Tag: Jon Weisberger

IBMA Special Awards and Momentum Awards Nominees Announced

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The International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) announced the nominees for this year’s Special Awards and Momentum Awards.

The Special Awards nominees are selected by specially appointed committees made up of bluegrass music professionals who possess significant knowledge of that field. The recipient of each award is decided on by the Panel of Electors, an anonymous group of over 200 veteran bluegrass music professionals selected by the IBMA Board of Directors.

The 2018 Special Awards nominees are:

Graphic Design

Drew Bolen & Whitney Beard: Old Salt Union by Old Salt Union
Lou Everhart: A Heart Never Knows by The Price Sisters
Richard Hakalski: Portraits and Fiddles by Mike Barnett
Corey Johnson: Sounds of Kentucky by Carolina Blue
Karen Key: Big Bend Killing: The Appalachian Ballad Tradition by Various Artists

Liner Notes

Craig Havighurst: The Story We Tell by Joe Mullins & The Radio Ramblers
Steve Martin: The Long Awaited Album by Steve Martin & The Steep Canyon Rangers
Joe Mullins: Sounds of Kentucky Grass by Carolina Blue
Ted Olson: Big Bend Killing: The Appalachian Ballad Tradition by Various Artists
Peter Wernick: Carter Stanley’s Eyes by Peter Rowan

Bluegrass Broadcaster of the Year

Larry Carter
Michelle Lee
Steve Martin
Alan Tompkins
Kris Truelsen

Print Media Person of the Year

Derek Halsey
Chris Jones
Ted Lehmann
David Morris
Neil Rosenberg

Songwriter of the Year

Becky Buller
Thomm Jutz
Jerry Salley
Donna Ulisse
Jon Weisberger

Event of the Year

Bluegrass on the Green – Frankfort, Illinois
County Bluegrass – Fort Fairfield, Maine
Emelin Theatre – Mamaroneck, New York
Flagler Museum’s Bluegrass in the Pavilion – Palm Beach, Florida
FreshGrass Festival – North Adams, Massachusetts

Sound Engineer of the Year

Dave Sinko
Stephen Mougin
Gary Paczosa
Tim Reitnouer
Ben Surratt

The Momentum Awards recognize both musicians and bluegrass industry professionals who, in the early stages of their careers, are making significant contributions to or are having a significant influence upon bluegrass music. These contributions can be to bluegrass music in general, or to a specific sector of the industry. The Mentor Award, in contrast to the other Momentum Awards, recognizes a bluegrass professional who has made a significant impact on the lives and careers of newcomers to the bluegrass industry.

Starting with recommendations from the IBMA membership, nominees are chosen through a multi-stage process by committees made up of respected musicians and industry leaders in the bluegrass world.

The 2018 Momentum Award nominees are:

Festival/Event/Venue

Anderson Bluegrass Festival – South Carolina
Farm & Fun Time – Virginia
Hovander Homestead Bluegrass Festival – Washington
Red Wing Roots Music Festival – Virginia
SamJam Bluegrass Festival – Ohio

Industry Involvement

Megan Lynch Chowning and Adam Chowning
Justin Hiltner
Kris Truelsen

Mentor

Daniel Boner
Cathy Fink
Scott Napier
Jon Weisberger
Pete Wernick

Band

Cane Mill Road – Nort Carolina
Man About a Horse – Pennsylvania
Midnight Skyracer – United Kingdom
The Trailblazers – North Carolina
Wood Belly – Colorado

Vocalist

Ellie Hakanson (Jeff Scroggins & Colorado, Greg Blake Band)
Will Jones (Terry Baucom & the Dukes of Drive)
AJ Lee (AJ Lee & Blue Summit)
Evan Murphy (Mile Twelve)
Daniel Thrailkill (The Trailblazers)

Instrumentalist [three are chosen in this category]

Tabitha Agnew (Midnight Skyracer)
David Benedict (Mile Twelve)
Catherine (“BB”) Bowness (Mile Twelve)
Thomas Cassell (Circus No. 9)
Hasee Ciaccio (Molly Tuttle Band)
Matthew Davis (Circus No. 9)
Bronwyn Keith-Hynes (Mile Twelve)
Aynsley Porchak (Carolina Blue)
Trajan Wellington (Cane Mill Road)

The 2018 Special Awards are sponsored by the California Bluegrass Association and Homespun Music Instruction, while the 2018 Momentum Awards are sponsored by the Bluegrass Situation.

The recipients of the 2018 Momentum Awards will be presented with their awards at a luncheon on Wednesday, September 26, and the recipients of the 2018 Special Awards will be presented with their awards at a luncheon on Thursday, September 27 in Raleigh, North Carolina, as part of IBMA’s World of Bluegrass event.

Crowd-Fun-Ding: January

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One of the universal commonalities between people is that it is hard to ask for help. If money is involved, the task is all the greater. That’s why crowdfunding an album is such a brave and beautiful thing for artists to do. And it’s why we’ve decided to lend our support each month to roots music campaigns that could use a boost.

Dr. Ysaÿe Barnwell

We’re big fans of Sweet Honey in the Rock and all of their off-shoots. So, as a former member, Ysaÿe inherits that support for whatever she wants to do. In this case, what she wants to do is bring a variety of artists together to create ethnographic recordings of the “The Star-Spangled Banner” to go along with her own reclaimed version of it. That’s not just revelatory and necessary; it’s also COOL.

Hush Kids

We’re big fans of both Jill Andrews and Peter Groenwald, and we were lucky enough to see one of their first — if not the first — gig they played together. As charming as they are individually, the combination is utterly enchanting. Get in on the ground floor with this one!

Jamie Lin Wilson

A former member of the Sidehill Gougers and the Trishas, Texas singer/songwriter Jamie Lin Wilson has been up to various creations over the past few years, but is back in business with her second solo record. It will, no doubt, feature some stellar players working through some solid tunes.

David Robert King

Singer/songwriter David Robert King is diving into the darkness on his new album, Idaho. If you appreciate the likes of Leonard Cohen and Tom Waits, you might well enjoy what he’s up to. But, act fast! His campaign only has about a week left!

Justin Hiltner & Jon Weisberger

Our own Justin Hiltner has quite the bluegrass situation on his hands as he raises funds to make a record with our good friend Jon Weisberger. These two gents have an awful lot of talent between them … plus a whole bevy of bonafide bluegrass besties all lined up, including Molly Tuttle, Casey Campbell, Tristan Scroggins, Kimber Ludiker, and Amanda Fields. No chance it’s not gonna be great!

MIXTAPE: Jon Weisberger

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If the name Jon Weisberger doesn’t immediately ring a bell, it soon will…. this Renaissance man of the bluegrass world is a well-respected bassist for Chris Jones and the Night Drivers, music writer for Nashville Scene and The Tennessean, and IBMA Vice Chair, amongst other various roles in the industry (another recent addition to his resume is winner of IBMA’s 2012 Songwriter of the Year Award).  And now he can add his role as the latest addition to The Bluegrass Situation team.  Starting this month, Jon will be dispensing his wealth of wisdom in a monthly editorial column, waxing poetic on any variety of topical subject and music history.

We’re thrilled to have Jon on board, and thought we would introduce him to Sitch readers by having him curate our latest MIXTAPE.  And as if we needed any more convincing, our suspicions were confirmed:  the man’s got damn good taste…

Track:   Roll Muddy River
Artist:  Osborne Brothers

‘My friend Amber Digby, a great honky tonk singer whose dad played with the Osborne Brothers back in the 70s, is working on putting together a tribute to Bobby and Sonny, so I’ve been listening to a lot of their stuff lately.  But honestly, I listen to a lot of their stuff pretty regularly.  Bobby makes the most bad-ass singing look effortless.’

 

Track:  The Game That I Can Win
Artist:  Lonesome River Band

‘One of the things I love about bluegrass is the longevity of careers.  You can go see folks who were making music professionally back before JFK was elected President, and a lot of them are still at the top of their games.  Tim Austin, a founding member and leader of the Lonesome River Band until he quit in the mid-90s, put up a bunch of videos of the early 90s edition of the band—Tim, Sammy Shelor, Ronnie Bowman and Dan Tyminski—a while ago; this is a great reminder of how killer—and how influential—these guys were a couple of decades ago and still are today.’

 

Track:  Pea Soup Reel
Artist:  Don Messer

‘I spent a couple of years playing with a fabulous Ottawa Valley fiddler, stepdancer and singer, April Verch, and came away from it a fan of Canadian fiddle styles—and I was already a fan of the glorious quirkiness of musicians from back in the days before people started making up rules.  Here’s a band with twin fiddles and drums, a piano, a 5-string banjo and a soprano sax, playing a good old fiddle tune made for dancing—and sure enough, the dancing is sensational.   I just found this recently and can’t stop watching.’

 

Track:  On My Mind
Artist:  Harley Allen/Mike Lilly Band

‘Harley Allen, who passed away about a year and a half ago, is pretty well known in the country world as a great songwriter, but a lot of bluegrass folks think that he was an even better singer, and I’m one of them.  Mike Lilly plays some powerful banjo on this—the chordal thumb stuff in his break is amazing—and sings some stout lead on the choruses, but Harley’s vocals make you forget about everything else.  He had a style of ornamentation and phrasing that was simultaneously unexpected and exactly right; it never sounded premeditated, and it never sounded wrong.’

 

Track:  He Ain’t Never Done Me Nothin’ But Good
Artist:  The Isaacs

Track:  More Than A Hammer And Nails
Artist:  The Staples Singers

‘Gospel music is one of the great meeting grounds of southern popular music.  I love that, as different as these two sensational performances are, they have just three chords between them—not to mention a feeling of joy that’s unmistakably real and more than a little contagious.’

 

 

You can check out Jon’s editorial column every month exclusively at The Sitch beginning next week.