Best Blues Performer
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32.85 Pop 'n' Fresh*
Others with Votes (more than one):
* On the Ballot |
Well, if it’s the Whammys, it must be Pop ‘n’ Fresh up there collecting the Best Blues Performer award. That’s the way it’s been for the last five years. Why should this year be any different? It’s certainly not different for Ted Brown, the Pop of the band. Not yet, at least. But six straight wins doesn’t necessarily diminish the meaning. “It has the same meaning every time, and every time it’s a surprise,” Brown said. “Each time I think, ‘surely we’re not going to win again.’” Brown said past wins haven’t changed the number of people who come to see Pop ‘n’ Fresh perform. “I got a feeling this one might be a little different,” he said. “There was a big crowd. More people got exposed to us.” Pop ‘n’ Fresh are comprised of Brown, his son Travis Brown, Jeremy Sells and Steve Jugloff. An offshoot, called Mom ‘n’ Pop ‘n’ Fresh includes Brown’s wife, Pamela. Pop ‘n’ Fresh have been together since roughly 1989, when Brown played in a blues fest at Sunset Hall. The hook was set, and Pop ‘n’ Fresh soon developed a hook of their own, a gimmick that plays off the obvious connection to food items by offering menus with headings such as Classic Cuisine, Elvis Platters and Soul Combos to people at their shows. They place their orders, and Pop ‘n’ Fresh serve up the goods. Over the years the menu has expanded to include a list of originals which will make their way onto a CD very soon. A previous release, called Second Helping and recorded live at Curly’s Village Inn on Bluffton Road, a frequent setting for the moveable feast, is available by e-mailing the band from its website, Popnfreshband.com. Winning so consistently in the blues category has stumped Brown in past years. Not much has changed in that regard, either. Blues purists, Brown said, have grumbled about the perennial nod given to Pop ‘n’ Fresh, a band that admittedly plays as much roots stuff, swing and rock as strict blues. But Brown shrugs off such carping. “We may not be strictly blues, but what he play is blues-based. It’s all blues-based as far as I’m concerned.” Still, Brown gets a bit self-conscious about scarfing up so many blues Whammys. “I do get embarrassed in a way about winning. Diamond Lil (herself a winner of two blues Whammys, in 1997 and 98) told me. ‘If you guys win again, I’m just going to quit.’” (Mark Hunter) |
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