Downbeat Magazine’s annual reader’s poll is now open for fan voting, and this year’s edition includes a pair of nominations for Derek Trucks and dTb!

• Category: Derek Trucks

Derek Trucks picked up a nomination for “Best Blues Artist/Group,” and the competition is sure to be heated… Other nominees include legends like BB King, Mavis Staples and Buddy Guy, contemporaries such as the North Mississippi All-Stars and Keb’ Mo’, Derek’s former bandmate Eric Clapton, and for the coup de grâce, Derek’s lovely and talented wife, Ms. Susan Tedeschi.

In the category for “Best Blues Album,” The Derek Trucks Band gets the nod for Already Free, and once again the band is pitted against Susan Tedeschi as well as Buddy, BB, Dr John, Taj Mahal, and Wynton Marsalis & Willie Nelson, to name just a few.

So if you have a moment, please cast a vote (for Derek, we hope!) in the 2009 Downbeat Magazine Readers Poll