Liz Longley

Liz Longley is the overall grand prize winner in the sixth annual International Acoustic Music Awards competition. The young singer-songwriter from Pennsylvania, who grew up listening to Joni Mitchell and Karla Bonoff, also captured first place in the competition’s Folk category for “When You’ve Got Trouble.”

Blessed with what brothers Dave and Rob Dircks of Acoustic Long Island call “one of the sweetest sounding voices we’ve heard in a long time” and hailed by singer-songwriter Livingston Taylor as “a world-class singer… one of the best I’ve ever heard,” Longley also was the 2009 grand prize winner in the 2009 Rocky Mountain Folks Songwriters Showcase, a co-winner at the 2009 Mountain Stage NewSong Contest presented by Folk Alliance International, and a finalist in the 2009 Grassy Hill Kerrville New Folk Competition for Emerging Songwriters.

The International Acoustic Music Awards competition promotes excellence in acoustic music performance and artistry. Awards were announced in eight categories. In addition to Longley, first-place winners included Alathea (Best Group/Duo) for “Hurricane;” Michael Brandmeir (Best Male Artist) for “Falling Up;” Meghan Trainor (Best Female Artist) for “Waterfalls;” Henhouse Prowlers (Country/Bluegrass) for “Simplify;” The Trews (AAA/Alternative) for “Sing Your Heart Out;” Ivo (Acoustic Open Genre) for “I Will Bleed for You;” and El McMeen (Instrumental) for “Le Mans.”

A panel of music industry judges evaluated entries based on music performance, songwriting/composition, music production and originality. In addition to valuable products and services, the winners and top runners-up in each category will be featured on a compilation CD that is distributed to radio stations.