E2TG 2018 Artists and Bands of the Year (Final 2018 Post)

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Here's a little truth for you: periodically, I have moments of doubt about continuing to do E2TG.  It usually gets worse toward the end of the year. Truth is, E2TG takes up a fair amount of my time, and I time is often in limited supply. So, when money gets tight or time gets tight or mercury is in retrograde or whatever, I find myself thinking, maybe now is the time to call it quits.

Then comes December and for the last three years the Earie Awards. To me it was just a silly idea and a way to recap the year, but I have found it means something to many of the recipients. and the responses I have gotten have been very affirming of what I do.

About the money thing: about four years ago, I took a look at if it would be possible to make E2TG a money-making endeavor. I came to the conclusion that I could not do it and have E2TG be what I want it to be.  This is not say that anyone doing what I do who makes money is doing something wrong. Some of my decision was based on my situation.  Anyway, the advantage about it not being about money means I can truly do what I want to do. Which is help bring attention to great music - much of which may fly under the radar.

Since 2014, there has been more of a local Nashville connection, but I have made a point of also featuring music from all over the world.  The fact is, there is likely enough music here in Nashville to sustain a blog, but to me, putting such a limitation would be constricting.

Prior to 2014, to be honest, I was not at all connected to the Nashville music community, and E2TG reflected that as the majority of my posts were about non-Nashville bands.

Which brings us to the Artists and Bands of the Year award - or like I have dubbed them - the Golden Earies.

Some history (skip if you know about the history of E2TG Band/Artist of the Year):

When  E2TG began in May 2011, I had to go out find bands to write about. I would pick one band every week to write about as our "Band of the Week". When the end of 2011 came, I had a list of 30 something Bands of the Week. I got this silly idea to run a "Readers Poll" to select a Band of the Year. It was silly because I honestly didn't have many "Readers" to poll.  So, I ran the poll, and people responded. My page views shot up, it was a tight race, but the poll software I used was pretty wide open and there was some definitely ballot stuffing. Anyway, a band from UK The Mobbs were the winner. 

The Band of the Year as so much fun, I got a better program for running a poll, and I started the Band of the Month poll - this ran for about a year. At the end of 2012, all 12 Bands of the Month plus some Wildcards competed for the Band of the Year.  A great Upstate New York band called Skeletons in the Piano won that award.  By early 2013, I was burned out on the polls. Basically, I didn't want bands expending energy trying to get fans to vote in a silly poll. So, I stopped the polls. For a while, I had Featured Artists every month.  And at the end of 2013, I named then Brooklyn band, The End Men as Band of the Year.

2014 was a year of upheaval in my life and a transition for E2TG. At the end of that year, there was no question that Darrin Bradbury would be Artist of the Year.  It was equally obvious in 2015 that Jon Latham was the choice for Artist of the Year. 

 E2TG continued to grow and expands. 2016 came and I simply could not select one Band or Artist. So, I decided to name 3 - Band of the Year and Artists of the Year - divided between Nashville and non-Nashville.  Brian Wright and Jason P. Krug were named Artists of the Year (Nashville and non-Nashville respectively). Valued Customer from Toronto won Band of the Year. d

Last year, I expanded the award again to 4 (Bands and Artists of the Year - Nashville and non):  Rayvon Pettis and Ladies Gun Club won for Nashville Artist and Band, and Ugggy (of Valued Customer) and The Foresters (won for non-Nashville).  

End of history lesson:

Which brings to the present (or recent past). 2018 was a year of unprecedented growth for E2TG in terms of the number of artists and bands we featured.  In keeping with our new tradition, for the second year in a row, we have four awards (in the categories explained above and below). There is not one factor that leads me to this decision - rather it is a combination of things.

So, without any more ado - here are the 2018 Golden Earie Awards:

E2TG 2017 Finale: Bands and Artists of the Year

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Well, as promised, I am back from my long break one last time for 2017 to announce the 2017 Artists and Bands of the Year.

A brief history (you can skip this part if your read/heard this before - but there may be some new nugget of information).

E2TG officially started in May 2011.  Before that, I had been posting my morning shuffles on Facebook (and sometimes Twitter) for about two years. With encouragement, I decided to turn that into a blog. In the very early days, my shuffles were mostly older songs from my collection along with some more recent "discoveries" - mostly somewhat mainstream indie music. I knew I wanted E2TG to be more that that, but I wasn't sure where to begin. When you start a new music blog - artists and bands typically don't start sending you music right away.

I began to notice that bands that I had never heard of started following me on Twitter. I decided to give some of them a listen, and lo and behold, some of them were good.  So, I came up with the idea of posting about a band every week and calling it the Twitter Band of the Week - this eventually was shortened to Band of the Week to reflect the different ways I got music.

When I got to the end of 2011, I realized a had named thirty something "Bands of the Week" (in those early days it seemed to be mostly bands and even when it was a solo artist - I just stuck with the generic name).  Anyway, on a lark, I decided to have a Band of the Year Readers Poll (it was half tongue in cheek - because I didn't have a huge readership by that point - a few loyal readers). It turned out to be great fun and did draw a lot of people to the site.  In the end, a band from England called The Mobbs attracted a large late turnout and won the crown. Ubiquity Machine came in second (Howard Rabach of UM was probably my first reader that I didn't already know). 

The poll was so much fun that I decided to start a Band of the Month Poll.  All of the Bands of the Week would compete,  The first few months were fun. I think it was January or February of 2012, there was an epic battle between The End Men and MAKAR that was especially fun. At the end of 2012, I had twelve Bands of the Month - I added a few "Wild Card" selections and the second Band of the Year was held in December of 2012.  Skeletons in the Piano from Upstate New York won that,

By 2013, the monthly polls stopped being so much fun, and I started realizing that it drew attention away from the music a little. Also, the number of artists I started find grew so that featuring just one per week was not enough. So I moved to Featured Artists of the Month (usually ten per month).

When I reached the end of 2013, I decided to forgo the year end poll, and just name my Band of the Year. Brooklyn's The End Men were the obvious and deserving choice. They were, at the time, the most tagged artist on my blog (they are still second), and I loved and love their music.

In 2014, my life turned upside down, and in the midst of that I met Darrin Bradbury and subsequently began to get more connected to Nashville's music community which was undergoing a major renaissance. I don't think anyone who read E2TG back then was a bit surprised when I named Darrin Artist of the Year. (It didn't make sense to call him a "Band of the Year" - because he was mostly playing solo at that point).

Darrin introduced me to Jon Latham, and by the spring of 2015, I was pretty well set on naming Jon the Artist of the Year (in fact Darrin recommended him for the award), Then, he released his debut album Real Bad News and that sealed the deal.

By 2016, I was fully entrenched in the Nashville music community and was getting a ton more great music from all over the country. I was having a hard time deciding upon a Band or Artist of the Year (so many worthy choices). In the end, I got the idea of having a Band and an Artist of the Year, and furthermore I picked two Artists of the Year - one from Nashville and one not from Nashville. I tried to be clear about the fact that this was not intended to be seen a local vs. national/international distinction. It merely reflected that while Nashville had begun to kind of dominate E2TG - I wasn't nor did I intend to be just a "Nashville Music Blog".  I named Valued Customer Band of the Year - I had been following them for years and their Hugecup album was a remarkable achievement.  Jason P. Krug was named Artist of the Year - non-Nashville. Following the demise of Grimm Generation - a long-time E2TG fave, he released his masterpiece - a meditation on loss called Zen of Losing.  Brian Wright was named Artist of the Year - Nashville.  He made great music - both solo and backing ALT - Live, and he co-founded a new record company - Cafe Rooster Records.

Which brings us to 2017.  For E2TG - 2017 was a year of growth, and I think that is reflected in the list of close to 100 Earie Awards that I handed out - a list that included some well-known national and international acts which I was able to feature - along with the lesser known but awesome bands and artists who continue to be the primary focus of E2TG.
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You can start reading again if you skipped the history lesson

Without further ado, here are the 2017 E2TG Bands and Artists of the Year!

E2TG 2016 Band/Artist(s) of the Year

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First of all thanks again and congratulations to all of the 2016 "Earies" and because of who I am - apologies for all of the unintentional omissions that I will think about later today or tomorrow....

If you have Spotify, I have created an 800+ Playlist featuring the "Earie" Winners. If that link doesn't work, I will share it on Facebook later.  Also, just a reminder - following or saving or "downloading" an album on Spotify is not a substitute for buying the damn album - also I wish Spotify would pay the artists more..  There!

Since we have a bunch of new readers, I will share a history of the award (if you've heard/read this you may skip this next few paragraphs):

Although this is only the second year of the "Earie" Awards, the Band/Artist of the Year Award goes back to the very beginning of E2TG.  In the beginning was the Band of the Week designation. Basically, in those early days, I often had to go out and find bands to write about - often it was someone who followed me on Twitter.  I was knew that recurring features was a thing with blogging so I started naming a "Band of the Week" (at that time they were almost all bands and not solo acts).

When I reached the end of 2011, I had named 30+ Bands of the Week, and on a lark, I thought it would be a hoot to have a Readers Poll to name Band of the Year.  This was supposed to be ironic in a way because I really didn't have many readers back then - you know who you are if you were among them).

Well, the poll was a ton of fun.  Don Ryan finished third, Ubiquity Machine (my friend and OG reader Howard's band) were second, and a band from the UK called The Mobbs rallied late to take the title.

Well, the Band of Year poll was so much fun that I decided to start having a Band of the Month poll.  Eventually, the Band of the Week designation gave way to the "Featured Artists" designation. The Band of the Month Poll went well at first.  And at the end of 2012, all of my Bands of the Month plus some Wildcards competing for Band of the Year.  That year, Skeletons in the Piano (from Upstate New York) took the prize.

Eventually, I grew tired of the polls - I realized some bands cared too much about polls and some didn't care enough... blah, blah, blah... anyway, music should not be about competition, I don't think.  So, when the end of 2013 rolled around, I decided that E2TG was no longer a democracy and I made the unilateral decision to award The Band of the Year distinction to The End Men - who were and are one of my favorite bands ever. Like many of us, 2016 presented some challenges, but they are vowing more ROCK in 2017!

My world kind of imploded in 2014 and my life and the direction of E2TG was forever altered. In the midst of that chaos, I was introduced to the music and person of one Darrin Bradbury.  In 2014, I probably saw him play an average to 2-3 times every week, and to be honest, the was not much doubt in my mind from early in the year that if E2TG survived the chaos that Darrin would be my Artist of the Year.  We did survive and he won the award, and it is a decision I have never once regretted.

In 2015, I watched the rise of Jon Latham culminating in the release of Real Bad News.  It became clear early one that he was front-runner for Artist of the Year (Darrin lobbied hard for him), and his star-making guest slot at the AMA kickoff in September 2015 sealed the deal,  If you have been paying attention in 2016, you will understand that naming Jon Latham Artist of the Year made me look downright prophetic.  If you don't know yet, stayed tuned for "Lifers" which is set for release early in this new year...

Which brings us to 2016.  2016 brought amazing opportunities, personal challenges, and a shit-ton of great music.  So much incredible music - both exploding out of East Nashville and from all over the world, that I could not even keep up.  To be honest, I have had a hard time picking an "ARTIST OF THE YEAR" and it not from worthy candidates but contrarily it is from so many worthy candidates... so after the jump... see what I have decided....