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2019 Margaret Moser Award: Dianne Scott

AMA 2019, News

We’re beyond thrilled to let you know that longtime musician champion Dianne Scott is the recipient of the Margaret Moser Women in Music Award!


Steve Wertheimer owns the Continental Club, but Dianne Scott remains its face. After moving to Austin from upstate New York in 1987, Scott went from being a booking agent and regular at Blues Specialists shows to working full-time at the Club.

“The Continental Club isn’t just my job,” she affirms. “It’s my passion.”

Scott works the Club’s back door and handles its publicity and newsletter, which she launched in 1996. She’s also the venue’s historian, periodically giving tours and recounting the South Congress landmark’s illustrious history.

– The Austin Chronicle

October 17, 2018/by AMA
https://austinmusicawards.org/ama/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/42172755_349934405552768_5388374434240363937_n.jpg 1080 1080 AMA https://austinmusicawards.org/ama/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/AMA-2019-500.png AMA2018-10-17 10:04:432018-10-25 15:04:102019 Margaret Moser Award: Dianne Scott

2019 Townes Van Zandt Award : Alejandro Escovedo

AMA 2019, News

It’s a privilege to drop the news that this year’s winner of of the Townes Van Zandt Songwriter Award is to be presented to singer-songwriter Alejandro Escovedo!


Crossing borders, jumping barriers, taking risks, betting it all: that’s the path Alejandro Escovedo has been taking in his lifelong search for the heart of rock and roll.

“Musically, Alejandro Escovedo is in his own genre.” – David Fricke, Rolling Stone

“There are songwriters who sing their songs, and then there are songs who sing their writers.” – Lenny Kaye ( Patti Smith Band)

“A masterwork from one of the genuine lights in rock music.”- Billboard

“Escovedo has blended the lyricism of Bruce Springsteen and Jackson Browne with the raw power of the Stooges and the Velvet Underground…the result is music with heart, brains, and a burning sense of adventure.”– Mark Kemp, Rolling Stone

“The performances were lush and full…it was truly a treat to hear these songs with such a rich resonance that only added to their depth and beauty.” – Front Row Center

“Alejandro Escovedo likes songs with stories; tonight, he was, the American story.” – The Boston Globe

“Alejandro Escovedo is one of the great songwriters of our time.” – Time Out Philadelphia

“Alejandro Escovedo  was like a lean slice of nighttime that had found its way into a sunny afternoon. That set was rumbling roots-punk guitar gunslinging at its most fierce and hip. After a long afternoon on a festival stage, the 60-something Escovedo still bristled with energy. Cool cats get nine lives. Ticking it off on your fingers, it seems as if the Texas songwriter must have cycled through all of those and then some.” – Allison Fernstock, New Orleans Times-Picayune

Head to Alejandro’s official website for tour dates, news, updates, click here for show information:

alejandroescovedo.com

 

October 17, 2018/by AMA
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GREEN ROOM CHATTER with EPHRAIM OWENS

News

Ephraim Owens (Photo by David Brendan Hall)


GREEN ROOM CHATTER with EPHRAIM OWENS

2016-2017 Winner of Best Horn Player

We caught up with Ephraim Owens, the 2016-2017 Winner of Best Horn Player, when he’s not on the road with Tedeschi Trucks Band to hear what he has to say about the Austin Music Awards and the local music scene. The Austin Chronicle featured Owens as their cover storysoon after this AMA win…dig into it to learn more about this constant Austin + jazz favorite

What’s the best part of winning an AMA?

I’d have to say that being chosen in such an event, amongst the numerous talents that’s within the city is amazing, and I’m honored and love this city!

What do you wish for the Austin music scene?

Better paying gigs, parking, free parking for musicians, green rooms.

What project/s are you currently working on?

“The Ephraim Owens Experience” and “The Tedeschi Trucks Band”

Who are your local musical influences?

Well, where do I start? Too many to fit!

On the record but off topic – what’s your favorite taco in Austin?

Polvo’s breakfast taco with bacon/sausage, egg, cheese, potato, spinach, and mushroom.

October 16, 2018/by AMA
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Announcing the 37th Austin Music Awards!

AMA 2019, News

Join us in honoring the many sounds of Austin at our 37th Austin Music Awards benefitting SIMS Foundation &  Health Alliance for Austin Musicians.

February 27th at ACL Live. Tickets on sale Friday, Oct 19th!


October 7, 2018/by AMA
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36th Annual Austin Music Awards Gallery

News
Read more
March 1, 2018/by AMA
https://austinmusicawards.org/ama/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/dbh-36th_austinmusicawards-acllive-022818-6.jpg 571 800 AMA https://austinmusicawards.org/ama/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/AMA-2019-500.png AMA2018-03-01 09:27:022018-11-09 05:58:3836th Annual Austin Music Awards Gallery

The Austin Music Awards’ Ecstatic Experience

News

Thirty-four awards and six musical sets in 211 minutes

BY RAOUL HERNANDEZ

In a metropolis where music does the talking, words buoyed the 2017/18 Austin Music Awards as loud as its potent soundtrack. Wednesday night at the Moody Theater they proved an oral flash mob, putting bons mots to the last half-century of auditory ephemera. Even notoriously loquacious bar etiquette couldn’t drown out testimony to our musical wellspring.


Tiarra Girls (Photo by David Brendan Hall)

Bidi Bidi Banda’s Selena fanatic Stephanie Bergara and the three sisters rocking Tiarra Girls spiked emotions early and hard in back-to-back acceptance speeches, the former marveling at a “minority-fronted” cover band catching on as quickly as its subject and the latter choking up the Friends of Margaret Moser contingent by calling out their gardenias as tribute to the late under-18 champion.

“Que sera, sera,” finished one of them, life and death and music suddenly transformed into a power trio.

Adam Torres’ high, sweet voice matched those before him, percussion master Thor Harris passing his hands over taut surfaces that rumbled like a spring shower behind three violins meshing with house band keyboardist Michael Ramos’ trumpet and musical director Charlie Sexton’s guitar. Uplifting and mournful all at once, Torres’ fleeting moment of chamber folk fed seamlessly into Phoebe Hunt’s Indian-Americana. She and husband Dominick Leslie duetted her fiddle and his picking into a classical pop also begging more than one tune.

David Ramirez (Photo by David Brendan Hall)

That goes triple for David Ramirez capping the Borderless Love set with a Crazy Horse kick.

“Ain’t it funny how the future looks like the Stone Age,” he snarled with Neil Young’s trademark ire, emphatic and turned up as he and Sexton cut loose some electricity.

Toni Price supplied her own wattage, peppery crown of hair a beacon over a bright blue blouse and gold lamé skirt. Inducted into the Hall of Fame for three decades of “blood, sweat, and soul” at the Continental Club, as put by AMA co-emcee Rick McNulty of KUTX, the boozy blues diva shone brighter than a cache of semiprecious stones.

“You’re beautiful,” she grinned upon exit. “I love you. Call me.”

“Women are here and they’re taking over,” nodded queen AMA emcee Laurie Gallardo, now two-time winner of the Austin Music Awards’ Radio Personality plaque.

Next Hall of Fame enshrinement went to the Fuck Emo’s, who went deep into the gratitude: clubs, labels, even frontman Russell Porter’s kid onstage (“great grades and awesome hygiene”). Best Bassist George Reiff appeared posthumously in the person of his brother Mike Reiff, whose familial resemblance and equally endearing humility drew more lumps of the throat.


Third Root and its MC mob (Photo by David Brendan Hall)

“Agent of change,” someone cried as Third Root stormed the stage in the AMAs’ first full hip-hop set. If only Clifford Antone were alive to witness what the blues begat, that sizzling beat transformed into a full-blown storm of rhythm and words. The rap trio, two MCs and Sir Chicken George behind the steel wheel, bum-rushed seven mic wielders by their third stomp, including Eric Burton, Riders Against the Storm, and Bavu Blakes. “Soul force,” it’s called, and it claimed its rightful spot at the Austin music banquet last night during the AMAs.

“Music is the weapon of the future,” professed Fela Kuti through Best World music promulgators Hard Proof afterward.

“When you walk into a club and see a tip jar, it doesn’t mean the musicians are volunteers,” pointed out Mayor Steve Adler later.

Jimmy LaFave’s son Jackson LaFave collected Musician of the Year and Hall of Fame honors for his dearly departed dad with mad charisma and energetic poise. Michael Fracasso, John Fullbright, and Phoebe Hunt then set said honors to growling, keening, Woody Guthrie-booming roots muscle, the Okie middleman of the grouping at one point pounding distinctly Jerry Lee Lewis on the stage-right Baldwin. Best Male Vocals slam dunk Guy Forsyth described it thereafter while calling out the local pastime.

“Looking for the ecstatic experience,” he proclaimed.


Lucinda Williams (r) and Margaret Moser (Photo by David Brendan Hall)

Lucinda Williams (Photo by David Brendan Hall)

Lucinda Williams, inducting “a badass free spirit” (Liz Lambert) in honor of “a badass free spirit” (Margaret Moser), gave exactly that facing off with Charlie Sexton on the thick, Southern blues of “Essence” and “Joy,” the guitarist making his instrument scream like a jackknifed semi. Force of nature and badass free spirit, Williams rumbled the Earth’s ecstatic core.


Fiona Apple (Photo by David Brendan Hall)

Special guest Fiona Apple bristled next with Sexton and Davíd Garza giving form to the superstar’s amelodic folk-blues, rattling intensity à la Nina Simone and Rickie Lee Jones. Crouched in shadow, Apple grimaced cathartic grit. It proved a far cry from what Best Songwriter Ray Wylie Hubbard illustrated as the simple art of rhyme.

“John the Revelator with 13th Floor Elevators,” he chortled.


Joe Ely (r) and AMA MVP and house band leader Charlie Sexton (Photo by David Brendan Hall)

Equal tribute followed when Alejandro Escovedo presented the Townes Vand Zandt Award to one of the Lone Star mystic’s rides in his hitchhiking days, Joe Ely. Escovedo led a string quartet on “Silver City” and John Hiatt materialized to perform “Cold Black Hammer.” When the songs’ author took center stage on “Dig All Night” and “Fingernails,” which brought back both guests, the Ely effect fired on all cylinders.

Ely’s standing ovation earlier, the only one during the swift, 3.5-hour sprint through 34 awards and six musical segments, proved prescient to no one’s surprise at all. The Black Angels’ Molotov cocktail of psychedelic dread and dual guitar sirens matched Ely’s lightning rod presence in an all-too-brief closing set. Drummer Stephanie Bailey’s hair-raising tribalism, guitarists Christian Bland, Jake Garcia, and Kyle Hunt’s buzzing, electro-shock drone, and Alex Maas’ doom vox discharged three swift songs with apocalyptic finality.


The Black Angels’ Christian Bland (Photo by David Brendan Hall)

Black Angels badass Stephanie Bailey (Photo by David Brendan Hall)

“We were the first generation to make Austin weird,” boasted final Hall of Fame entrance Robert “Beto” Skiles out of front of his four-decade Latin jazz juggernaut Los Fairlanes. “We’re the original weird.”

Crackling, poignant, joyful, any AMAs’ weirdness only feeds Austin’s greater ecstatic experience.

Scope the full photo gallery.

March 1, 2018/by AMA
https://austinmusicawards.org/ama/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Lu_2.jpg 571 800 AMA https://austinmusicawards.org/ama/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/AMA-2019-500.png AMA2018-03-01 06:10:352018-11-09 06:12:57The Austin Music Awards’ Ecstatic Experience

BAVU BLAKES

News

“I realize that really is a thing, to stand kind of in the gap between education and the music community.” Fortunately for us, Bavu Blakes, part time scholar, part time rapper, has made Austin the location of that gap. Since the mid 1990s, Blakes has successfully mixed the worlds of music-making and music-sharing to great benefit for the city: bringing hip hop to sixth street with the three-year spanning “Hip Hop Humpday” at the Mercury Lounge was the first of his successful experiments. Since then he’s performed at ACL and released an EP, “Sanct” in Los Angeles. He started a blog entitled “Hip Hop Grew Up” with fellow Austin artist, EasyLee. His latest project takes place not on stage but in the classroom, where he is “reclaiming the energy of the urban art form to empower youth.” Concern for hip hop’s future as a relevant cultural expression to enlighten and incite change is at the heart of Blakes’ entire career, and his presence at the Austin Music Awards on February 28 only reminds us that, in Austin, there’s more learning to be done. For a more comprehensive rundown on Bavu’s career, check out this Statesman article from 2016:

Don’t miss Bavu at the Austin Music Awards on February 28 at the Moody Theater:  

http://specials.mystatesman.com/bavu-blakes/

February 19, 2018/0 Comments/by Austin Music Awards
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Green Room Chatter: Tiarra Girls

News

Tiarra Girls (Photo by David Brendan Hall)


GREEN ROOM CHATTER with TIARRA GIRLS

2016-2017 Winner of Best U-18

Tiarra Girls have swept the Best Under-18 category for the last two years at the Austin Music Awards. Be sure to check out just what this trio of sisters has to say about their experience at the AMAs and gigging in the Live Music Capital of the World!

What’s the best part of winning an AMA? 

The best part is getting to meet such amazing musicians and soaking in all the advice given by so many in the industry. Knowing that we have the support from our fans lifts our spirits so high. Being in a room full of Austin’s favorite musicians is so magical and surreal.

Funny backstage moment?

We played a show for Margaret Moser’s memorial at Antone’s and while we were backstage after our set, someone told us that Charlie Sexton was asking why we had large X’s on the back of our hands.

What do you wish for the Austin music scene?

We hope that in the future, Austin musicians continue to advocate for one another no matter the genre or age and that the creative flow between the community stays alive.

Who are your local musical influences?

Nina Diaz and Gina Chavez, they have such distinct voices and styles.

At the moment, what’s your favorite song by another artist?

“January 9th” by Nina Diaz.

January 30, 2018/0 Comments/by Ferrin
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Green Room Chatter: White Ghost Shivers

News

White Ghost Shivers (Photo by Sarah Bork Hamilton)


GREEN ROOM CHATTER with WHITE GHOST SHIVERS (JEREMY SLEMENDA)

2016-2017 Winner of Best “None of the Above”

It makes perfect sense White Ghost Shivers was the 2016-2017 Winner of Best “None of the Above” at the Austin Music Awards – and that they’re up for it again this year. Pulling musical inspiration from cabaret, jazz, vaudeville, hokum, western swing, hillbilly, jug band and ragtime, White Ghost Shivers is truly and eclectic American band…and Austin institution.

What’s the best part of winning an AMA?

Being able to hang with other Austin musicians is just great. It just doesn’t happen as much as people think, because we’re all working at the same time! You really feel like you’re part of a greater scene.

Who do you want to see perform at the AMAs?

I always enjoy seeing the sort of Austin all-star band performances that have happened throughout the years. That and Redd Volkaert.

What project/s are you currently working on?

Right now, along with the bands I’ve been in for 20 years, White Ghost Shivers, and Them Duqaines, I’ve been working on The Saddle Sores, and The Jerrells. The Saddle Sores are some of the WGS folks, doing Country and Western Swing. The Jerrells seems to be my solo project, to an extent, and we’re all over the map, from Swing to Country to Jump Blues.

Cella has been singing with the Squirrel Nut Zippers since the Spring, and Curtis and Mike both play in Clyde and Clem’s Whiskey Business. Lyon plays with a bunch of different folks, but you can find him every Wednesday at The White Horse with the Rock Step Relevators, doing Hot Jazz and Swing.

Who are your local musical influences?

I find myself easily influenced here in Austin, because there are simply so many fantastic musicians. I mean, world class players. As a picker, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Redd Volkaert, Dave Biller and Tjarko Jean.

On the record but off topic – what’s your favorite taco in Austin?

Hands down, BOMB TACOS at The White Horse.

January 23, 2018/0 Comments/by Ferrin
https://austinmusicawards.org/ama/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/17P_AustinMusicAwards35AnnualHighRes-WhiteGhostShivers-18.jpg 2728 3410 Ferrin https://austinmusicawards.org/ama/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/AMA-2019-500.png Ferrin2018-01-23 07:03:082018-10-11 07:17:55Green Room Chatter: White Ghost Shivers

Green Room Chatter: Bob Schneider

News

Bob Schneider (Photo by David Brendan Hall)


GREEN ROOM CHATTER with BOB SCHNEIDER

2016-2017 Winner of Best Rock Band/Artist

Local favorite Bob Schneider has made a tangible impact on the Austin music scene over the last many years, winning countless Austin Music Awards – and most recently the 2016-2017 Best Rock Band/Artist. Despite his popularity, interviews are sparse so be sure to check out what Bob has to say about the AMAs, Austin, upcoming projects…and, of course, his favorite ATX taco!

What’s the best part of winning an AMA?

It’s so nice to be recognized for what you do, especially in a town like Austin that’s considered to be one of the premiere live music cities in the country. It lets you know that you’re doing something that people appreciate enough to take time out to cast their vote, so it’s just wonderful. Especially, when you are someone like me, who doesn’t get a lot of love from critics or the press.

Funny backstage moment?

I was backstage one night about to go on and receive a ‘Best Musician in Austin’ Award and was pretty happy with myself, and my friend Johnny Goudie was ahead of me in line receiving a ‘Best Keyboard Player’ Award. Johnny’s a great keyboard player and an even better singer-songwriter, but both of us could have listed 4 or 5 local guys that are way better keyboard players than he is. It just reminded me that the Awards don’t necessarily mean that you are the best in that category, just the most popular that year with the folks that voted. It was a nice, humbling moment, and it made us both laugh quite a bit. We both really enjoyed picking up our awards though.

What do you wish for the Austin music scene?

Well, it would be nice if they would cap the rent on live music venues, or something like that. The price of real estate in the city has gotten so out of control that it’s almost impossible to keep a live music venue in business. I’m all about helping out musicians, but they need a place to play first and foremost. It would be great if they could figure that out at some point.

What project/s are you currently working on?

I just finished another album of original material called, ‘Blood and Bones’. It’ll come out at the beginning of 2018. It is similar in tone and scope to my first album, ‘Lonelyland’ and I’m real happy with the way it turned out.

Who are your local musical influences?

Joe Ely, Bad Mutha Goose, Retarted Elf, Miracle Room, Crust, Butthole Surfers, Lyle Lovett, Willie Nelson, Soulhat, Hickoids, John Aielli

At the moment, what’s your favorite song by another local artist?

Danny Malone – “Leaves”

On the record but off topic – what’s your favorite taco in Austin?

Rudy’s BBQ breakfast tacos are always great.  I love the taquitos at La Condesa as well.

January 19, 2018/0 Comments/by Ferrin
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