The awards for artists who, on recorded and/or in-person performance during the specified time period, have shown an extraordinary mastery of their instruments. Nominations and awards will be made in six (6) sub-categories: Banjo, Bass, Dobro, Fiddle, Guitar and Mandolin. The awards go to the artists.

The Banjo Player Of The Year for 2005 is:

Review past recipients of this award.

The Bluegrass Blog Awards Poll Banjo Player Of The Year for 2005 is:

“I sure didn’t expect this.” Thanking Scott and Rosa Vestal for their help recoring, and everyone at Pinecastle. Thanks his son, Matt, and his wife, Lisa.

This award is for an outstanding recorded performance by an artist or artists featuring instrumental music, new or old, first commercially released during the eligibility period. An album project is eligible when 50% or more of its songs are instrumental performances. (Award to featured artist(s), producer, and label):

The Instrumental Album Of The Year for 2005 is:

Album Title links to audio	Artist(s) links to artist(s)	Label links to label
Slide Effects	Phil Leadbetter	Pinecastle

Review past recipients of this award.

The Bluegrass Blog Awards Instrumental Album Of The Year for 2005 is:

Mountain Heart - kicking it.

Wow… Larry Sparks & The Lonesome Ramblers with Alison Krauss and Dan Tyminski doing John Deere Tractor.

“What an honor to be on this stage.” Thanks his wife and family, and his fellow nominees - hopes they will be honored in the same way. Emotional for Mike - audience loves him.

Mike is honoring the bass men of the early days, many who played on this stage. Thanks Del and the McCourys each, and Jason Carter.

The awards for artists who, on recorded and/or in-person performance during the specified time period, have shown an extraordinary mastery of their instruments. Nominations and awards will be made in six (6) sub-categories: Banjo, Bass, Dobro, Fiddle, Guitar and Mandolin. The awards go to the artists.

The Bass Player Of The Year for 2005 is:

Review past recipients of this award.

“I love gospel music because I love the Lord. “

This award is for an outstanding gospel recorded performance, of one or more songs, new or old, first commercially released or showed significant chart action during the eligibility period. Recorded performance may be vocal, instrumental, or a combination of both. The award goes to the featured artist(s), producer, and label.

The Gospel Recorded Performance Of The Year for 2005 is:

Review past recipients of this award.

The Bluegrass Blog Awards Gospel Recorded Performance Of The Year for 2005 is:

Performing now is Marty Rabon, singing California Cotton Fields with Phil Leadbetter, Scott Vestal, Stuart Duncan… When we talked with Phil yesterday he mentioned how much he had loved this tune when Seldom Scene recorded it back in the late 1970s, and had always wanted to record it himself.

Wichita Rutherford is accepting the award from Bryan. What a hoot!

The award for the artist who, on recorded and/or in-person performance during the specified time period, has shown an extraordinary mastery of their instrument. The award goes to the individual.

The Guitar Player Of The Year for 2005 is:

Bryan Sutton

web site

bio

audio

Review past recipients of this award.

The Bluegrass Blog Awards Poll Guitar Player Of The Year for 2005 is:

Passes a tribute to JD and Paul - calls JD “The Claw Of Life.” Darren Vincent accepts for the band, praises Ricky as a great band leader.

The award for a group who regularly performs together that has shown outstanding recorded and in-person performance in the area of instrumental performance. It is not limited to groups which only perform instrumentals. The award goes to each group member.

The Instrumental Group Of The Year for 2005 is:

Review past recipients of this award.

The Bluegrass Blog Awards Instrumental Group Of The Year for 2005 is:

The award for Instrumental Group of the Year is being presented by JD Crowe and Paul Williams.

The first act up tonight is Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder performing Sis Draper.

We’re live! It’s 8:00 p.m. here in Nashville and the 2005 International Bluegrass Music Awards are on the air! The Issacs are launching the show with The Star Spangled Banner.

It looks like the show is about to begin. David Crowe is “prepping” the audience, making sure that everybody is on their best behavior.

No speeches longer than 30 seconds, etc.

We’ll see how that goes…

Due to the higher than usual server load this week, we have been exceeding our available CPU resources, so to avoid service disruptions during the Awards Show, we are disabling the photo galleries for the next few hours. We apologize for this inconvenience and will be sure to rectify it as soon as possible after the awards show has concluded.

As each award is announced, we will post the name of the recipient, along with the winner of our reader-driven Bluegrass Blog Awards Poll. It will be fun to see how many coincide.

We will also include the official IBMA criteria for each award, along with links to info and audio for both the IBMA Award winner and our Bluegrass Blog Awards Poll winner as well.