, Dom Martin for acoustic artist of the year, Connor Selby for young artist of the year and Shemekia Copeland for international artist/band of the year.
While the 105-minute program included terrific performances from a number of the individual winners, the real highlight of the awards was the closing jam featuring many of the finalists and winners, including Elles Bailey, Matt Long, Paul Long, Dom Martin, Emma Wilson, Kyla Brox, Giles Robson, Toby Lee, Connor Selby and more, all recorded separately from their homes and sent in to UK Blues Awards to put together in this one romping take on the Louis Jordan blues classic “Let the Good Times Roll”, which is exactly what they do here. Enjoy!