Austin Music Industry Award Winners

We winced through the Grammys and slept through the Oscars, but Monday’s second annual Austin Music Industry Awards ran neither self-congratulatory nor constituted self-important ego worship. Popular vote determines winners on the business end of the Austin Music Poll, so the write-in ballot means any trophy reflects true blue community consensus.

A swift prelude to the Austin Music Awards proper next Wednesday, March 16, at the Hilton Austin Grand Ballroom, the ceremony at the Palm Door on Sixth ran like a tight, two-hour concert. Music was plenty but ingrained: Year-one house band the Berkshire Hounds broke up in 2015, but reunited here to play musical cues for every presenter and recipient. First guest Mayor Steve Adler received Guns N’ Roses’ “Welcome to the Jungle” after a joke caption in the Chronicle reminded trivia geeks that the notorious rockers’ original drummer was also named Steve Adler.

The Mayor, in turn, made an AC/DC reference (“Rock & Roll Ain’t Noise Pollution”) in reiterating his Austin Music & Creative Ecosystem Omnibus Resolution (sometimes verbatim) from his press conference of Feb. 26.

Politics were otherwise in short supply, but emotions ran deep. Austin Music People staged awards within an awards show and touched Continental Club backdoor guardian Dianne Scott to tears with an Unsung Hero AMP trophy, while her benevolent boss Steve Wertheimer was moved to recall his parents’ disappointment in his becoming a “saloon owner” instead of a doctor or lawyer. He then acknowledged his South Congress empire (our word, not his) wouldn’t be where it is today had he not heeded them to UT Austin where his accounting degree gets employed every single night at his world famous speakeasy and its sister club, C-Boy’s Heart & Soul.

Shinyribs’ jester Kevin Russell giving Waterloo Records its 34th consecutive Best Record Store award; Chronicle Music mainstay and KUTX afternoon transponder Jay Trachtenberg accepting two big awards in the name of late, great Twine Time host Paul Ray; all-time AMA winner Bob Schneider collecting a pair of expertly voted art awards (“He’s won enough AMA plaques to build a deck,” pointed out prize co-host and Best Music Writer for a second straight year Kevin Curtin); and Strange Brew sweeping up four major club categories all had Austin music pegged.

Scan the prizewinners for yourself and see you and yours in the Austin Hilton Grand Ballroom next Wednesday deep in the heart of South by Southwest 2016.

Radio Station
KUTX

Radio Music Program
Twine Time, Paul Ray, KUTX

Radio Personality
Twine Time, Paul Ray, KUTX

Record Store
Waterloo Records

Music Store
Strait Music

Instrument Repair
Strait Music

Specialty Instrument
Tommy’s Drum Shop

Equipment Rental
Rock N Roll Rentals

Recording Studio
512 Studios

Producer
A.J. Vallejo

Record Label
Modern Outsider

Music Writer
Kevin Curtin

Music Photographer
David Brendan Hall

Poster
King Kong tour poster by Bob Schneider

Album Art
King Kong EP art by Bob Schneider

New Club
Antone’s Nightclub

Live Music Venue
Strange Brew

Best Venue to Play
Strange Brew

Booker
Kacy Crowley (Strange Brew)

Club Sound
Strange Brew

Club Lighting
Empire Control Room & Garage

Venue Outside Austin City Limits
Gruene Hall

Best Residency
Bob Schneider/Lonelyland at Saxon Pub

Music Support Non Profit
Health Alliance for Austin Musicians (HAAM)

Music Business Hall of Fame
Steve Wertheimer

AMP Esme Barerra Award for Music Activism & Education
Saul Paul

AMP Unsung Hero Award
Dianne Scott

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