In that price range you can look at some pretty nice stuff. I prefer the AT sound, but Rode and AKG have excellent choices also. Shure is always a good bet, but you'll have to wade thru the specs and samples to find the right one. (Sorry I dont have any good samples myself).
AT has a newer tube mic, I think its the 3060? That sounds good. A lot of unknown blues singers like the AKG C1000 or C3000. If your singer is extra "gritty" sounding, you might consider a hand held stage condenser, like an SM86. Decent sound for a dirty vocal, and doubles as a performance piece of gear too!
Of course, I've heard great engineering that made a great cd with the singer using an SM57! But he's a really good singer!
