Music Awards Nominations Contain Many New Names

In a post mortem of last year’s inaugural edition of the San Diego Music Awards, a subliminal fear was that the event might end up honoring the same handful of familiar artists year after year, thus defeating one of its stated purposes--the encouragement of unheralded local talent.

That fear can be laid to rest, if one can judge by the hot-off-the-wires list of nominees for the second annual tribute.

The list contains a number of names that didn’t appear on last year’s ballot, indicating that the local music scene is healthier and more dynamic than it might sometimes appear. Of course, it helps that the awards board, headed by executive director Kevin Hellman of Backstage Productions, acted on the oft-repeated suggestion to expand the music categories from 1991’s rather narrow list of 12. When the 1992 honorees are announced at the Aug. 19 gala, to be held this year at Humphrey’s on Shelter Island, they will represent a total of 21 different classifications and sub-classifications.

The 1992 nominees and their respective categories are as follows:

Best Solo or Duo: A.J. Croce, Cindy Lee Berryhill, Tomcat Courtney, Mark DeCerbo, Deborah Liv Johnson.

Best Contemporary: The Heroes, Positive Approach, the Siers Brothers Band, People Movers, Rising Star.

Best Mainstream or Progressive Jazz: Daniel Jackson’s Real Jazz Band, Charles McPherson Modern Jazz Disciples, Mike Wofford, A.J. Croce and His Band, Peter Sprague.

Best Pop-Jazz: Fattburger, Reel to Real, Mark Lessman, Hollis Gentry, Hank Easton Band.

Best Dixieland: Fro Brigham’s Preservation Band, Chicago 6, Tobacco Road, South Market Street Band, High Society Jazz Band.

Best Reggae or World Beat: Bitoto, Cardiff Reefers, Common Sense, Roughneck Posse, Citizen-X.

Best Country: Calman Hart, Linda Rae and Breakheart Pass, Prairie Fire, the Savery Brothers, Show Down.

Best Original Rock: Usual Suspects, the Paladins, Buddy Blue, Wild Truth, Burning Hands.

Best Alternative Rock: Dark Globe, Flatten Manhattan, Drip Tank, aMiniature, Rocket from the Crypt.

Best Big Band: Steven Spencer Orchestra, Bill Green Orchestra, Barry Levich Society Band, Benny Hollman Orchestra, Dan Terry Orchestra.

Best Folk or Acoustic: Deborah Liv Johnson, Reckless Abandon, the Rugburns, Cindy Lee Berryhill, Sam Hinton.

Best Latin: Sol e Mar, Es-O-Es, Quarteto Agape, Latin Soul, Jaime Valle and Equinox.

Best Blues: Earl Thomas, Tomcat Courtney, Willie Jaye and the Texas Hurricane, Ruby and the Red Hots, Len Rainey and the Midnight Players.

Best Classic Rock: Rockola, Dr. Feelgood, the Mar Dels, the Legends, Hot Heads.

Best Hard Rock: Psychotic Waltz, Bastille, 69 Love Guns, Vladimir Kuzmin, Asphalt Ballet.

Best New Artist: Calman Hart, Bill McPherson and Worldbeat, Bitoto, New West, Latin Soul.

Club Band of the Year: Nemesis, Flyweil, France, Crystal, Serious Guise.

Best Independent Album: “All Wet,” Bordertown; “Basket Full of Blues,” Jimmy and Jeannie Cheatham; “Head Start to Purgatory,” Cargo Records compilation; “Red-Eyed & Blue,” Calman Hart; “Plexiwatt,” aMiniature; “Paint As a Fragrance,” Rocket from the Crypt; “Natasha’s Ghost,” Natasha’s Ghost.

Best Album (national release): “Best of Fattburger,” Fattburger; “Passion,” Steve Laury; “Asphalt Ballet,” Asphalt Ballet; “The Origin,” the Origin; “Blue Not Blues,” Earl Thomas; “Baby’s Not in the Mood,” Mark DeCerbo; “Una Mas Cerveza!”, Forbidden Pigs.

Artist of the Year: A.J. Croce, Earl Thomas, Eddie Vedder (Pearl Jam), Danny Clarke (Asphalt Ballet), Candye Kane.

Group of the Year: aMiniature, Bordertown, Asphalt Ballet, the Paladins, Cardiff Reefers.

Winners will receive a bronze “Sammy.”

Admission to the second-annual awards show is $10 for general admission, $25 for reserved seating. Tickets are on sale now at all TicketMaster outlets. All of the proceeds will be donated to local San Diego Unified School District elementary music-education programs facing possible elimination due to ongoing budget cuts, with special consideration given to instrumental music programs at elementary schools.

BOOKINGS: (Tickets for the following concerts will be sold at all TicketMaster outlets unless otherwise specified.) San Diego’s own Flatten Manhattan funk it up Friday night at downtown’s SOMA, with Honey Glaze, Section 8 and Broccoli Shoeshine on the bill ($6, call 239-7662). . . . A couple of scheduling changes at Sound FX: The bands Love/Hate and Mad Reign will replace guitarist Tony Macalpine on Saturday’s bill (tickets are $8). Macalpine’s agent sent a form letter to the club cancelling hte gig without explanation. And John Kay and Steppenwolf has been moved up to Aug. 2 from Aug. 7 ($16.50). . . . Exile plays shows at 5:30 and 8:30 p.m. Sunday (28) at Maverick’s (11377 Woodside Ave., Santee). Call 448-8778.

Tickets are on sale for a rich July 9 double-bill of Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians and Alex Chilton at the Belly Up Tavern ($13). . . . Live, Wire Train and Spent Poets share the stage at Sound FX on July 10 ($10). . . . Guitarist Charlie Sexton’s latest project, Arc Angels, plays Sound FX on July 11, with Sass Jordan opening ($15). . . . Gin Blossoms and Flatten Manhattan play the Casbah July 11 ($6 at the door). . . . Tickets go on sale Thursday at 3 p.m. for the Charlatans U.K. and Catherine Wheel in an 18-and-up show at Iguanas on July 31 ($16.50 in advance, $17 at the door).

The Jerry Garcia Band plays Southwestern College’s Devore Stadium on Aug. 2 (on sale now at all TicketMaster outlets, with the exception of Wherehouse Stores in shopping malls)...k.d. lang performs at Copley Symphony Hall on Aug. 11 (on sale Friday (26) at 3 p.m.). . . . Initial sales for Neil Diamond’s Sept. 25 “in the round” concert at the Sports Arena have necessitated a second show, on Sept. 26, (the $25 tickets are on sale now at all TicketMaster outlets, except Wherehouse Stores in malls).

CRITIC’S CHOICE: THE STORY FROM BOSTON

The Story is a female duo from Boston comprising Jonatha Brooke (acoustic guitar, vocals, songwriting) and Jennifer Kimball (vocals). On their independent-label, 1988 debut release, “Grace in Gravity”(recently re-issued on Elektra Records), they proved that an approach saturated with ironic objectivity can give a garotte’s bite to light-textured, sweetly sung acoustic music. Employing discursive melodies and geometric vocal arrangements, the two roamed from the topical to the ridiculous in a manner that suggested a stylistic jumble of Suzanne Vega, the Indigo Girls, and the Roches. The Story will perform on Saturday at the Spreckels Masonic Hall, 3858 Front Street (at University Avenue). Opening the 8 p.m. show is local acoustic artist Dave Howard. Tickets are $10 in advance (only by calling 294-6660) or $12 at the door.