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The Winners Weight In
Taking a cross selection of multiple musical
winners this year including keyboardist Dan 'Swivel' Sliwinski of
Count 'n Change/Swiv's Big Organ Band fame, country vocalist Laurie
Middlebrook, Jedi Mind Trip's time-keeper Bill Silverthorn,
guitarist Darin Scott, Muddy Gumbo's all-area percussionist
Earl (Squirrel) Tiffin, Billy and The Beertones guitarist Bob
Hausler, and all-style drummer Mark Dault, the Review has
been able to gather feedback on the year, the Awards show, performing, and the
one thing they all wanted to discuss - the Shooter's two-stage show
this year.
When it comes to live performance, these seven
veteran artists have dedicated many years to defining their craft and they all
have had a chance at one point or another to showcase it during a Review
Awards show. This year all the mentioned artists were at the event either
checking out the show or performing during the event.
"I enjoyed playing," said Sliwinski, who
performed during the Blues portion of the event. "It was fun. I thought the
music was good, from what I could hear of what I could hear."
"I think I liked it nicer when it was an all under one roof type deal," added the keyboardist. "I think if (Bob Martin) was going to run two stages, he should have had them run side by side so that one could keep going with the other, that way people wouldn't have to move out of their seat to go from one spot to the next. If (they) were like me, I was trying to catch all the acts which means you had to do some hustling around to make it happen."
" I didn't like the two stage thing," said
Silverthorn, who also performed at the event during the Nick Andros/Poke
tribute. "I think the show has to be done on one collective stage, just for
the basic fact that like when Muddy Gumbo was playing, there was a choir
performing in the other side and you could hear both. I guess when we were
playing you could hear us over top of Like Water Drum & Dance. And we
could hear the drum thing - I wanted to see the drum thing! When everybody's
in the same room, you've got a captive audience."
"On the other hand, I like the variety of
talent that they had there," added Silverthorn. "I thought that was great -
the vastness of it. The Like Water Drum and Dance I thought was cool, the
Vocalocity Choir thing was decent. The overall
feel of it was good. I just wish it would have been on one stage so I could
have caught it all."
For Middlebrook, who was a spectator during the
evening, she found herself busy moving between the stages.
"I liked it better when it was one stage," said the winning Country Songwriter of the Year. "It was more of a show. I was going back and forth. One guy was trying to talk and you'd hear the other stage."
For Tiffin who performed, as well as spectators
Scott and Dault who both only caught the second half of the evening, they all
thought the show was an overall positive step forward for the Review Awards
showcase.
"I think the two stages worked out a little
better than everybody thought," said Tiffin. "It was nice not to have any
down time, but it was also kind of a bad thing to make a choice about where
you wanted to be all the time."
"I thought it went good," said Dault. "I wasn't
there the whole night, but I was there for the Blues Awards. I missed the Jazz
Awards and some of the Country Awards. It was hard to focus your attention on
two stages at once."
"I thought it was a nice place to have it,"
added Dault. " I didn't know which stage to stand by (and that was) my only
dilemma. I was trying to focus my attention on both stages at the same time
and that's not a bad problem to have. I thought it was pretty cool."
"I loved it," added Scott. "I thought it was
great. I told Bob it gets better every year. The problems I had was that one
room (Stage 1) where Al was doing sound has a big ceiling and a metal roof and
it was just hard to sound good there. But overall it was a great experience."
When it comes to the Review Awards, the support
for each other in the community of musicians and thankfulness to Bob Martin
for continuously hosting the event both put a cherry on top for the award
winners.
"Country Songwriter was the one that I wanted,"
said an excited Middlebrook. "I've been writing all year. It's improved over
the years (and) I won it last year. It's cool when people, after they buy the
album, come out to see us and sing the words to your songs. It's a good
feeling."
"I enjoy being nominated more than winning,
kind of," said Tiffin. "I enjoy when the nomination process comes out even
better then when the actual winners are announced. I think because on the
nomination process it's a blank palate. Everybody gets to vote straight open
and when it comes to the final round, it's multiple choice."
en it comes to the final round, I think that's
when it becomes a little more of a popularity contest," added the
percussionist.
"We got a Count 'n the Change award and
then I got a Blues Keyboardist," said Sliwinski. "I know it depends on the
people that vote. I'm grateful for that."
For Silverthorn, he doesn't push the voting of
the awards on anyone, so it is always a welcome surprise to him. "I don't
solicit votes so it makes me feel really good," he said.
Dault echoed Silverthorn's comments.
"It makes me feel really good. It's nice to
know that people appreciate what I'm trying to do."
The same went for Scott. "I'm just kind of humbled and honored that somebody would take the time to vote for me," he expressed. "I'm just happy to be able to make a living doing this. It's nice when you get validation from other people."
The nominations were particularly touching for
Hausler.
"I feel terrific to be nominated," he said.
"Our peers are to be admired. I don't think it's about winning or losing an
award. It's about being part of the community of terrific musicians. Being
nominated in Country Male Vocalist, and I don't consider myself a vocalist,
but to be nominated with Jeff Walikangas and John Grundner was
more of an honor than anything I've ever been nominated for. And my Dad knew
about it before he passed away. That meant everything to me."
"Last year we were more of a country band,"
added Hausler when asked about Billy & the Beertones nabbing Best
Country Band honors. "This past year we were more of a blues band. We really
don't play much country anymore. We thought that Laurie's band should have won
that category. We haven't focused on being country (like they have). We
respect other bands that were nominated that were focused on their roots."
The fact that so many bands have a hard time
being categorized was another thing that many of the artists mentioned while
being interviewed, including Sliwinski, who isn't sure how to categorize rock
at all anymore.
And with the amount of votes for the theater
performance of Smokey Joe's Café and the pit musicians for the show,
many of the artists took note for possible future reference.
"Theater should be in there," said Dault. "When I was in high school, I started doing pit orchestras myself. I gained a lot of experience myself being in pit orchestras. Plus it definitely plays a big roll in music around here."
"I was anxious to hear who won the Best Big
Band," he commented. "They used to have one. “There's not very many big bands,
but I would definitely keep it in there.
"With all the humbleness of being award
winners, every artist interviewed expressed much gratitude towards the Review
and Bob Martin for the 18 years worth of Review Awards.
"I think it's a great thing that Bob does,"
said Hausler. "We're just sincerely thankful Bob does this. The fact that
there is an awards ceremony at all is a real tribute to the community and Bob
specifically."
"Bob Martin's done so much for us," added
Middlebrook. "I really appreciate that he continues to do this banquet for
the musicians. I thank Bob for all the hard work he's put in over the years."
For Scott, he feels there should have been one
more award given at the event.
"Bob Martin's done a great job for music ever since the Review's been around," said the guitarist. "I think sometime we should get an award for him for all the contributions he has made to music in this area."
(Click to enlarge any of the above pictures) |
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