Gibson Brothers, Blue Highway receive IBMA awards

Thanks to Judy McDonough of JEMMedia for the first news to reach us of the 2012 IBMA awards, together with these photos, taken by Alane Anno for the IBMA. The list of this year's recipients includes some well known in Ireland for their appearances here: the Gibson Brothers (above) won the Entertainer of the Year and Gospel Recorded Performance awards, while Blue Highway, who headlined the Johnny Keenan Banjo Festival last weekend, won the Vocal Group of the Year award together with yet another Dobro Performer of the Year award for Rob Ickes, who has now won it fourteen times. Guitar Performer of the Year went to the late Doc Watson.

Read the full list of award recipients here. As Judy points out, the new IBMA Momentum Awards for rising talent, which were presented earlier this week and do not figure in this list, are as follows:

Band of the Year: Monroeville
Vocalist of the Year: Emily Bankester
Instrumentalists of the Year: bassist Samson Grisman, fiddler Alex Hargreaves, and fiddler Christian Ward
Event/Venue of the Year: Appalachian Uprising, produced by Steve Cielic
Industry Achievement: Crash Avenue publicist Emilee Warner
Mentor of the Year: Five-time IBMA Bass Player of the Year and producer Mike Bub

The photo below shows the grand finale, led by Steve Martin: a tribute to the late Earl Scruggs. The musicians taking part included Greg Cahill, Alison Brown, Pete Wernick, and Tony Trischka.