Jack Ryan and the folks who bring you The Americana Highway show on WIVK-FM in Knoxville, TN have launched an online poll, which will result in their first annual HEMI awards. As the name suggests, the show features a mix of music, drawing from popular bluegrass, country and Americana artists, with the nominees for these awards were chosen by the show staff from the artists/songs in their playlist.

Several categories are already posted, and new ones will be added each week leading up to the announcement of the winners on September 24. They include obvious ones like Favorite Female Artist and Favorite Band, as well as more obscure poll options as Favorite Cover Song, Favorite International Artist or Favorite Special Event Recording. Site visitors can vote once every 24 hours.

Eric Bohlen with Americana Highway shared some info on the HEMIs:

“HEMI doesn’t stand for anything it’s just our version of the Grammies or Emmys, and since the show is called The Americana Highway we thought HEMI because of the motor/engine tie-in.

The voting is done by listeners to the program and votes can be cast either online at The Americana Highway web site, or by sending an email to jack@americanahighway.com. The online poll results reflects only the the totals from the online voting and does not include email votes, which will allow a bit of “suspense” over who the winners are when they are revealed during our special winners show on September 24, 2006.

The awards are a fun way to recognize and showcase the artists and songs we play on our show. It is by no means a pure and scientific voting process, but designed to allow our listeners to express their choices in a fun and entertaining way.”

Americana Highway airs each Sunday evening at 10:30 p.m., and can be heard on the air in Knoxville at 107.7 FM, or by live streaming at the WIVK web site. You can also find past shows archived as podcasts on the Americana Highway site.

Editor’s note: Our own online IBMA Awards poll will be available again this year on The Bluegrass Blog. It will mirror the official IBMA ballot, and all registered users here can cast a single vote in each category. It will be available as soon as the official ballots are mailed.