Awards, Accolades, and Collaborations

“He engages young people in an understanding of history through the music. That need for understanding our history in dealing with issues such as racism is so important.”
— Greg Hodgesen, Senior Associate Priest at Grace Episcopal Church, Charleston S.C.

Awards & Accolades include:

Lifetime Achievement Award from the Jersey Shore Jazz & Blues Foundation presented at the Red Bank Jazz & Blues Festival June 2008

Granite State Award from the University Of New Hampshire ..spring 2006

Paul Robeson Diversity Commemoration Award U.S. Post Office 2004

Best Youth Band T.J.Wheeler’s Funky River Band N.H. Magazine 2004

Key Note Speaker for the 21 Century education Conference, Durham N.H. 2004

Contributing writer for PBS’s Year of the Blues Educational Curriculum 2003

W.C. Handy Keeping the Blues Alive Award in education

Feature story Blues Revue Magazine Spring 2003

N.H. Diversity Organization’s Award in Education to the Blues Bank Collective & T.J. Wheeler 2003

2002 C.D. Of The Year Award for “Blues You Can Bank On” T.J. Wheeler & Pat Gallagher by JAM magazine

2nd place 2002 Song of the Year Award fir “Blues You Can Bank On” written by Nadine Perry & T.J. Wheeler

The 2001 National Music Foundation Award for “Hope, Heroes & The Blues

The first Lifetime Achievement Award 2001 from Spotlight Magazine

1996 Individual Artist Award N.H. St. Council on the Arts

1995 Silver Pinnacle Education award from the International Music Festival Organization

1993 First Race Unity Award from the Seacoast N.E. Baha’i

Granite State Award from the University Of New Hampshire, Spring 2006

Paul Robeson Diversity Commemoration Award U.S. Post Office 2004

Best Youth Band N.H. Magazine 2004

Key Note Speaker for the 21 Century education Conference, Durham N.H. 2004

Contributing writer for PBS's Year of the Blues Educational Curriculum 2003

W.C. Handy Keeping the Blues Alive Award in education to the Ottawa Cisco System Blues Festival (Co founded by applicant in 1999 - on going) 2024

Feature story Blues Revue Magazine Spring 2003

N.H. Diversity Organization's Award in Education 2003

2002 C.D. Of The Year Award for "Blues You Can Bank On" by JAM Magazine

2 place 2002 Song of the Year Award for "Blues You Can Bank On"

The 2001 National Music Foundation Award for "Hope, Heroes' & the Blues

The first Lifetime Achievement Award 2001 from Spotlight Magazine

1995 Silver Pinnacle Education award from the International Music Festival Organization

1993 First Race Unity Award from the Seacoast N.E. Baha'i

1993 W.C. Handy Blues Foundation "Keeping the Blues Alive" Award in Education

Past & Present Organizational Collaborations include:

Raising the Blues org., the Martin Luther King Speakers Bereau, Cigar Box Nation, C.B. Gitty's, Mississippi Valley Blues So. Friends of the Hampton Falls Bandstance concert series, Spaulding Youth Center (Tilton NH), Community Campus (Portsmouth NH), Ottawa Blues Festival Org., Jersey Shore Jazz & Blues So., Pro Portsmouth, Sea coast African American Center (Portsmouth NH), Communities in Schools of New Orleans, House of Blues Foundation, Strawbery Banke Museum, NAACP , International Blues Foundation Board of Advisors, Concord State Men’s Prison, NH VSA, NH Veterans Home, Camp Mayhew (NH), NH NPR, PBS, Crossroads Homeless Center, Seacoast Bahai’s, Portsmouth Black Heritage Trail, Teaching Tolerance/ Southern Poverty Law Center, Partners of the Americas, AF, United Way, City Year & the Greater NH Charitable Foundation Diversity Committee.