Nominees for the 2nd annual Lexington Music Awards

Nominations are out in 31 categories for the second annual Lexington Music Awards, Jan. 31 at the Lyric Theatre and Cultural Arts Center.

For the second time around, event founder David McLean says he did achieve one of his major goals: getting more participation in the nominating process.

“Over twice as many votes!” McLean said of the nominations. “We had a lot more participation in each category. That said, I’d still like to see more people voting across categories, more votes in general, and closer to an equal number of votes in each category.”

The categories range from best male and female vocalists to behind-the-scenes awards like best live sound tech.

The nominations were culled from a public popular vote. The intention was to have three nominees in each category, though McLean said some categories were so close there are four nominees. Next up, the nominees will vote to pick the winners in each category. Later this month, the awards will announce the five recipients of its lifetime achievement awards.

As for the Jan. 31 ceremony, hosted by WLEX –TV’s Bill Meck and Angie Beavin, McLean promises, “A stunning, educational, and eclectic mix of music performances, with a few collaborations. We’d like to do even more collaborations in the future, to both get more performers on the stage where they belong and to see what happens when you put creative people together in a full house with only 3 minutes to shine!”

Here are highlights of the nominations:

Best artist in genre

Pop

Rhyan Sinclair

Sydney Cubit

Albert Oberst

Rock

All the Little Pieces

Bent Penny Band

The Seas

Singer-songwriter

Rhyan Sinclair

Avery Crabtree

Taylor Hughes

Whitney Acke

Song of the Year

I Can't Love You Like I Said I Could, Taylor Hughes, Whitney Acke, Ray Adams

Mistakes, The Seas

Wasting My Time, Grimsley Rose

Americana/Folk

Small Batch

Maggie Lander

Whitney Acke

Michael Johnathon

Blues

Tee Dee Young

Northside Sheiks

RC and the Nightshades

Julie Tussey Band

Classical

Lexington Philharmonic

UK Symphony Orchestra

Central Kentucky Youth Orchestra

Country/Bluegrass

Avery Crabtree

Bobby Perry

Taylor Hughes

Funk-R&B-Reggae

Kung Fu Grip

Funkabilly

Prime Cut Band

Dublove Reggae Band

Hip-Hop/Rap

Devine Carama

Strange Savage

Hybrid the Rapper

Sheisty Khrist

Jazz-Latin-Big Band-World

DOJO (DiMartino Osland Jazz Orchestra)

Soljam

C the Beat

Young at Heart Band

Cover Band/Variety Act

Lexington Lab Band

Bent Penny Band

Vinyl Ritchie

Best artist in performance

Female vocalist

Lauren Mink

Julie Tussey

Mandy Ray

Taylor Hughes

Male vocalist

Avery Crabtree

Michael Sliter

Michael Vandermark

Drummer-percussionist

Ryan McQuery

Tony Hammons

Richard Sester

Robby Cosenza

Guitarist

Ben Lacy

Dale Adams

Gary Tussey

Bassist

Bob Bryant

James Weeks (Richard Twiggenbury)

Jeremy Williams

Randy Refalo

Keyboardist

Kevin Holm-Hudson

David Lee Hinkle

Raleigh Daily

Rob Portorf

Wind-Brass

Miles Osland

Vince DiMartino

Paul Osbourne

Jay "Rusty" Crutcher

Strings (non guitar/bass)

Maggie Lander

Katie Penn-Williams

Yoonie Choi

Special categories

Community Service

BAJA (Bluegrass Area Jazz Association)

Devine Carama

Rennie Neubecker & Lexjam

Lifetime Achievement (5 winners will be announced in late December)

J.P. Pennington

Doug Breeding

Nick Lawrence

J.D. Crowe

Ricky Skaggs

Les Campbell

Tee Dee Young

McLain Family Band

Everly Brothers

Vince DiMartino

Best in industry

Live music venue

Cosmic Charlie’s

Parlay Social Club

Austin City Saloon

O’Neill’s

Music store (instruments)

Willcutt Guitars

Doo Wop Shop

Willis Music

Music company (CD & music sales, labels, agents, arts orgs, etc)

CD Central

Pops Resale

Fyre Entertainment

GFY Entertainment

Recording studio-engineer-producer

Sneak Attack Recording Studio/Jason Groves (engineer)

13 O’Clock Studio/Cory Thompson/Nik McLean (engineers/producer)

Charlies Tone Lab/Michael Vandermark (engineer)

Jay Flippin Music Educator Award

Shaun Owens (Bryan Station High School)

Kevin Holm-Hudson (University of Kentucky)

Beth Mankel (Studio 88)

Dean Braunm (James Dean Rocks Music School)

Live sound tech

Phil Osborne

Wallace “Gator” Harrison

Matthew Florez

James Rutledge

DJ

Dead Air Dennis - WKQQ

Otis Badass - WKQQ

Kenny Cummings - TMV Cafe (internet radio)

Twitch - WXZZ

Instrument repair-builders-customization

Willcutt Guitars

RS Guitarworks

Hurst Music

This story was originally published December 6, 2015 at 3:06 PM with the headline "Nominees for the 2nd annual Lexington Music Awards."