Best Local CD Release
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31.66% Shelly Dixon Band / Drive*
Others with Votes:
Sad Boy Trouble/Soul Searching, Black Cat Bone/Black Cat Bone, Go Dog Go/Up from the Basement, Klubber Lang, Ron Barber/The Old Geezer Sings, Third Frame/Absorb the Orb, Al Stiles/We Can Fly, Blue Moon Boys/Johnny Lighter, Brian Derek/Absolute Music, Buttonhead, Dead Letter Auction/Vertigo, Dive Bomberz/Dive Bomberz, Downbreed/Kill the Drama, Flatline/15 Hours in Paradise, Frank-O Johnson/This Must Be a Cheating Town, The Humanity, Pwince, Rupert Bomb (Halloween release), Static Fly
Rock Releases
Non-Rock Releases
* On the ballot
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Back in 1999 Shelly Dixon was fronting Usquebaugh, a Celtic rock band that played out just a few times a year, usually around St. Patrick’s Day, and soloing at area restaurants and coffee houses with nothing but her sultry voice, pensive lyrics and acoustic guitar to mask a severe case of stage fright. The next year she put together a band consisting of Brian Waikel (formerly of James Bond Goes Surfing) on guitar, Pete Jacobs (formerly of Jackie Fly) on bass and drummer Michael (Lou) Grant and won the Best New Band award (in a close vote over Northern Kind) at the 2001 Whammys show. Late in 2001 The Shelly Dixon Band released their debut CD, Drive, recorded at Soundmill Studios (now Ozone Recording Company) and consisting of 11 original songs, one of which, “Life Is Good,” made it onto that year’s Essentials release. The CD was nominated for Best Local CD Release in the Best of 2002 Readers Poll (whatzup accepts nominations for CDs released in the last quarter of the previous year in this category), and this time the vote wasn’t so close. Drive garnered nearly a third of the votes cast by whatzup readers. Dixon appreciated the award, but even more important for her was a chance to play at this year’s show. “[We are] so happy we won, so happy we got a chance to play. That was much needed exposure for us because we had a slow year last year when Brian left and [new guitarist] Todd Kabisch joined,” she said. “Our sound has been evolving. It’s kind of new, and some people hadn’t seen us in a long time with Todd.” The new lineup was a hit with the crowd, and Dixon was surprised by the number of people in the audience who were singing along to her songs. “I felt on top of the world,” she said, and we’re guessing she felt not a bit of stage fright. |
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