During an IBMA week conversation with John Eberle of Americana Mastering, an excellent suggestion for a new IBMA Award category came up.

John remarked that, given the degree to which bluegrass artists and fans appreciate the subtleties of acoustic instrument tonality, it might be appropriate to consider an award for the best audio recording of the year.

It struck me as a marvelous idea as well, though I suspect that the IBMA Awards Committee may not immediately warm to the notion of new awards.

We’ve heard from a number of readers who were unable to view the photo galleries we had posted from IBMA last week. It seems to have been restricted to users of Internet Explorer 7, though not all IE 7 users were affected.

In any event, we have modified the code to remove the tag that caused this problem, so anyone who had trouble seeing the IBMA images should be able to do so now.

• IBMA: Tony Trischka Keynote
• In the Exhibit Hall
• Tuesday Evening Showcases
• IBMA: Wednesday Night Photos
• IBMA Awards Show Photos
• More Awards Show Photos

We actually have some additional photos which we will post later today or tomorrow, as soon as we recover from last week.

If you would like to follow our live blog coverage of the Awards Show, you can find it arranged in chronological order here.

It’s time now for our annual recap of the IBMA Awards and a comparison to our unofficial poll.

Here are the results.

Last year we only got 7 out of 17 correct in our poll. This year we got 7 out of 17 right again. It seems we’re establishing a track record.

It’s interesting to see how our readership compares to the voting membership of IBMA. Visit the IBMA website to find out more about IBMA membership.

More updates from IBMA and the World of Bluegrass coming soon.

Missy Raines wrote in this morning to offer some additional thanks she was unable to give during the award show last night due to time constraints. I’ve copied her comments below.

Dear folks,

I am so honored to have received the 2007 Bass Player of the Year award last night. I just wanted to say thank you! I am overwhelmed.

I wanted very much to take the opportunity to say something that I didn’t get to say last night, and that is, I want to thank Claire Lynch and the Claire Lynch Band for letting me play with them. I want to thank Claire for hiring me almost 10 years ago and giving me the fertile ground and nurturing support to grow as a musician. Claire Lynch, Jim Hurst and Jason Thomas, are 3 of the best musicians in this business, and playing with them is a dream come true. Being on the road with them is so great, we have a lot of fun and they are the consummate professionals. I cherish them and I’ve learned so much from them.

I’ve been on stage a zillion times through the years, and I always get a little nervous, but being on stage for just those few sweet seconds these (unbelieveable) 7 times to accept this great honor have given new meaning to an “out of body” experience. Or should I say, “out of shoes” experience…

Thank You very much.

Sincerely,
Missy Raines