Tales of Resilience in the Face of the Blues

If there is one character trait that linked the three Lifetime Achievement Award honorees at the Blues Foundation fifth annual ceremony, it’s resilience.

Etta James, Koko Taylor and Ruth Brown have all fought difficult personal and professional battles and endured long enough to reap the rewards of their greatness, which lent Monday’s event at the House of Blues the right note of triumph.

As is often the case with benefits of this nature (a portion of the proceeds go to the Magic Johnson Foundation’s National Breast Cancer Awareness Initiative), the highlights were the honoree introductions, when admiring artists had the chance to gush like fans. The ageless Brown paid homage to Los Angeles native James, 61, with a heartfelt version of the latter’s R&B; hit “At Last.”

Brown, 71, in turn was feted by Little Richard, who confessed that he used to sneak into his local theater to see Brown--the biggest female R&B; star of the ‘50s--perform and cop her vocal mannerisms; he then sang a few beautifully calibrated lines of Brown’s signature song, “(Mama) He Treats Your Daughter Mean.”

The musical portion of the ceremony was strictly a ladies’ thing. Twenty-year-old Shemekia Copeland was brazenly self-assured, belting out bruising laments in a voice that could do just about anything. Tracy Nelson dug deep into gospel-tinged numbers that showed off her throaty wail.

Folk-music legend Odetta had to fight a case of laryngitis and struggled through some vintage blues numbers. Blues Hero award winner Bonnie Raitt and Brown then brought it home with the inevitable closing jam, but by that time many of the evening’s attendees had made for the exits, which considerably dissipated the excitement of the duo’s pairing.