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Trampled Under Foot
Kansas City Blues Society
Shakura S'Aida
Toronto Blues Society
Lil' Ray Neal Blues Band
Baton Rouge Blues Society
Lionel
Young
Ben
Prestage
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While the Challenge cannot be considered a
purely “amateur” contest, the goal of the Challenge
is to seek out the best-undiscovered Blues band and the best-undiscovered
solo/duo Blues performer in the United States and beyond.
To maintain this focus, IBC includes entry restrictions designed
to afford the opportunity for discovery to musicians that
are truly unknown and unsigned.
The Blues Foundation recommends that all Affiliated
Organizations in their competition use our established scoring
criteria. Categories include Talent, Blues Content, Stage
Presence and Originality.
- Blues Content: Everyone has his or her own
interpretation of what is and is not Blues. Thus, any given
three-judge panel will include members with varying opinions
of Blues, covering the spectrum of Blues whenever possible,
from the most traditional to soul/blues and rock/blues.
Bands should pick material carefully. At the Memphis semi-finals
and finals, the judges are Blues professionals, not a bar
crowd, and are likely to be unimpressed with song selections
that are uninspired. (Call this--with all due respect to
Sir Mack Rice and Wilson Pickett--the "no Mustang Sally
rule.")
- Talent: This category is self-explanatory--the
act's vocal and/or instrumental skill
- Originality: Original work is encouraged.
Cover tunes are allowed but playing the recorded rendition
lick by lick is discouraged; will not be looked upon favorably
by the judges; and will be reflected in scoring.
- Stage Presence: Over the years, the quality
of talent has risen so dramatically that we no longer consider
this an "amateur" competition. Most contestants have performed
on stage enough to know that they are not simply playing
music, but putting on a show. This category rates how "sellable"
a band may be.
To reflect the relative importance of each
category in the success of a band, a band's score in each category
is weighted. Raw scores for Blues Content is multiplied by four,
Talent by three and Originality and Stage Presence are multiplied
by two. The total in each category represents the Weighted Score
for that category. Total possible weighted score is 110.
A Band is penalized one point from its Total
Weighted Score (see below) for each ten seconds that it runs
overtime. (Note: 6/27/04--The IBC Rules Committee is reviewing
the appropriateness of the penalty). There is no penalty for
using less than the allotted time.
Here is the scoring procedure for 2007 IBC.
- All categories and weightings are as previously
stated.
- Each judge will indicate his or her Raw
Score (a whole number between 1 and 10) in each category
and turn that information over to the scorekeeper.
- The scorekeeper will multiply the Raw Score
in each category by the established multiplier to get each
judge's Weighted Score in each category for each act.
- The Weighted Scores from each category for
an act are added together to determine the acts' Total Weighted
Score for each judge.
- Any penalty points will then be deducted
to obtain the act's Net Weighted Score for each judge.
- After all acts have been judged and each
act's Net Weighted Score for each judge calculated, each
act will then be ranked for each judge based on that judge's
order of scores, with the act receiving the judge's highest
Net Weighted Score being given a ranking of 1, and so on
for that judge. So, in a competition with five acts, for
example, each judge ends up with the acts ranked 1 - 5 based
on each judge's personal scoring habits. This results in
the acts' Final Ranking Number for each judge.
- Next, the scorer totals the Fi nal Ranking
Number from all judges for each act to determine the Gross
Final Ranking. That figure is averaged (divided by the total
number of judges) to Achieve the Aggregate Act Ranking.
For the semi-finals the act in each venue with the best
two- day total of Aggregate Act Ranking will advance to
the finals. For the finals, the act with the best Aggregate
Act Ranking is the top finisher.
- In the case of a tie, the scorer shall calculate
the sum of all Total Weighted Scores from all judges for
the tied acts. The band with the higher sum of Total Weighted
Scores wins.
Acoustic Competition
Jeff Kelly
Band Competition
Jill West and Blues Attack
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