Indie Acoustic Project 2009 World Music Winners Announced

The Indie Acoustic Project (IAP) announced the winners of the IAP’s “Best CDs of 2009” Awards. The winners in each of 12 categories were selected from among the 3 finalists in each category. Congo’s Staff Benda Bilili’s Tres Tres Fort won the World Music—Africa award and Marta Topferova’s Trova won in the World Music—Eurasia category. Bluegrass musician Alison Brown won the Instrumental award for her latest work, The Company You Keep.

“It is the position of the IAP that all of the 36 CDs selected as finalists were in fact the 36 Best CDs of 2009,” said the IAP press release. “Accordingly, it was extremely difficult to determine the “winner” for each category, as all of the finalist CDs were outstanding in their own rights. But, since our award process is (loosely) modeled on the Oscar and Grammy Awards, a winner is expected to be chosen. Picking a winner also makes it easier to publicize the musicians: most publications are more likely to make note of 12 CDs winning an award than they are to write an article announcing all 36 finalists.

The process for determining the finalists was difficult enough: the finalists were selected from the ever-growing multitudes of CDs considered for the awards. As always, the quality of the CDs submitted was terrific, leading to the only major problem we faced: because there were far more than 36 excellent CDs (and only 36 finalist slots), many deserving recordings could not be included.”

The Indie Acoustic Project is dedicated to giving recognition to outstanding works of innovative acoustic (or mainly acoustic) music.

Winners:

Acoustic Ensemble

Wailin Jennys – Live at the Mauch Chunk Opera House (Red House)

Instrumental

Alison Brown – The Company You Keep (Compass)

Latin

Miguel Espinoza – Guitarra En Mano (Mountain Music River)

Lyrics

Jonathan Coulton – Best. Concert. Ever. (What Are)

Multi-Genre

Beyond the Pale – Postcards (Borealis)

Progressive Edge

Elliott Brood – Mountain Meadows (Six Shooter)

Rock

Ariana Gillis – To Make It Make Sense (Self-produced)

Roots

Michael Martin – Murphy Buckaroo Blue Grass (Rural Rhythm)

Singer-Songwriter—Female

Daiqing Tana – Silent Sky (Wind)

Singer-Songwriter—Male

Chris Velan – Solidago (New Song)

World Music—Africa

Staff Benda Bilili – Tres Tres Fort (Crammed)

World Music—Eurasia

Marta Topferova – Trova (World Village)

More information at www.indieacoustic.com.