Country rocker Scott Marshall of Allentown rode herd on through the 13th Lehigh Valley Music Awards on Sunday night, lassoing an event-high five awards, including Entertainer of the Year.
Marshall's quick arrival as the night's big winner was like something out of a western movie. He had his first and only previous LVMA last year with his band The Hillbilly Souls for Best Punkabilly/Rockabilly.
On Sunday, he had a repeat win for that, as well as Best Lyricist, the fans ballot's Best Singer/Songwriter and Best Original Song for "Everyday I Believe." He sang the song early in the event as a tribute to event guest Adam Recke, 12 , who has the rare, terminal disease Niemann Pick Type C.
Soul Shaker Artist Management
The awards were among 26 industry awards, 52 fan-voted awards and 14 special citations handed out in the 31/2 -hour ceremony, held at Musikfest Café at ArtsQuest Center at SteelStacks in Bethlehem. Last year, no act won more than three awards.
"I'm blessed and very thankful," Marshall said. "I believe God gave me a gift to write songs about life, and I believe we're supposed to edify others with our gifts.
"I'm blessed that God gave me the talent, and in my hometown there are people who appreciate it. It tells me in my heart and soul I must be doing something right."
Marshall had been nominated for three other awards. He lost Best Male Vocalist to Jarrett Rollins of the band Crazyheart – the group to which The Hillbilly Souls also lost Best Country Band Live. Crazyheart now has won the award for at least the past nine years. Rollins also won Best Entertaining Duo with Bonnie Rollins.
Beating out Marshall and The Hillbilly Souls for Best Original Band was Groovitude, in a tie with Psych. Groovitude also won Best teenage band or soloist (not associated with an organization or school) for the second year in a row, and Best Overall CD for "Wildfire."
Groovitude was the only other act besides Marshall and Conklin to individually win more than two awards. Popular cover band The Large Flowerheads won for Best Cover Band and the top band category, Best Entertaining Band, and its drummer, Maureen "Mo" Jerant tied for Best Drummer.
Gospel singer Ian Holmes, a former "American Idol" contestant, won for Best Male Vocalist on the industry ballot, and Best Gospel/Contemporary Christian Music Soloist. His Holmes Family group won for Best Christian Band, and his sister, Kari, from that band tied for Best Spoken Word.
Blues man James Supra continued the awards' only unbroken streak of wins in a category, winning Best Harmonica honor for the 13th year in a row.
Conklin actually won the night's first four awards, and won every category for which she was nominated.
For Best Blues Vocalist, she beat Sarah Ayers, who started performing again after a year off for throat surgery. Before the year hiatus, Ayers had won 24 awards in three years, and won the industry's Best Female Vocalist at least seven years in a row.
"I'm just so amazed," Conklin said. "The Lehigh Valley Music Awards truly wants to bring out the best talent in the Lehigh Valley. Tonight I've seen more and more artists I never knew existed. This is the best of the best. I'm so amazed, I had forgotten I was even nominated."
Conklin also brought Domina on stage and asked the audience to give her a standing ovation, which they did.
Longtime favorite Steve Brosky won Best Singer/songwriter on the industry ballot. Best New Artist went to 5 Ton Jack.
Beating out Marshall and The Hillbilly Souls for Best Original Band was Groovitude, in a tie with Psych. Groovitude also won Best teenage band or soloist (not associated with an organization or school) for the second year in a row, and Best Overall CD for "Wildfire."
Groovitude was the only other act besides Marshall and Conklin to individually win more than two awards. Popular cover band The Large Flowerheads won for Best Cover Band and the top band category, Best Entertaining Band, and its drummer, Maureen "Mo" Jerant tied for Best Drummer.
Gospel singer Ian Holmes, a former "American Idol" contestant, won for Best Male Vocalist on the industry ballot, and Best Gospel/Contemporary Christian Music Soloist. His Holmes Family group won for Best Christian Band, and his sister, Kari, from that band tied for Best Spoken Word.
Blues man James Supra continued the awards' only unbroken streak of wins in a category, winning Best Harmonica honor for the 13th year in a row.
Conklin actually won the night's first four awards, and won every category for which she was nominated.
For Best Blues Vocalist, she beat Sarah Ayers, who started performing again after a year off for throat surgery. Before the year hiatus, Ayers had won 24 awards in three years, and won the industry's Best Female Vocalist at least seven years in a row.
"I'm just so amazed," Conklin said. "The Lehigh Valley Music Awards truly wants to bring out the best talent in the Lehigh Valley. Tonight I've seen more and more artists I never knew existed. This is the best of the best. I'm so amazed, I had forgotten I was even nominated."
Conklin also brought Domina on stage and asked the audience to give her a standing ovation, which they did.
Longtime favorite Steve Brosky won Best Singer/songwriter on the industry ballot. Best New Artist went to 5 Ton Jack.
Viral marketing campaign brings national attention to Bangor-based rock band, Stasis
Thursday, December 16, 2010
By ADAM RICHTER
The Express-Times
The album "Believe" by Bangor-based rock band Stasis might have been just another CD by just another local act when it was released without much fanfare in April.
Instead, it could be the band's springboard to national renown.
The band kicked off a "Billboard or Bust" marketing campaign two months ago to renew interest in "Believe." It has been anything but a bust. On Tuesday, the album peaked at No. 37 on Amazon.com's top 100 rock mp3 downloads and No. 102 on the iTunes chart.
"This thing has a fire under it and it left a trail in its wake," Stasis drummer Sean Montross said Wednesday.
He spent most of Tuesday checking the computer to see where "Believe" was on the charts.
"It felt like Election Day to us," he said.
The day of high album sales was no coincidence. The members of Stasis made a concerted, two-month effort to get people to buy "Believe" on Dec. 14 and, with any luck, it will show up on the Billboard Heatseekers chart. They made promotional videos and warned people via their website not to buy "Believe" until Tuesday. The campaign also involved spreading the word through Facebook, Montross said.
"We reached out to probably about 3,000 people individually," he said.
The band wanted a shot at Billboard's Heatseekers chart, which tracks popular albums by artists who've never appeared in the upper half of the Billboard 200 list. It's too early to see if they'll make that chart, just as the band doesn't know how many albums they've actually sold this week.
As of Wednesday afternoon, "Believe" slipped to No. 75 on Amazon, behind Neil Young's "Ragged Glory" still ahead of Skillet's "Awake," which has been in the Top 100 for 476 days.
"Regardless of the actual numbers, we are selling more albums than some lesser-known bands, like The Who and Led Zeppelin," manager John Paul DeBard said.
DeBard, owner of Soul Shaker Records in Lower Saucon Township, signed on as the band's manager two months ago and helped organize the "Billboard or Bust" campaign.
"What I saw from Stasis was, they're fantastic as far as the music goes. But they weren't able to properly market things," he said.
DeBard said the campaign to shoot up the billboard list isn't a gimmick. So far, it's worked. Montross said a representative from Island/Def Jam Records plans to be in the audience for a Stasis show Saturday in New York City.
In the meantime, they're just enjoying the thrill of seeing "Believe" climb the charts.
"This was one of the most exciting days in my career as a musician," Montross said.
