With our DOMA ballot online and ripe for your votin', we figured we'd give you some help: a daily breakdown of each category's nominees.
Best Folk/Acoustic Act: Doug Burr Sarah Jaffe Glen Farris Matthew and the Arrogant Sea Collin Herring
This one's wide-open, really, and features some pretty intriguing match-ups.
Farris, for instance, plays in Burr's backing band. Jaffe and Burr, meanwhile, also find themselves with nominations in our Best Solo Act category, as well as in the categories for Best Female Vocalist and Best Male Vocalist, respectively. Matthew and the Arrogant Sea's also up for another award--Best New Act--and Collin Herring's got himself one hell of a whiskey-drenched comeback story. Let's dive right in...
Doug Burr In addition to nominations in this category, the Best Solo Act category, and the Best Male Vocalist Category, Burr's also been nominated for Best Country/Roots Act, Best Album (On Promenade) and Best Song ("Slow Southern Home"). So, yeah, in theory, the soft-spoken Denton-based artist could walk award from our July 22 awards ceremony with 6 trophies in tow. Here's a clip of Burr performing his song "Whipporwill" at AllGood Cafe:
Sarah Jaffe Without having an album released since last year's awards, Jaffe's total nomination tally's less than Burr's, but that doesn't make her any less of a force. At last year's awards, Jaffe took home three statues: Best New Act, Best Female Vocalist and this very award, Best Folk/Acoustic Act. Her new EP should be later this summer. Here's a video someone uploaded to Youtube, set to Jaffe's "Wreaking Havoc":
Glen Farris Farris has his hand in a couple of bands around town. Sure, he's got his own thing going, but he also plays in Doug Burr's band and Observer Night & Day co-editor Noah W. Bailey's folk act, The Naptime Shake. And, in his downtime, he helps run Spune Productions, one of this year's Best Booking Agent nominees. Here's Farris performing "When the Dawn Finds You" at the Double Wide:
Matthew and The Arrogant Sea Matthew and The Arrogant Sea kinda sprang up out of nowhere last year, when, right around the time of our 2007 awards, a rumor spread that Matthew Gray and Co. were in talks for a $6 million major label record deal. Turns out it was a rouse, but in the year since, MATAS has developed into something of a force in the Denton scene, and, turns out, has earned a record deal in the process--this one legitimate--with Nova Posta Vinyl. Here's a clip of MATAS performing at Good Records' eighth birthday bash earlier this year:
Collin Herring In 2003, Collin Herring's debut, Avoiding the Circus won the Fort Worth Weekly's Album of the Year award. Since, things have been something of a struggle--he's been to rehab not once, but twice--and his days now are most often spent, um, well, avoiding the circus. Still, his newest release Past Life Crashing and his recent performances around the region seem to find the once-troubled artist now back on the right track. Here's a clip of Herring performing "Into the Morning" at Fort Worth's The Aardvark:
Now go vote. --Pete Freedman
