Independent Blues Award Nominations Open for 2022!

September 21, 2021

IMPORTANT!!

PLEASE READ BEFORE YOU ENTER ANY NOMINATIONS

The independent Blues Awards celebrate the diversity and power of the music that is created by those artists that acknowledge their inspiration and roots are in the blues. These awards will represent not only those “touring” artists who work within the established blues community, but embrace working artists who work in other markets but still acknowledge and honor their roots in the blues.

Nomination process

The nominations are an open process! Artists, Fans, Record Companies, etc all can submit an artist or band for nomination consideration. You may nominate any artist or CD in multiple categories, but you must submit a separate entry for each category.
There is NO COST involved to the artist. In this digital age there is no reason to request massive amounts of CD’s from an artist’s inventory. We can use dropbox, WeTransfer, Spotify, Pandora, Reverbnation or any freely available streaming service so our nominators can listen and evaluate the nominated artists and their work.
1. NOTE: It is essential that a nominated artist’s is available on a streaming service or makes their work available as a dropbox link download or both. If you send a dropbox link you will also be considered for inclusion to “LIVE from the Midnight Circus” radio show and a possible featured interview.
Once the open nominations are closed the artists who are qualified will be passed onto our Nomination Committee which will consist of music industry professionals, radio programmers and DJ’s who will represent a wide variety of genres. They will evaluate the entries and choose artists that best represents each category for them. They will submit their picks to Making a Scene where committee nominations will be compiled and the final list of nominated artists will be created for each category.
The Nominations will run from September 21, 2021 to January 15, 2022 The nomination committee will evaluate the entries and return the results to Making A Scene by April 15 2022. Public voting will begin on May 15 2022 and close on August 1 2022. The results will be published on August 15, 2022.
The final nominated artists will be presented as an open vote on “www.makingascene.org” and all winners will be determined by that final vote. The voting page will contain links and relevant streaming media for each nominee so every person who wants to cast a vote will have the opportunity to explore each nominated artists and their work.
All decisions by “Making a Scene” will be Final.

Qualifications:

In order to be fair to all submitting artist we have established a base set of qualifications that will be used to determine which artists will move forward to the nomination committee. Please read these carefully. All decisions by Making a Scene are final.

The nominated artists/bands must show they are “Working and Touring” artists by establishing they have no less than 4 gigs outside a 200 Mile radius of their home town within the last 12 months.
The Nominated artists/bands must represent on their website/social media that they acknowledge the blues as their foundation in the creation of their music. This does not mean that they have to adhere to any artificial definition of what is blues, as we acknowledge the true power of the genre is in it’s diversity. It does not matter what Genre you market yourself under, as long as you acknowledge your music or you as a musician is rooted in or takes your inspiration from the blues.
All Release entries should have been released between January 1, 2021 to December 31, 2021 for nomination and contain no less than 75% original material. A release is defined as 6 or more songs compiled together as a “body of work”.
Best new artist CD submissions should represent a band that has 4 or less Commercial/Independent releases under their current artist name.
All Song Submissions must submit the name(s) of writer(s) of the work if different than the artist.

Any entry that does not fulfill the qualifications listed above will be disqualified and not be considered for nomination.

Categories:

Independent Blues Release Awards
1. Best Acoustic Blues Release – These works represent music that are performed with exclusively with non electrified instruments such as Acoustic guitars, Drums, Upright Bass, Piano, etc.
2. Best Contemporary Blues Release – These works represent music that is representative of artist who are working within the current blues market that are creating music that represents new contemporary blues.
3. Best Traditional Blues Release – These works represent music that is created in the form and tradition of the blues artist that have come before.
4. Best R&B/Soul Release – These works represent music in the form of “Rhythm and Blues” and “Soul”
5. Best Funk Release – These works represent music in the form of Funk.
6. Best Blues Rock Release – These works represent music based in blues rock
7. Best Modern Roots Release – These works represent music by artists who work outside the blues genre but was inspired by or has its foundation in Blues.
8. Best LIVE Release – These works represent music that was performed and recorded in a LIVE setting in front of an audience.
9. Best New Artist Release – These works represent music being created by artists who are breaking into the genre with exemplary works.
10. Best Independent Blues Release of the Year – The work from an artist or band from all the above categories that receives the largest vote count will in addition to their individual category receive this honor.
Independent Blues Artist Awards
1. Best Blues Male Artist – These Artists Tour and Record as an individual under their own name
2. Best Blues Female Artist – These Artists Tour and Record as an individual under their own name
3. Best Band Traditional Blues – These Artists represent Bands or artists who are performing Traditional Blues
4. Best Band Blues Rock – These bands represent Bands or artists who are performing Blues Rock
5. Best Band Modern Roots – These bands Represent music by artists who are working outside the blues genre but take their inspiration or are rooted in the blues
6. Best Band Contemporary Blues – These Bands Tour and Record in the blues circuit but are creating New Blues
7. Best New Artist – These artists and Bands represent the future of (indie) Blues.
8. Independent Blues Artist of the Year – The artist or band from all the above categories that receives the largest vote count will in addition to their individual category receive this honor.
Independent Blues Artist Honors
1. Gateway Artist – This represent artists who have created a world-wide recognized brand and fan base, either inside or outside the blues genre, that through their music, performances and respect for the blues, inspire their fans to explore blues both historical and contemporary.
2. Best LIVE Stream Performance – With the shutdown of the Gig Economy, Live stage shows have come to a complete standstill. In keeping with the reality that is facing the indie artists, the “Stage Performance” award is now the “Live Stream Performance” Award. This Award will Recognize the Best Live stream Experience from an artist.
3. Best Content Provider – As artists have been removed from the road, the new reality is in content creation. We belive the future success of an indie artists is going to be in the art of content creation, branding and social media Fan connection. This does not necessarily have to be 100% music related but their content should be part of their funnel marketing bringing you to their music and their art.
4. Road Warrior Award – We are bringing this category back as artist start to get back to touring and performing live!
5. Best LIVE Stream Performance – This is for those artists who have mastered the art of creating a LIVE stream experiance that maintain both a techincal (sound quality and Video Quality) and musical hight standard.
6. Producer of the Year – Artists, Producers and Engineers that help shape the sound of recorded music. These individuals help guide the artist in the studio to achieve the sound and vibe the brings their music to life. We added this category to honor these essential partners behind the scenes.
Independent Blues Song Awards – Sometimes the most important aspect of the genre can go un-noticed, the song. The foundation to any genre is the songs and those who write them.
1. Best Traditional Blues Song – A current original Song that is written in the form of traditional blues
2. Best R&B/Soul Song – A Current original Song that is written in the form of a R&B or Soul style
3. Best Funk Song – A Current original song that is written in the form of Funk.
4. Best Contemporary Blues Song – A current original song that represents new (indie) blues
5. Best Blues Rock Song – A current original song that is written in the form blues rock
6. Best Modern Roots Song – A current original song created by artists who work outside the blues genre but is inspired or rooted in the blues.
7. Song of the Year – The artist or band from all the above categories that receives the largest vote count will in addition to their individual category receive this honor.
Independent Blues Song Honors Awards
1. Best Song for the Social Good – A current original song that aims to enlighten and inspire the listener to action for the common good or brings awareness to a social condition. (ie: songs for the homeless, Environment, hunger, etc)
2. Best Music Video – A current original song and production video that has it’s roots in the blues.