The Dobro Player Of The Year for 2008 is:

Review past recipients of this award.

We have made a few references here on The Bluegrass Blog to the various reactions that have been generated by the “patriotic theme” of last month’s International Bluegrass Music Awards in Nashville. The IBMA Executive Committe made some changes to the content of the show a few days prior to its staging to both alleviate the possibility of offending their non-US members, and to keep the show’s presentation within the guidelines that have existed in the past.

The Board’s requests were ultimately not honored, and then-President David Crow resigned to demonstrate his acceptance of responsibility.

You can find our earlier posts if you would to review what transpired, and what has been said about it.

The IBMA Board of Directors has just issued a statement to the membership which includes their assessment of what happened, and what they mean to do to ensure that the producers of the annual Awards Show have the sort of guidelines and oversight to avoid such occurences going forward.

Speaking just now with IBMA’s Executive Director Dan Hays, he nicely summed up the Board’s position as saying that it “was ‘what do we do about the future?’ and not ‘what do we do about the past?’ ”

As such, the Board statement focuses not on placing blame, but on conciliation and a focus on those things about which everyone in IBMA agrees is important - the continuing furtherance of the music, in the US and throughout the world.

IBMA members will each receive a copy of the statement from the Board by email, and it can also be viewed online.

IBMA has been on our minds, and on this blog a lot recently. Most of that due to the recent World of Bluegrass event held in Nashville, TN recently. Some of the discussion of IBMA though has sprung from the controversy surrounding this year’s award show. Hit the tag for IBMA 2006 Awards above to see those posts. In light of all that attention I thought it might be a good idea to do a little run down of the Board of Directors, who they are, and who they represent.

Remember these people represent us, the membership of IBMA, and should be representing our desires and concerns on the issues the board faces. If you are concerned about the direction IBMA takes in the future, I would strongly urge you to consider joining the IBMA. If you are already a member, I would urge you to find the board member(s) that represent your portion of the industry, contact them and let them know your thoughts. I’m sure they all welcome and appreciate active participation from the membership.

The IBMA board consists of 16 members elected by the professional members of the organization. The board members are elected to 3 year terms on a staggered rotation so that only a limited number are up for election at once. Recently, 5 new board members where elected. The IBMA website describes the board and it’s duties as follows. (more…)

The recent IBMA Awards Show in Nashville resulted in some controversy surrounding the performance of some patriotic material performed by the US Navy Band, Country Current. You’ll find all the details in our previous posts here and here. There is also a very popular post in The B on the topic.

While the controversy had its beginning on sites and email lists dedicated to bluegrass music, the story has now moved into the larger blogosphere. Following coverage in The Tennessean over the weekend, it has now been picked up by sites that don’t normally dedicate much, if any, time to covering bluegrass. Predictibly these bloggers have all taken a stand on the issues involved.

The US Navy Bluegrass band asked not to play service anthems? What was IBMA thinking?

The Sheep’s Crib

…if all 300 international members are offended because the IBMA’s annual event has an American patriotic theme, TOO BAD!

Vanishing American

IBMA, keep PC and leftist politics out of bluegrass

(more…)

This morning’s edition of The Tennessean, Nashville’s primary daily newspaper, has a story about the turmoil that has erupted inside the IBMA leadership over the performance by the US Navy band Country Current during last week’s International Bluegrass Music Awards.

I suppose that any hopes that this story would stay out of the mainstream press are now irrelevant.

The story (by Peter Cooper) can be found on The Tennessean web site.

A number of people have contacted us, asking about the controversy during last week’s International Bluegrass Music Awards, or wondering why we haven’t covered it on The Bluegrass Blog. Both Brance and I were at the show (live blogging backstage), and had the chance to watch the controversy develop, before, during and after the show itself.

There have been strident and emotional reactions to the inclusion of a patriotic-themed presentation during the Awards Show, and it has led to some upheaval within IBMA’s leadership. We have contacted many of the folks directly involved to get their comment, but feel that we need to address it here now.

In a nutshell, what happened is this:

The producers of the show had included two numbers with what was described in an official press release about ten days prior as having a “patriotic theme.” This was to include a song by Rhonda Vincent, and a performance by the US Navy bluegrass band, Country Current. A number of non-US members of IBMA felt that this was adding an inappropriately political tone to the show, and that a salute to the US military was a slight to the notion that IBMA was an international organization. Several US members shared this assessment.

These concerns were conveyed to the IBMA Board, who met with non-US members just days before the show, and amongst themselves to address these concerns. A decision was reached by the Board that the Navy band would be asked to change the song which they had originally been asked to perform - a medley of US military service anthems - and instead perform one of Chief Wayne Taylor’s original songs.

Rhonda’s performance was to go on as planned, with a tribute offered to US service men and women. Several representatives of the various military branches were to join her on stage, standing silently stage left and right, to be spotlighted for recognition during the song.

At the show, Country Current performed the newly-inserted song as per their new agreement with IBMA, but then launched into the service themes as per their original agreement. There is dispute among the principals - chiefly Wayne Taylor and former IBMA President David Crow - over the conversation that followed this performance, and whether the Navy Band had been authorized to include the second song. Crow resigned immediately following the performance.

In a letter to the IBMA membership, he indicated that his resignation should be seen as his assumption of responsibility for having “lied” to the membership in saying that the military anthems medley would be removed, but a subsequent letter suggested that a desire to dedicate more time to his family and legal practice - both rapidly growing - also played a large part in his decision.

There has been no official statement from IBMA about this as yet, but we have asked Executive Director Dan Hays to speak with us about it when he feels it is appropriate.

We are also seeking comment from the show’s producers, Rhonda Vincent’s management and the Navy band. I can’t swear that we can get all the details, but we’ll try, and will report what we can find out.

UPDATE 11:20 a.m.: Jon Weisberger emailed to correct an error he found in this post, to wit that IBMA had made no official statement about this controvery. He passed along a statement that he had sent on Monday to the IBMA member discussion list on behalf of the Executive Committee, posted as coming from Greg Cahill, Stan Zdonik and himself.

“Since the staging of the IBMA’s annual Awards Show on Thursday night, members of the Board of Directors’ Executive Committee have conferred both in person and by telephone to discuss aspects of the show that contravened the Committee’s and the Board’s prior decisions. The Committee views the failure to implement these decisions with deep concern, and is undertaking a timely review of events to establish responsibility for the failure. The results, along with recommendations for appropriate actions, will be communicated as rapidly as possible to the Board for consideration.”

This morning I thought we’d take a look at the IBMA 2006 Awards and compare the actualy winners with the winners of our unofficial poll. Our poll was open to all registered users of The Bluegrass Blog. We’ll start at the top and work our way down.

This year it looks like we only got 7 out of 17 correct in our poll. 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.

Now we return to your regularly scheduled programming.

If you want to check all the coverage of the 2006 IBMA Awards here on The Bluegrass Blog, you can click on the tag with that name that appears just below the title of any related post. This will display the various posts about the Awards show, including photos, on the main page.

The tag reads 2006 IBMA Awards.

Oops… We neglected to post the list of IBMA’s Special Award winners, which were announced and distributed at a luncheon here in Nashville on Thursday afternoon.

Distinguished Achievement Awards were also given to:

Here are the rest of the photos from last night’s Awards Show.

Photos by Tami Roth © 2006

Vince Gill with The Del McCoury Band	Del McCoury and Vince Gill	Rhonda Vincent	Joe Wheatley, Country Current
Frank Solivan II, Country Current	Tim O’Brien accepts as Male Vocalist	Marty Stuart improvises when the audio goes out	The Grascals with Steve Wariner
Jamie Johnson, Terry Smith and Terry Eldridge	Darrell Adkins accepts Album Of The Year Award	Marty Stuart	Bobby Osborne and Marty Stuart
Sonya Isaacs and Ronnie Bowman	Vince Gill announces the Entertainer of the Year	The Grascals accept as Entertainer for 2006	Lewis Family tribute

Here is part one of our photo overview of last night’s International Bluegrass Music Awards from The Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville. Click any photo to see a larger version, which will also allow you to page through the whole gallery.

Photos by Tami Roth © 2006

Kim, Barb and Joel Fox open the show with The Star Spangled Banner	Cherryholmes	Cia Cherryholmes	2006 host Marty Stuart welcomes the audience
Ricky Skaggs with the Nashville String Machine	Claire Lynch	Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver accept Gospel Award	Ricky Skaggs accepts Instrumental Group
Curly Seckler and Larry Sparks	Dixie Hall, Lorraine Jordan and Dale Ann Bradley accept Recorded Event	2005 Instrumental Performers of the Year	Adam Steffey
Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver	Kenny and Amanda Smith announce Female Vocalist	Rhonda Vincent accepts Female Vocalist Award	The Del McCoury Band

Entertainer Of The Year

This award is for a performing act who displayed the greatest competence in all aspects of the entertainment field. Voters should give consideration to recorded and in-person performance, public acceptance, attitude, leadership, and over-all contributions to the bluegrass music image. The award goes to member(s) of the performing act.

The Entertainer Of The Year for 2006 is:

Review past recipients of this award.

Award for an outstanding recorded performance by an artist or artists, first commercially released during the specified time period (Award to artist(s), producer, and label).

The Album Of The Year for 2006 is:

Review past recipients of this award.

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 2006 is:

Review past recipients of this award.

Male Vocalist Of The Year

Award for the outstanding male vocalist based on recorded and in-person performance. The award goes to the individual.

The Male Vocalist Of The Year for 2006 is:

Review past recipients of this award.

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. The awards go to the artists.

The Mandolin Player Of The Year for 2006 is:

Review past recipients of this award.

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

The Vocal Group Of The Year for 2006 is:

Review past recipients of this award.

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. The awards go to the artists.

The Guitar Player Of The Year for 2006 is:

Review past recipients of this award.

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. The awards go to the artists.

The Bass Player Of The Year for 2006 is:

Review past recipients of this award.

The award for the outstanding female vocalist based on recorded and in-person performance. The award goes to the individual.

The Female Vocalist Of The Year for 2006 is:

Review past recipients of this award.