If we had our druthers

Sean and Larry and I had a little online session of shooting the shizzle in which we played aimchair quarterback for the voting members of the Americana Music Association. I know they'll appreciate our help. :)

Here's who we're pulling for to win their respective categories for the AMA's awards on Friday -- among existing nominees. I give that caveat because obviously Lyle Lovett deserves every award they offer, even if he didn't release anything this year and therefore technically is ineligible. Whatever. Silly rules. Actually, speaking of rules, I rather wish the AMA Web site had posted the qualifications for each category -- especially the time period for releases to be considered this year. There seem to be some things conspicuously absent (Ryan Adams' "Cold Roses" for one, released in May ...) that make me think the 2005 awards window actually shuts pretty early in the year. But I digress. Here are our picks, almost none of them unanimous: (If you need a refresher on the nominees, here ya go.)

Album of the year:
Sean and Larry -- Buddy Miller/Universal United House of Prayer
Stacy -- Steve Earle/The Revolution Starts Now

"My vote goes to Miller for a cohesive piece of work featuring textured guitar work, gospel background vocals and the crank-worthy 'Don't Wait' ... " says Sean, whose loyalty to Mr. Earle really cannot be reasonably questioned. Sean points out that he thought "Revolution" was a little too short and too rushed to get out in time for the 2004 election runup. I see his point, I do. But man, I hated that Buddy Miller album. I don't even know why. Just couldn't stand it, and can't get much love out for Buddy Miller in general. So there you go: Sean with a reasoned approach to his pick, and me just being stubborn. :) But dammit, I'm not just knee-jerk picking Steve because I'm a bigger fan of his than I am of anyone else on the nominee list. The "Revolution" album needed to happen -- it opened up some dialogue that went a little deeper than all the "us vs. them" red state-blue state crap that was happening at the time (and still is, I gather), and it was a good snapshot of what it felt like to be just some guy/some girl of no real consequence in late 2004. In short, it (and Mr. Earle) would not be shouted down. It was a bit inconsistent musically (still scratching my head over "Condi, Condi," though it's definitely a lot of fun) and thematically (anyone who thought this was a purely political album missed a lot great love songs), but the hits ("Rich Man's War," "Home to Houston," "Comin' Around," "I Thought You Should Know") outweigh that bit of weirdness by a lot. So I pick Mr. Earle, but I do making no claim whatsoever that it's a perfect album, or even everything I hoped it would be.

Artist of the year:
None of us were able to separate our album-of-the-year picks from the artists. So it's Buddy for Larry and Sean, Steve for me (though I definitely was glad to see John Prine among the nominees. If there were an award for getting a whole lot of hard knocks but still coming up smiling AND still being a master of your craft, that'd be John Prine's, hands down.)

Instrumentalist of the year:
I recuse myself here, as I've only heard recent recordings from Jerry Douglas. I shoulda done better homework on this category, most definitely. It's straight to bed without dessert for me tonight, for sure. Sean and Larry are better people than I am, though, so listen to them as Larry picks Jerry Douglas and Sean goes for Sonny Landreth "for his silky smooth slide guitar." Sean says he has no lack of love for Mr. D, but "in a way his talent has worked against him. When you hear a Dobro player, you compare him to Jerry Douglas. It's not that he set the bar too high, it's just that he's the bar." Deep thoughts ...

New/Emerging artist of the year:
We almost have harmony here! We all pick the Duhks, but apparently we're none of us entirely comfortable with that pick. Larry calls it a tie with Hayes Carll, and Sean also wants to go that route, predicting Hayes Carll may well rise to the ranks of Important Singer-Songwriter. But the Duhks had the most dramatic breakthrough, I think we all can agree, and definitely hold the promise of something more, which I suspect is a criterion for the New/Emerging Artist category.

Song of the year (for songwriter):
Sean -- Steve Earle/"The Revolution Starts ... Now"
Larry and Stacy -- Tift Merritt/"Good Hearted Man"

Oh, so now Sean picks Steve Earle! :) And he has a damn good reason why: "The thing I like best about it is that despite Steve's best effort to sway the election, this song isn't necessarily partisan. It just implores you to get off your ass and make your voice heard. Can't fault that call from the soapbox." I'm with him there, but I didn't pick it because it just wasn't the anthem I'd been expecting it to be. Maybe it was the trancy melody, the kinda blah guitar riffs, I just didn't ever really want to crank this one up in my car radio. It was a good try, but I think the album as a whole sent a stronger message than this song by itself. Which is too bad -- a song condensing the whole thing might've had a little more power. Now, about Tift Merritt. This song and "Stray Paper" were the ONLY songs I liked on her new album -- I think I'm alone here, but I was tremendously disappointed by it. I loved "Bramble Rose," but whatever I loved about it (the twang? the country simplicity?) didn't show up for "Tambourine." But "Good Hearted Man" has a timeless feel -- sounds like it coulda been recorded in pretty much any decade since the '50s. And that's hard to do. Also hard to do is the soul thing without sounding like a pretender, but Tift pulls it off beautifully.

So that's what we've been thinking. How 'bout you? We'll keep you posted on the actual winners as soon as we hear.