Voting for Quebec’s only blues awards is set to begin August 15th, 2006. The Lys Blues awards have been successful in representing all that Quebec has to offer in the blues realm.

Voting is open to the public, so here’s your chance to cast your ballot for your favorite blues artists.

The Awards Gala will be held on September 17th, 2006.

Categories and winners from last year’s Lys Blues awards include:

Jim Zeller (Author/Songwriter), Kevin Mark (Show of The Year), Dale Boyle (Folk/Blues Artist of The Year), Steve Hill (Artistic Performance), Dawn Tyler Watson (Female Artist), Guy Bélanger (Artistic Performance), Bob Walsh (Male Artist), Paul Deslauriers (Artistic Performance), Sébastien Chouinard (Artistic Performance), François Thiffault (Artistic Performance), Costa Zafiropoulos (Artistic Performance), Nancy Desmarais (Best New Artist), Smokin' Sonic (Revelation), Bob Harrisson (Lifetime achievement), and Kevin Mark (Album of The Year) for his album, Rolling the Dice.

This year, there are even more categories and with categories moving from the standard 5 nominations to a minimum of 7 nominations per category, there are even more nominations overall! 

The largest category, Musical Performance, contains an astonishing 30 nominations with the top 5 vote getters taking home a Lys Blues award.

With the number of nominations per category being well above the standard, and with new categories such as the unique Cabaret award (that recognizes artists who have not released an album), a large portion of the artists on Quebec’s blues scene will be represented, so chances are, you can find your favorite artists among the list!

As of August 15th, please visit www.lenetblues.com to view all the 2006 Lys Blues nominees and get your voting instructions.

This event is entirely coordinated by Réjean Nadon of Le Net Blues. Find out more about him HERE.

In October we will post the Lys Blues award winners, so stay tuned.