Some People Call Steve Miller A Space Cowboy, Others A Rock Blues Album of the Year Nominee

​Back in June, Steve Miller and his Band released a new album called Bingo!, it's first studio release since 1993's Wide River, believe it or not. Of course, it didn't exactly feature new material -- instead, it featured cover songs from artists such as B.B. King, Lowell Fulson and Jimmy Reed. The album even featured two Jimmie Vaughan covers -- which may or may not have been a little insider Dallas nod from Miller, who graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School in 1961, to another famous blues-rockin' Dallas native.

Here's the thing, though: The results aren't as boring as you'd expect. In fact, they're pretty good -- good enough, at least, to the point where one organization has nominated Bingo! as a contender for album of the year consideration.

The people behind the 2011 Blues Music Awards, which will be held in Memphis in early May, have announced that the Steve Miller Band's Bingo! is a finalist for the award in its best Rock Blues Album of the Year category, where it will face still competition from Walter Trout, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Nick Moss and Derek Trucks.

Interestingly enough, though, Vaughan, who himself released a fine album in 2010, wasn't nominated in a single category.