Best Live Performer (Band) 25.25% Blue Moon Boys* 13.56% Wailhounds* 12.71% Strut Train* 8.64% homeless j* 7.63% Pop 'n' Fresh* 5.25% Tri State Killing Spree* 3.56% Go Dog Go 2.20% Nostalgia 1.69% Corporate Circus, Sirface 1.19% Freak Brothers 1.02% Blamie It On Rio Others with Votes: Big Dick & The Penetrators, Buttonhead, Fat Ass, Sfumato, Third Frame, Borrowed Time, Brother, The Derrick Floyd Project, Fabulous Rhythm Kids, Jettingham, Northern Kind, Now & Then, Shelly Dixon Band, What If, The Agency, John Curran & Renegade, Prime Time Band, Pwince, The Rupert Bomb, Sad Boy Trouble, Tony Norton Band, Avalon, blue Suede Shoes, Choice, The Chronics, Coda, Dick Burns, Fawn Liebowitz, Flatline, Fog, G-Money, Hoochie Mama Get Down, Joey O. Band, Junk Yard Band, Klubber Lang, Matt & the Castronaughts, Memories of the King (Brent A. Cooper), The Migraines, Orange Opera, Point of Departure, Power House Band, Red 40, Sarin, Spork, Sugar ‘n’ Spice, Sunny Taylor Band, Taint Misbehavin’, Tastes Like Chicken, Todd Harrold Band 2001 Winner: Strut Train 2000 Winner: Blue Moon Boys 1999 Winner: Blue Moon Boys 1998 Winner: Blue Moon Boys 1997 Winner: Blue Moon Boys * On the ballot

Wouldn't you know it. Two Whammys went to a band that technically is no longer a band, the once and future Blue Moon Boys. After working and touring nationally for nearly eight years, the Blue Moon Boys had enough juju left to win Best Original Rock Band and Best Live Band Whammys despite the fact they haven't played since January 3 (in Detroit) and despite the fact they no longer exist. Sort of. “I tell people the Blue Moon Boys exist now more as a concept than as a fiscal reality,” said guitarist Kenny Taylor, who with singer Nic Roulette formed the beating heart of this rockabilly band. The Blue Moon Boys always spent far more time on the road than they did in Fort Wayne, but their energy and musical expertise made them a perennial favorite here. They've won the Whammy for Best Original Rock Band every year except 2001, when it went to a tie between Rosemary Gates and the Wailhounds. “Nic and I are still together but we don't have a rhythm section anymore. It just got too hard and too expensive to keep the Blue Moon Boys together as they were,” Taylor said. And yet the band will keep popping up in different states and different countries, each time with a different rhythm section. Long-time rhythm players drummer Jamie Simon and bassist Jerry Sparkman amicably left the band after performing in Detroit. For example, Roulette is planning to move to Austin this summer and Taylor will join him from time to time on southern tours with a “southern rhythm section.” Roulette may return to Fort Wayne, and the band will do northern tours with a “northern rhythm section.” The pair is scheduled to play a music festival in Ireland this spring, where they will play with an “Irish rhythm section.” Interestingly, Taylor says he’s busier than ever these days. He’s been writing songs and performing with Chris Shaffer, formerly of Fort Wayne and The Why Store, and he performs Wednesdays at Ernie’s Hideaway. “It’s a very strange feeling to win this award. I’m touched that we won, but was never so surprised. We’ve been gone so much, we didn’t know our fan base in Fort Wayne as well as we did in other cities,” Taylor said.

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