Rewarding Awards

This Sunday, March 27, brings us another edition of the Lone Star Music Awards, which will be held at the awesomely refurbished Texas Music Theater in San Marcos and feature performances from:  Hayes Carll, Lincoln Durham, Max Stalling, The Trishas and Javi Garcia.  Tickets are only $5 and just about all your favorites will be in attendance due to being nominated or just looking for a cool hang on a Sunday night.

Awards in this scene have a funny history.  The fore bearer to the LSM Awards was the GWE Awards which did a great job of rewarding and acknowledging standouts in Texas Music.

Around the time the GWE team was growing weary of the award process due to a variety of reasons, LSM kicked off this award show and revamped the nomination/voting process to be more in line with things like the Grammys, CMAs etc.  GWE had even collaborated with Galleywinter one year in the mid 2000’s to attempt a pure public vote/nomination and even that drew scorn.

What the LSMs are doing is solid.  A survey is delivered to a large swath of people that represent every aspect of the industry (artists, managers, booking agents, bloggers, venue owners etc) to pare down the nominee list.

It’s not perfect, and perhaps not every act that was deserving was included…but it’s the best system we’ve got for recognizing the best in this music over the previous 12 months.

Let’s not forget that even the Rolling Stones don’t own a ton of Grammy’s.

This year’s nominees range from vets like Kevin Welch and Ray Wylie Hubbard to standard bearers like Randy Rogers Band and exciting newcomers like the aforementioned Lincoln Durham and The Trishas.

It’s sure to be a cool evening and it’ll be interesting to see who walks away with the trophies. What in many ways makes this award presentation so unique is that it truly rewards the independence of this music we all love.  Whereas, those big award shows are completely politicized and glad-handedly voted on, once the nominating pool has been put together the voting is up to the fans.

Not just any fans…but Texas/Red Dirt fans.  By nature, fans of this music are the most discerning, passionate and loyal to be found in country music.  Therefore,  one can never bet on a favorite until the winner is unveiled.

What’s going to happen Sunday night?

I can’t wait to see, but I guarantee you it doesn’t matter who actually wins…we’ve all won just by being aware, involved and in love with this music.