OffBeat Magazine-New Orleans' only publication solely devoted to promoting Louisiana music-celebrates the Crescent City's unique culture of music.

Every year, OffBeat celebrates our music and musicians by presenting the Best of The Beat Music Awards, a benefit for Sweet Home New Orleans.

Nominees for Best of The Beat Music Awards are selected by the editors and writers of OffBeat. You-the public-have the opportunity to vote for your choice for the best music makers in New Orleans. The Best of The Beat Music Awards and Party takes place on Saturday, January 31, 2009 at the House of Blues, 225 Decatur St., and is hosted by WWL-TV's Eric Paulsen. Doors open at 6 p.m. and the party continues until 1 a.m.

This year's Best of The Beat Awards will honor Big Chief Bo Dollis of the Wild Magnolias and Harold Battiste for Lifetime Achievement in Music, and for the first time, OffBeat will present a posthumous Lifetime Achievement in Music Award to piano genius James Carroll Booker III, one of New Orleans' seminal piano players.

The January 31 awards show will also feature two special musical tributes. The voice of the Wild Magnolias and Mardi Gras Indians will be celebrated by the Wild Magnolias, Bo Dollis' son Bo Dollis, Jr., and Big Chiefs Monk Boudreaux and Donald Harrison, Jr.. The keyboard wizardry of James Booker will be honored in a tribute with Jon Cleary, Tom McDermott, John "Papa" Gros, Joe Krown, and Josh Paxton. Also on the bill are Glen David Andrews, Trombone Shorty and Orleans Ave., Little Freddie King, the New Orleans Bingo! Show, Rotary Downs, the Happy Talk Band, the Lost Bayou Ramblers and Los Po-Boy-Citos and special guests.

Tickets for the House of Blues event are $25 each and are available at ticketmaster.com or at the House of Blues box office. Doors open at 6 p.m. and the awards begin at 8:30 p.m. Music starts at 7:30 p.m. in the House of Blues and the Parish and continues until 1 a.m. Net proceeds benefit Sweet Home New Orleans.

Members of the local music industry are invited to a free networking event and presentation of OffBeat's Best of The Beat Business Awards with video tributes to Harold Battiste, Jr. on Wednesday January 28, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Harrah's New Orleans Theater. Please RSVP to (504) 944-4300 by no later than January 26, 2009.

The Best of the Beat is sponsored by OffBeat Media, Miller Coors Brewing Company, Capitol One Bank, Glazer's of Louisiana, BMI, Sweet Home New Orleans, WWL-TV, Harrah's New Orleans, Gibson Guitars/Baldwin Pianos, and the Loyola University Music and Arts Entrepreneurship Program.

See you at the Best of The Beat!