Awards & Nominations

  • Duke was nominated for a 1998 W.C. Handy Award as Best Blues Guitarist

  • Named "Best Blues Guitarist" by The Blues Foundation's W.C. Handy Awards in 2000 and 2001

  • Won his fourth award as "Best Guitarist" at the 25th Annual W.C. Handy Blues Awards held in Memphis on April 29, 2004

  • Also in 2004, Duke garnered a nomination for Traditional Blues Album of the Year for his album "Blue Mood": The Songs of T-Bone Walker and again is honored for his virtuosity with a nomination for Best Instrumentalist-Guitar which he has won four of the past five years

  • The Duke Robillard Band's "The Duke Meets the Earl" was named #3 Amazon's annual "Editor's Picks"

  • 2006 saw Duke's first Grammy nomination in the Best Traditional blues album of the year for "Guitar Groove a Rama"

  • He's also been nominated for "Best Guitarist" for the Blues Music Awards. It's his sixth nomination.


Biography

    "One of the great players" BB King

    "Robillard is a soloist of stunning force and originality." the New York Times

    "One of God's guitarists." The Houston Post

    "Most everything Duke Robillard has done as a guitarist during the past four-plus decades...bears witness to his musical intelligence and his dedication to his craft".

    - Downbeat

    "Robillard's ability to play across the spectrum of blues is legendary. Few players can move stylistically from Texas to Kansas City to Chicago's West Side, but Robillard makes it seem easy."- Guitar Player

    "A guitarist's guitarist, prolific producer, and master of all things blues, Duke Robillard walks the tightrope between traditionalism and experimentation...He's a master of many styles who moves forward while maintaining a firm grounding in the past." - Blues Revue


Interviews

  • New Listing Coming Soon

Bio Highlights

2016 Stony Plain Records announces a September 9, 2016 release date for Duke's new CD "Blues Full Circle". Special guests on the new album include the legendary Jimmie Vaughan, Sugar Ray Norcia and Kelley Hunt.

2016 "The Acoustic Blues and Roots of Duke Robillard" is named "Acoustic Blues Album of the Year" for the 2016 Blues Music Awards and #45 of the 50 best blues albums of 2015 by Living Blues Magazine

2014 Duke is inducted into the Rhode Island Music Hall of Fame in May of 2014.

2013 DownBeat Critics Poll, ranked among the Best Blues Artist of Group

2012 Blues Music Award Nominee - Gibson Guitar Award - an honor he has won previously 4 times (category was previously known as Best Instrumentalist - Guitar)

2012 Living Blues Award Nominee - for Most Outstanding Musician (Guitar)

2011 Blues Music Award Nominee for Traditional Blues Album of the Year for Passport to the Blues AND Best Instrumentalist - Guitar

2011 Boston Music Awards Nominee for Blues Artist of the Year

GRAMMY Nominations for Best Traditional Blues Album for 2010 Stomp! The Blues Tonight and 2006 Guitar Groove-a-Rama

2012 Featured performer at Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's Chuck Berry tribute concert on October 27, 2012 along with Chuck Berry, Joe Bonamassa, Rick Derringer

2011 B. B. King International Artist of the Year Award Nominee in The Toronto Blues Society's 15th Maple Blues Awards program. Duke won this award three years in a row (2001-2003) and this also marks Duke's seventh nomination

2010 Blues Music Awards Winner for Traditional Blues Male Artist of the Year. Also nominated in 2010 for Album of the Year, Band of the Year, and Best Instrumentalist - Guitar

2004 Keeping The Blues Alive Award for Best Producer presented by The Blues Music Foundation

The Blues Music Awards (formerly W.C.Handy Awards) have named Duke Robillard "Best Blues Guitarist" four years out of five (2000,2001,2003,2004) making him the second most honored guitarist for that award! He was also nominated in 2005, 2007 and 2008.

Collaborations playing with and/or producing: Tom Waits, Bob Dylan, Maria Muldaur, Dr. John, John Hammond; plus sorely-missed legends such as Jay McShann, Ruth Brown, Jimmy Witherspoon, Rosco Gordon, Otis Clay and Long John Baldry.


Links of Interest

Sites dedicated to blues music discussion

Sites dedicated to blues musician photography


Other Musician's Sites