IBMA Award Noms are out. Sigh.
The IBMA Award nominations are out. Here are some things about which I’m happy. My dear friend Ashby Frank is nominated for Song of the Year. Excellent. Amanda of TheKenny and Amanda Smith Band is nominated for Female Vocalist of the Year. As it should be. Some other people I admire were nominated for some other things so that’s good. Oh, and we have several Megan B. Lynch - FiddleStar Camps and Publishing, Nashville Flatpick Camp, and Nashville Mandolin Camp teachers among the nominated, so good on them!
Generally though, eh. That’s how I feel about the list, overall. Eh. Some of the people nominated aren’t even active participants in the touring/recording bluegrass community. Doesn’t that seem weird to anyone? Some bands nominated for Emerging Artist have been touring and recording full time for almost a decade. That has to seem weird to people. I don’t know. It just looks like the list is kind of a strange time capsule. Like it could be from 2002 or in some cases 1992. I know the Momentum Awards were created to address some of these issues but they were kind of weird too. Full disclosure, I didn’t vote. But this is the first year I didn’t. I felt the same way last year when I did vote so I stand by my outlook.
So many great bands and artists out there who won’t even get recognized and they’re drawing huge crowds and making fantastic records. Ah well, the music business… I should know better than to try to figure it all out.
Congratulations to all the nominees though, for reals. A lot of incredible talent and hard work in there.