Folk Alliance International has announced the Official Showcase artists for its 30th annual conference taking place February 14-18, 2018, at the Westin Crown Center Hotel in Kansas City, Missouri. [To continue reading this article -- which includes a listing of Official Showcase artists -- click on the headline.]
Online submissions are being sought through May 31 for the 2017 FreshGrass Awards and a new No Depression Singer-Songwriter Award. Unsigned bluegrass bands, banjo pickers, fiddlers and roots music-oriented singer-songwriters are invited to compete for more than $25,000 in cash prizes, instruments, recording sessions at Compass Records, and a spot on the main stage during FreshGrass 2018. Finalists will perform for a panel of music industry judges during this year’s festival, which is set for Sept. 15-17 on the grounds of MASS MoCA in North Adams, Massachusetts. [To continue reading this article, click on the headline.]
Entertainer of the Year honors went to The Earls of Leicester, while Flatt Lonesome was named Vocal Group of the Year and received awards for Album and Song of the Year during the 27th Annual International Bluegrass Music Awards show, Sept. 29, 2016, at Raleigh, North Carolina’s Duke Energy Center for the Arts. [To continue reading this article and to see the complete list of award winners, click on the headline.]
Nominees in 83 categories have been named for the 58th Annual Grammy Awards to be presented by The Recording Academy on Monday, February 15, 2016. Of particular interest to readers of AcousticMusicScene.com are the nominees for awards in the American Roots Music Field that will be presented prior to the live broadcast airing on CBS television stations that evening from the Staples Center in Los Angeles. [To continue reading and see a listing of the nominees in the American Roots Music Field and select others, click on the headline.]
The Earls of Leicester were the big winners during the International Bluegrass Music Awards show, Oct. 1, at Raleigh, North Carolina’s Duke Energy Center for the Arts. The group –- which pays homage to the musical legacy of Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs and their band, the Foggy Mountain Boys -- took home Entertainer, Album (for its Grammy Award-winning self-entitled debut), Instrumental Group and Gospel Recorded Performance (“Who Will Sing For Me”) of the Year awards. [To continue reading this article and see the list of award winners, click on the headline.]
The Gibson Brothers, winners of last year’s Vocal Group of the Year and Album of the Year awards, were named Entertainer of the Year during this year’s 23rd Annual International Bluegrass Music Awards show on Thursday night, Sept. 27, at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee. This ended a three year winning streak by Steve Martin & The Steep Canyon Rangers that had been preceded by another three-year streak by the popular duo Dailey & Vincent.. [To read the full article and learn of all the other winners and honorees, click on the headline].
Steve Martin & the Steep Canyon Rangers were named Entertainer of the Year during the 22nd Annual International Bluegrass Music Awards show on Thursday, Sept. 29, at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee, ending a three-year winning streak by Dailey & Vincent. [To read the article in its entirety and learn of all the award winners, click on the headline.]
By Michael Kornfeld
Abbie Gardner, a gifted New York area singer-songwriter and dobro player, who also is part of the rootsy female Americana trio Red Molly, is the Lennon Award winner in the folk category of the John Lennon Songwriting Contest. Her winning song, “The Mind of a Soldier,” now competes with the winners in the contest’s 11 other categories for the $20,000 Maxell Song of the Year Award, to be announced in July.
“I wanted to write a war song, but not from the perspective of either side, not something preachy or political, something more personal that people can relate to,” says Gardner of her award-winning song. She recalls listening to a lot of radio news reports about the war in Iraq while driving in her car and being bothered by the way in which “everyday I would usually just hear a number of how many people had died. It was just like a weather report.” “The Mind of a Soldier,” which can be heard on her MySpace page, seeks to address the human element.
[To read the entire article, click on the headline.]
