Rounder Records Receives the Elaine Weissman Lifetime Achievement Award
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More...Rounder Records Receives the Elaine Weissman Lifetime Achievement Award
Burlington, MA - The four-woman acoustic stringband, Uncle Earl, was awarded "Album of the Year" for Waterloo, Tennessee at the third annual Folk Alliance Awards at the Cook Convention Center in Memphis, TN on Wednesday. The Folk Alliance Awards honor merit and achievement within the folk music field and mark the beginning of the International Folk Alliance Conference.
Released in 2007 on Rounder Records, Waterloo, Tennessee is "...a delightful, incentive spree: lyrically modern yet intensely rooted in old-time string-band tradition." (Boston Herald) Produced by John Paul Jones, Waterloo, Tennessee combines raucous fiddle tunes and blues with ballads of loss and exile, affectionate love songs, and a profound longing that can only be echoed in the strains of fiddles, banjos, mandolins, and tender harmonies. Harp magazine calls Waterloo, Tennessee "...music of uncommon grace, joy and force." Part of a new generation of bold young acoustic musicians, the four women who compose Uncle Earl are awakening the sleeping giant of old-time string band music and holding it up as a mirror to our present era.Rounder Records was also a recipient of the 2008 Elaine Weissman Lifetime Achievement Award (LAAwards). The awards are given to those who have inspired others, achieved definitive leadership in their field, and contributed to the advancement of folk music and/or dance. Each year the LAAwards honor two performers, one living and one legacy, and a person or institution involved in the business or academic side of the folk world, who has devoted their life's work and talent to the advancement of the performing folk arts.
Rounder founder Ken Irwin was on hand to accept the award on behalf of himself, his partners Bill Nowlin and Marian Leighton-Levy, and "all those who have worked so hard with us to bring quality music to thepublic and, of course, for the artists who make the music which keeps us excited and dedicated after all these years." Irwin also emphasized that the award is, "....for all those who have found, helped make, helped sell, helped to promote, publicize and market the music...this kind of achievement is the work of hundreds of people over the years and thousands and thousands of hours of hard work and ideas. Three of us started it, but the recognition is for what it has become." Irwin added,"While it's always nice to have Rounder recognized within the industry, it's particularly meaningful when it comes from an organization so devoted to the music and made up of fellow music lovers like ourselves."
