Jono Manson is happy just holding a guitar. Wait till he wins some awards. - Kerry Sherck
We know you’ve been impatiently awaiting its arrival all year, so you can finally relax: the New Mexico Music Awards is here!
The nominees for the 2011 honors have been posted. Unfortunately, I don’t have enough room to list everybody. Just know that I wish the best of luck to all involved. Mostly.
The Americana category is one I expected to include names like Tom Adler and Anthony Leon. But no! Maybe I’m crazy, but I don’t recall anyone by the name of Buzzy B Goode burning up the stage anytime recently. Oh, well.
Jono Manson and his Kitchen Sink Studios produced a nominee in the Americana category in the form of Jaime Michaels’ tune, “The Man With the Time Machine.” Between Michaels’ acoustic finger-picking and a ghostly pedal-steel guitar, minimal piano drives the song. I’d probably call this more of a folk number than Americana, but what’re you gonna do? Manson himself is nominated for Best Engineer for the Douglas Jeffords song, “Smoke Along the Track.”
“It’s a great thrill to be recognized for my efforts and abilities, and I’d be overjoyed if any of the artists I’ve worked with were to win,” Manson tells SFR, “but the fact is, I’m overjoyed for anyone who wins.”
Jeffords is country/bluegrass to the bone, and the song is one of those “I travel by rail and leave broken hearts in my wake” tunes. Jeffords also is in the running for Best Country CD with his album, West of the Pecos.
The Best Arrangement category includes Santa Fe act Evarusnik for “Leaving for the Coast.” Reminiscent of Billy Corgan’s opening piano track from Smashing Pumpkins double-disc masterpiece, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, “Leaving for the Coast” is all about piano, strings and making the listener feel wistful and bummed out. But to describe it in one word, I’d have to say “beautiful.” This nomination is deserved.
Full disclosure: Local musician Josh Martin is SFR’s accountant. He’s also a musical dynamo. Any style, any instrument, any song—Martin is your dude. That’s why he earned a nod for Best Song with “Too Close to the Sun.” The track makes me think of the Traveling Wilburys tune “Tweeter and the Monkeyman.” This is a head-bobbing country-ish song with rock undertones and killer accordion riffage.
Albuquerque blues mainstay Todd Tijerina picked up two nominations in the Blues category for his songs, “Barely Gettin’ By” and “Nothin’ Like the Blues.” Tijerina hates ending words with the letter G, but that doesn’t stop him from shreddin’.
The boys in D Numbers have been recognized in the Best Electronica category for “New Age Wondertwinism” as well as in the Best Rock CD category for recent album Onda. There’s not much to say—D Numbers is going to win both awards and no one can do anything about it!
Vocalist Teri Lynn Browning and multi-instrumentalist Andrew Primm picked up a nomination in the Pop category for their song “Heart.” Think Portishead or Sneaker Pimps—the song might have been a little more at home in the ’90s, but it’s still a cool and catchy number.
Dozens of other musicians have been nominated in plenty of other categories, which you’ll just have to check out online. Congratulations to all of you, and good luck!
Follow SFR music news on Twitter: @SFRsA_Sharp
24TH ANNUAL NEW MEXICO MUSIC AWARDS
6:30 pm Sunday, May 22
newmexicomusicawards.com
