[FM] The glories of regional awards

[Tom Neff]

Glenn Drinkwater wrote:
> << From: Christian Bauman <dwoboogie@yahoo.com>
> <<  In other words, better the WAMMIES
>  than a regional disregard for hometown music. >>
>
>   I was all set to defend Tom Neff's honor to the death ...
> when Mr. Bauman's post made me re-think my position.  I
> live in a town that tends to ignore its own, so I will now try to
> build some consensus for the Rochester Area Music awards...

I am psyched about Glenn's rendezvous with RAMA, and totally in favor of
regional awards!  (Please, my opinions are obnoxious enough without mixing
them up further.)

What I would like is for this beautiful new crop of local and regional
awards to LEARN something from the mistakes of those who have gone before,
rather than possibly repeating them.

And I am suggesting that, or at least asking whether, the WAMA tendency
towards redundant multiple awards (occasionally approaching avalanche
proportions) is one of those mistakes to learn from.

Bauman's dichotomy -- better some particular organization with its glut of
categories for folk band, folk duo, folk/rock duo, folk/rock band, pop
instrumental, folk/pop instrumental, etc, etc, than to DISREGARD local music
altogether -- is a false one.  There is a third way, namely a sensible
category structure that reflects local strengths without inviting a slew of
overlapping nominations.  If that's too hard to figure out, you can simply
add rules so that a given act can appear in at most one category (or two if
you count albums).  If the voters provide noms in more than one category,
the category with the most votes is chosen.

Would it make sense to deliberately develop a network of local/metro awards
whose winners are automatically nominated for a larger (state/regional)
awards process?  I.e., Rochester and Albany and NYC and Buffalo and so
forth, each with a set of winners, competing for NYState folk awards?  Too
weird, or wonderful?  Have to think about this.

[Alan sez: Actually I think that in Syracuse, once you win the same SAMMY category for either 3 or 5 years, I forget which, you are a lifetime winner and ineligible for the yearly awards. That has its problems also.]