I'd almost forgotten my annual complaint about the New Zealand Music Awards, until I got a new album in the post on Monday.

I know, I know, the music awards are ancient history; it's a month later and no-one except the artists and a few PR people remember who won anyway.
And I know that awards are not what music is about. The idea of judging two albums – music inevitably in differing styles with different strengths and weaknesses – side-by-side is a bit of a nonsense anyway. It's not exactly a game of league where whoever gets the most points by the closing whistle wins and that's that (unless the players get bottled by drunken fans in the meantime).
But, despite the general philosophical misgivings about the whole idea of awards, they do, for at least a short length of time, shine a light on the winning musicians. And particularly in categories unlikely to receive much by way of radio play, what with the unimaginatively limited playlists of most commercial radio, that can mean a lot.
My biggest gripe about the New Zealand Music Awards is that there is no category for the blues. In amongst awards for jazz, classical, country, Christian, roots, and several varieties of pop and rock, in a country that is clearly very into the blues, there is no music award for the likes of Midge Marsden, Hammond Gamble, Mike Garner, Bullfrog Rata, Shayne Wills, Riverhead Slide, Kokomo, Darcy Perry Band, The Windy City Strugglers, Grant Haua, Billy TK Jr, and the dozens of other blues artists you can find in virtually any city or town.
Outside National Radio and university stations – sadly unavailable in Tauranga – the blues gets very little airtime. So you probably won't hear much of Darren Watson's new release Saint Hilda's Faithless Boy unless you buy it or download it. However, if there was a blues category at the NZ Awards then this would be a shoo-in for next year. It is probably the best new electric blues album I've heard this year, not just from New Zealand but from anywhere.
Darren doesn't tour much these days, though he is promising to get out of Wellington next year. But last year he achieved the remarkable feat of winning the blues section of the International Songwriting Competition in Nashville. He's a terrific blues songwriter, as Saint Hilda's Faithless Boy attests, creating songs that are at once modern and timeless, so that the one old blues amongst this set – a searing acoustic take on Willie Dixon's 'My Love Will Never Die” – fits seamlessly.
It's tempting for a blues fan to pick influences, though Darren is very distinctively his own man, and it's a pleasure to hear so much refracted through his particular prism. The album opens with a tough groove, electric Mississippi with a nod to early Howlin' Wolf, and the obvious sounds of a band playing live in the studio.
And what a great band! The rhythm section of Richard Te One (once a compadre in eighties band Smokeshop) and Elliotte Fuimaono (Southside of Bombay) are rock-solid yet capable of great subtlety, while Alan Norman's piano colours the sound much as Otis Spann or Pinetop Perkins once did. Later in the album Hammond organist Ed Zuccollo makes an impressive mark.
And things move around the musical map. 'Love Is An Ocean” and, particularly, 'Can't Get Enough of You” lean towards the cool grooves of Louisiana, with the tremolo guitar recalling Slim Harpo, while 'Be Careful With a Fool” is a classic blues with hints of Freddie King and the wonderful Otis Rush.
You can hear a bit of those two bluesmen throughout, in the way Darren uses his remarkable falsetto range, perhaps, for those not familiar with all these blues references, a little like John Hiatt at his gutsiest.
There's also a little bit of high energy soul ('He Don't Love You”) featuring ex-Shaken Not Stirred vocalist Lisa Tomlins, a lovely acoustic ballad, 'Here In My Arms”, and the affecting title track.
I can't say enough about Saint Hilda's Faithless Boy. It really is a stunning album. If there were indeed blues music awards everybody else would be in second place.