This week’s shows:
Shy Bear Brewing, Lewistown, PA 6-9pm
Hook & Flask Still Works, Carlisle, PA 7-10pm **During ICE FEST**
Antietam Brewery Western Maryland Pkwy, Hagerstown, PA 6-9pm
thursday thoughts….
This Thursday, I want to talk about the Central Pennsylvania Music Hall Of Fame. I’ve been nominated this year for the “Solo Cover Musician” category among 5 people, of which 4 are good friends of mine. I was previously nominated in 2021 in the category of “Male Solo Musician”, but did not come away with the award that year. I’ll share my story of my first experience in just a bit, but I should start by breaking some things down. For the listeners that are from outside of central PA, the CPMHOF is a local non-profit organization that has an annual award ceremony, the CPMA’s, where they recognize the areas “BEST” local musicians in the area. Nominees are encouraged to attend and participate in a “red carpet” style reception, a “local celebrity” studded ceremony, and capped off by what’s rumored to be a pretty epic after party.
The suggestions for nominees are submitted by friends, family, fans, and other F words, for consideration during a nomination period at the end of each year. The Board of Directors and Advisory Committee members then pick the top 5-6 acts submitted to be considered for the award. Then there’s a period of fan voting to help advise the Advisory Committee of public opinion. After that, the Board of Directors and the Advisory Committee get together to select a winner, each member casting a single vote for their choice in each category. The fan vote makes up a very small percentage of the overall vote as to keep it from being a “popularity contest”. The winner is then announced at the CPMHOF Awards show held in March each year.
I, like many others, hate awards shows. I like being recognized by my peers, but I don’t like watching the pretty people do pretty things. I’ve always been an outsider. In my high school years I was forced to be one, and in my recent years I’ve been lucky enough to choose to hang on the fringes. I don’t like letting my value be decided by people I don’t know. But, even with my desire to stay on the outside, I’m not immune to looking for acceptance from my colleagues, or a nod from the powers that be…. Although, I wish I was.
I fell victim to my own uniformed ignorance the last time I was nominated for a CPMA in 2021. I was in the “Solo Male Artist” category with Antonio Andrade, Adam Blessing, Shawn Pike, and James Zero. At the time, Adam was the only one of those names I had ever even heard of. I did some quick research of each of the nominees, analyzing them against the criteria that the committee would look at. I found myself comparing my accomplishments to theirs.
Oh, what a fun thing to do.
After viewing the other nominees Facebook pages for 5 minutes, I decided that I was clearly the most qualified out of our group to receive the award. I had the busiest schedule, I was most active on my social media, I had gained over 1,000 followers on platforms in 2021, I regularly toured out of state, and a lot of other things that I wouldn’t normally list for reasons for me to feel accomplished. I remember thinking that I had it in the bag, and all my friends, fans, and family thought I did too.
The night of the CPMA’s came, and I was there with my girlfriend, daughter, and countless other friends and supporters. I was dressed to the nine’s and ready to accept my award. I walked the red carpet, accepted early congratulations, did some interviews and chatted with friends. It was cool to see so many people from the local scene in one spot. I mean, a lot of us don’t see each other at all throughout the year unless we’re sharing the same stage for a show, so it provided a great space to catch up.
When it came time for the ceremony, we were seated 5 rows back from the stage. My daughter and girlfriend were talking, and I was nervously preparing to give an acceptance speech for the award. After only being in the live music scene for 2 years, I really couldn’t believe I had even been nominated. But I was thankful to be there. Then the time came for my category. They read the names, one by one, of the nominees. I still remember the feeling when they said my name and the crowd cheered. It was the loudest show of support among the nominees by far.
The award goes to……… Antonio Andrade.
In that moment, I remember feeling deflated, sick, angry, and bitter. They had picked the only person that I thought had zero chance of winning. He wasn’t really playing any shows, not nearly as many as me, he didn’t live stream and was only mildly active on social media, and I had never even heard of him. I had been rejected, yet again, by the popular people. They had somehow convinced me to get dressed up, pay for tickets, petition my friends and family to vote and share their page, just to rob me of an award that I was clearly the winner of. We stuck around for another 30 minutes, and then my group left. We went out to dinner and bitched about how rigged everything was, and how ridiculous it was to lose to a nobody. I spent the next week fielding a ridiculous amount of messages from people telling me I got robbed, or saying they were sorry to hear I didn’t win.
And I’m here to tell you, I was completely wrong. Antonio was not a nobody. He has a very loyal fanbase that comes out to see him and he plays primarily original music. He has multiple albums available online and is an extremely talented musician. He deserved that award just as much as any of us did, and definitely more than me. I had only been playing guitar for 2 years at that point, and I should’ve just been happy to have been nominated. I should have just enjoyed the acknowledgement for my hard work. But I didn’t. I wanted to win and somehow feel validated by my award. And this is my issue with award shows.
Every year I see the list come out of nominees, and every year the collective music scene shakes its head. In some ways, rightfully so. Local musicians chime in about the people not on the list, or who really belongs on there. We all talk about the fact that some acts are nominated every year that haven’t even earned a nomination for even one year, based on the criteria they are supposed to be judged on. We compare the names on the list to who OUR personal favorites are for that category, and then chalk the whole thing up as unfair and biased.
And it is. There are 16 people on the Board of Directors and 24 people on the Advisory committee, although I may have that composition wrong. Those 40 people are “encouraged” to do some research on the acts, but not required to. So you are getting a vote from 40 people who may or may not know anything about the musician being nominated. That definitely sounds unfair and biased to me, but so are ALL awards shows. To pretend that this one is somehow above the board and completely fair would be ridiculous.
I see calls from local musicians to boycott the awards. They say you shouldn’t show up, don’t acknowledge your nomination, don’t participate in the festivities, don’t feed into the system that is excluding so many great acts that deserve to be there. That somehow by not participating you will bring down the entire corrupt system. And to them, I ask, for what benefit?
The CPMHOF is a non-profit organization. In addition to the awards each year, they provide pathways for youth artists to get recognition, or connect with other youth artists. They host showcases and events throughout the year highlighting at least SOME of our local musicians. They have a podcast where they interview local musicians. They bring eyeballs to our incredible local music scene through TV and Radio appearances, and bring more and more local artists into the spotlight each year.
Does that sound like an evil force that needs to be torn down? Not to me it doesn’t. I think they are a positive organization overall. But, in defense of the naysayers, I will say that I would love to see them do better. Actually require your voting members to check out the acts, and find better ones. If what you come up with year after year is the same people over and over, you’re not in touch with the local scene. There are a TON of incredible acts out there, and you’d be doing the local music scene an even larger favor by discovering and highlighting the best in each category, not just the ones that are submitted for discovery during your nomination period. What those 40 people really need to understand is that when you nominate someone, and they get that nominee title or that Facebook badge, they are now more qualified to play a gig, in some peoples eyes, than someone who is not nominated. So they should not take the nomination process lightly if they want to be viewed as not just another out of touch music organization.
I will be at the awards ceremony this year, dressed to the nine’s, but with a different intent. I don’t care whether I win or not. This award does not and will not validate me and my worth. I’m going to be there to enjoy a night with my colleagues where we can celebrate being musicians. Where we can laugh and drink and be merry, realizing we all have the best jobs anyone could ever ask for. We make noise for a living, and it’s pretty cool there’s an award show for that. I hope I’ll see you there.