Winners of the Third Annual Folk Alliance Awards were recognized during an awards ceremony on the opening night of the 20th Annual International Folk Alliance Conference that drew nearly 2,000 people to Memphis, Tennessee, February 20-24. [To read the entire article, click on the headline.]
As the title of her new album suggests, Rhonda Vincent appears to have a Good Thing Going. The bluegrass singer and mandolinist, who also plays the guitar and fiddle, was again named as Entertainer of the Year, while her band, Rhonda Vincent & The Rage, took Vocal Group of the Year honors during the 34th Annual Bluegrass Awards presented by the Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music of America (SPBGMA) earlier this month at its 25th national convention in Nashville, Tennessee. [To read the entire article, click on the headline.]
Winners in the 50th Annual Grammy Awards, presented by the Recording Academy, were announced both prior to and during ceremonies in Los Angeles on February 10. [To see a list of winners in categories of interest to acoustic music fans, click on the headline.]
Balloting in the Third Annual Folk Alliance Awards ended on Friday, Jan. 25. The award winners in more than a dozen categories will be named during a Feb. 20 awards program on the opening night of the 20th Annual International Folk Alliance Conference in Memphis, Tennessee that runs through Feb. 24. The awards program will be broadcast live over XM Satellite Radio. A listing of the nominees in 11 categories appears below. In addition to these categories, in which votes were cast by Folk Alliance members, Song of the Year and Album of the Year awards will be presented based on airplay reports. [To read the entire article, click on the headline.]
Eight entrants in the 7th annual Plowshares Singer-Songwriter Competition have been selected to perform during the Finals Showcase at the Plowshares Coffeehouse in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania on March 15, where a panel of judges will determine the Grand Prize winner. The showcase finalists, who were selected by a panel comprised of Philadelphia-area songwriters on the basis of songwriting and performance, include Denise Jordan Finley, Patrick Fitzsimmons, Dan Gonzalez, Jenny Goodspeed, Kierstin Gray, Robby Hecht, Tim LaBorie and Angela Shiek. Each finalist will receive $100 and will compete for a grand prize of $500, an invite to perform at the Philadelphia Folk Festival this summer, and a feature slot at next year’s Finals Showcase. [To read the entire article, click on the headline].
The Our Times Coffeehouse will host a Bob Dylan Song Contest Night on Friday, February 15, at the Ethical Humanist Society Building, 38 Old Country Road in Garden City, NY. Cash prizes of $150, $100 and $50 will be awarded to the three top performers as judged by a panel and the audience on the basis of originality of interpretation and quality of musicianship. “We’re not looking for Dylan impersonators, just great musicians putting their personal spin on two Dylan songs,†says Marty Stone, arts coordinator of the monthly coffeehouse series that is a joint project of the Ethical Humanist Society of Long Island and the Long Island Progressive Coalition. The entry fee is $15. [To read the entire article, click on the headline].
Entries are now being sought for the 2008 Grassy Hill Kerrville New Folk Competition for Emerging Songwriters to be held on Saturday and Sunday, May 24 and 25, 2008 during the 37th Annual Kerrville Folk Festival. Songwriters may either send two original songs (which must have been written after Jan. 1, 2006) on a home-burned CD, not to exceed eight minutes in total, to the Kerrville Folk Festival office or submit them electronically using Sonicbids. The first 800 entries received prior to March 15 will be accepted and 32 finalists will be named on or about April 15. Half of the 32 finalists will perform on May 24, while the other half will perform the next day. Six New Folk winners will be selected to perform 20 minutes of their original songs on Sunday, June 1. They will receive cash honorariums and other prizes. All of the performances will take place at the Threadgill Theater on the Quiet Valley Ranch campgrounds, nine miles south of Kerrville, Texas. [To read the entire article, click on the headline].
Nominees for the 50th Annual Grammy Awards, to be presented by the Recording Academy on February 10 in Los Angeles, were announced yesterday. [To see the list of best album nominees in the Bluegrass, Traditional Folk, Contemporary Folk/Americana and the Zydeco/Cajun Music categories, click on the headline].
Submissions are now being sought for The Indie Acoustic Project’s Best CDs of 2007 Awards. Full-length CDs (25 minutes or longer) that have at least some acoustic instrumentation and were released for sale to the public during 2007 by any entity other than a major US label are eligible for consideration. Entries must be postmarked no later than Dec. 31. One award will be given in each of 15 categories: acoustic ensemble, alt country, alt rock, Americana, Celtic, instrumental, lyrics, multi-genre, rock, roots, singer-songwriter (male), singer-songwriter (female), world music-Africa, world music-Latin, and world music-Eurasia/global. [To read the entire article, click on the headline].
Jerry Douglas’ latest album may be entitled The Best Kept Secret but this accomplished musician/composer and producer has been a known quantity in music circles for some time now, and he keeps raking in awards for his musicianship. On Nov. 7, he added his third CMA Musician of the Award to his collection, which also includes a dozen Grammys and a couple of Instrumentalist of the Year honors from the Americana Music Association, among others. CMA award winners are chosen by their peers – industry professionals who are members of the Country Music Association. Douglas is, perhaps, best known as a stellar dobro player, whose slide work can be heard on more than 1,000 albums – including the hit “O Brother, Where Art Thou†soundtrack – in addition to his own solo releases. He has toured with Alison Kraus & Union Station and others. Although he has not released a solo album since 2005, Sugar Hill released Jerry Douglas – Best of the Sugar Hill Years as part of its Americana Masters Series earlier this year.
All songwriters who have not previously performed at the New Jersey Folk Festival are eligible to apply for its 14th Annual Singer/Songwriter Showcase. Six “winners†will be afforded the opportunity to perform 20-minute sets during the annual day-long festival on Saturday, April 26, 2008, at the Douglas campus of Rutgers, the State University, in New Brunswick. Each showcase performer also will receive a $50 honorarium and be included in the printed program. Singer-songwriters should submit three songs containing original lyrics and music by the featured performer (no covers), along with lyric sheets. The application deadline is December 15, and entries may be sent in on CD, cassette tape or via Sonicbids. [To read the entire article, click on the headline].
The 8th Annual NSAI Song Contest is seeking entries from songwriters in all music genres through Nov. 15. Nashville Songwriters Association International members may enter for $30 per song, while the per-song fee for others is $40. The grand prize winner and five finalists will receive a single-song publishing contract form one of a half-dozen major Music Row publishers. Bart Harbison, NSAI’s executive director, believes this will “create an opportunity for the aspiring songwriter to build relationships with top-notch songwriters, publishers, publishers and music industry executives that would normally take years to establish.†In addition, the grand prize winner will receive mentoring sessions (including song critiques, industry advice and instruction on the craft of songwriting) from three top songwriters. [To read the entire article, click on the headline].
