Thursday morning at IBMA and it’s time for the Special Awards luncheon. This the event where IBMA awards a number of special awards that are not included during the evening’s award show due to time constraints.

Greg Cahill, IBMA president, started off the event by recognizing the outgoing IBMA board members. A heart felt round of applause was giving for each of these men as their names were announced.

The program moved on the announcement of the winners of the Bluegrass Lesson Plan Contest.

Tim Stafford then took the stage to speak about Leadership Bluegrass and the class of 2007.

An IBMA Distinguished Achievement Award was then given to Bluegrass Breakdown, the newsletter of the California Bluegrass Association.

Alison Brown was introduced next and she announced the winner for Best Liner Notes For Recorded Project. The award was given to Barry Poss & Jay Orr at Sugar Hill Records for the project A Retrospective.

Brown then went on to announce the winner of Best Graphic Design for Recorded Project. The award went to Don Bailey for the design on the Rebel Records release Hillbilly Hemingway, the latest CD from The Mark Newton Band.

Dale Ann Bradley gives a Distinguished Achievement Award to Warren Hellman for his work putting together the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in San Francisco.

Neil Rosenberg was introduced next. He’s presenting the award for Print Media Person of the Year. And the award goes to…wait for it…The Bluegrass Blog!

Next up is Pete Wernick. Pete is on stage to present a Distinguished Achievement Award to Happy and Jane Traum of Homespun Video for their work documenting the legacy of a great many bluegrass master muscians in the form of instructional videos and DVDs.

Lee Michael Dempsy takes the stage to present the award for Bluegrass Broadcaster of the Year to Chris Jones of Sirius Satellite Radio.

Greg Cahil and Jaroslav Prucha, of Prucha Banjos, are presenting a Distinguished Achievement Award to Marko Cermak for his work as a banjo player and artist who has introduced many to bluegrass in the Czech Republic and all of Eastern Europe.

Stan Zdonik in instroduced to present the award for Bluegrass Event of the Year. Festival of the Bluegrass in Lexington, KY is honored with the award this year.

Last up is Rob Ickes presenting a Distinguished Achievement Award to Mike Auldridge for his lifetime of inspiring young musicians to play bluegrass music and the dobro. Rob described Mike’s tone on the instrument as the Holy Grail of modern resophonic guitar players.

John and I have to run to a meeting, but we’ll be back shortly with a set of photos from the luncheon, as well as more coverage of the World of Bluegrass event.