The International Bluegrass Music Association [IBMA] has announced the nominees for its 21st annual awards.
Reigning two time Entertainers of the Year Dailey And Vincent had two projects eligible for awards this year, so it's not surprising that the group tops the list of nominees with 10 chances to win. Their CD "Dailey And Vincent Sing The Statler Brothers" is a bluegrass tribute to the famed country quartet, and earned them an Album of the Year nomination. "Elizabeth" is up for Song of the Year, and this new version of the classic country hit, "Susan When She Tried", is a good example why the group is also up for Vocal Group of the Year.
In addition to Dailey And Vincent, the IBMA Vocal Group of the Year nominees are Blue Highway, The Gibson Brothers, Doyle Lawson And Quicksilver, and Russell Moore And IIIrd Tyme Out (Third Time Out). Russell Moore and his group have received the honor seven times between 1994 and 2000, and the nominations cap a big comeback for the group. 2009 saw the band release their first album of new material in five years, and that self-titled release earned the group six IBMA nominations, including Album of the Year. Among them is a Male Vocalist of the Year selection for Russell Moore, and a Song of the Year nomination for "Hard Rock Mountain Prison ('Till I Die)."
Other multi-award nominees this year include Michael Cleveland And Flamekeeper, Sam Bush, and The Grascals, each up for five IBMA Awards. Michael Cleveland is a seven-time Fiddle Player of the Year winner, and if he wins this year, he'll match Stuart Duncan's eight-year record. Sam Bush and The Grascals find themselves competing against each other in several categories, including Album of the Year and Instrumental Recorded Performance. The Grascals are also nominated for Recorded Event of the Year for their duet with Hank Williams, Junior, on "I'm Blue, I'm Lonesome." Recorded Event of the Year is a fancy way of saying "a song by artists who don't usually perform together."
Sam Bush's latest CD is "Circles Around Me," and it's one of the five up for the IBMA's Album of the Year honor. "The Ballad of Stringbean and Estelle," based on the 1973 murder of Grand Ole Opry Star "Stringbean" Akeman and his wife is nominated for Song of the Year.
The IBMA will also be inducting two new members into their Hall of Fame. They are the late Louise Scruggs, the pioneering female business manager of Flatt And Scruggs and wife of banjo legend Earl Scruggs, and also the multi-instrumentalist singer-songwriter John Hartford, who passed away in 2001. In addition to being a fine fiddle and banjo player, John Hartford recorded more than 30 albums, won Grammy Awards in three different decades, and wrote one of the most popular songs of all time "Gentle On My Mind."
The 2010 International Bluegrass Music Awards will be handed out at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville on September 30th, and the award show will be broadcast the following week on the Roots and Branches program, heard on the VOA Music Mix Network.
