2009 Winners List
Hillary Smith’s 2008 CD, “No Easy Way” took top honors as
best CD of the year for the 22nd annual New Mexico
Music
Awards.
Smith also walked away with Best Vocal Performance
and Best Remake trophies and the CD garnered a Best Producer
nod for producer’s Luis Guerra and John Rangel and
a Best Engineer awards for Andrew Click of Stepbridge Studios.
Other winners included engineer/producer John Wall
and his group Illustrated Man
for their performance in the Alternative Rock, Electronica and
Best Pop CD
categories,
Las Cruces based Steve Smith and Hard Road in the Bluegrass
and Gospel categories, and Michael Muldoon for Best Song.
New to the competition this year were Justin Holub, winner in the
Rock-Adult Contemporary category for his song, “Sleeping Dog”;
Sean Healen & John Kurzweg for Best Rock CD “Floodplain”;
Brandon Ruckus Rock-Metal performance for “Six Shots ‘til I Die”
and Gene Romero’s Purple Cactus Ramblers for
“La Gran Cosecha” as Best Hispanic Traditional.
For a complete list of the 2009 winners, click here.
The 2009 awards featured performances by The James Douglas Show,
Jennifer Barre, Kathleen Sabo, Meredith Blis, Sean Healan & John Kurzweg, Illustrated Man and an incredible all star performance produced by Larry Mitchell that featured vocalists Hillary Smith, James Douglas and Cristen Grey.
Johnny Dagucon, Hank Wickham and Lewie Wickham received the Eric Larson Lifetime Achievement Award and performed, once again, as the Hank & Lewie Wickham Trio. This award is given annually in recognition of NMMA co-founder Eric Larson. An endowment at the University of New Mexico in Mr. Larson;s name was created in 2005.
Our thanks to our sponsors, Grandma’s Music & Sound and High Fidelity Mastering and to Gary Mathews and the audio and lighting crew of Quickbeam Audio for their spectacular work.
Additional thanks to Larry Mitchell for his production of the Songwriter’s Showcase and the All Star Performance, our interns Antoinette Urioste and Michelle Metzner, volunteers Paul Pino, Donna Geist & Chrys McMillan, Tammy Archibeque and the staff of the Albuquerque Marriott Pyramid Hotel, Tom Rutherford, our presenters, performers and participants. Without you, none of this would be possible. God bless you all.