On Monday April 24 The Minnesota Music Academy held Icebreaker 2000 the
awards ceremony for The Minnesota Music Awards at First Avenue in
Minneapolis. Jonny Lang was a big winner, proving Minnesota loves his
music. T
he Artist Formerly Known As Prince was a big winner as well. Hey this
is lil'
ol' Minnesota, but we do give credence to our own. The night was filled
with
great music as well as awards being given out. I've come to appreciate
serious rock polka after seeing Tubby Esquire perform their raucous
twist on
the old German music genre. LOL

Prince's Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic  is a worthy recording that won him
Best
R&B Artist, Best R&B Recording, Best Major Label Recording and Artist
of the
Year. Unfortunately Shannon Curfman, Jonny's friend, and guitar and
vocal
virtuoso from Fargo herself, was up for those last two categories as
well,
and her record sales and notoriety couldn't quite match the skinny
veteran.
More on that later.

Jonny, however, was not competing in any of Prince's categories and
easily
(my opinion) won all he was nominated for: Best Blues Artist/Band, Male
Vocalist of the Year, and Song of the Year Breakin' Me, co-written by
Kevin
Bowe. Kevin had the awkward honor of having the most nominations at
five, but
the only one he accepted was the one he shared with Jonny for Song of
the
Year. Even though he is the most prolific and possibly the most
successful
songwriter in Minnesota today, he lost the Songwriter of the Year to
Mason
Jennings who I'm not certain what he's done lately. My bad, I suppose,
for
not knowing Mason's recent achievements since I am a voting member of
the MMA
but I feel Kevin should have taken the Songwriter honor considering his
successes with Jonny (4 songs on WTW, 2 on LTM, at least 2 on Jonny's
upcoming CD) and Shannon (he co-wrote 9 of Shannon's performing songs,
7 of
them on her major label debut Loud Guitars, Big Suspicions). Jonny's
piano
man, Bruce McCabe, took Best Keyboardist honors.

Since Jonny and band were in Australia Monday night, Holly Sharp, of
Bluesky
Artists accepted Jonny's and Bruce's awards. This was very cool because
a
number of award winners had no one present to pick up their awards,
most
notably Prince. It's one thing to be busy doing shows, it's a whole
other
thing to snub the people that got you where you're going. Prince has
won
numerous times over the 20 years that these are given out and perhaps
the
awards mean little to him. Still there are all these hopefuls in the
audience
just proud to be recognized for their efforts and talents. You'd think
he
give them the respect.

The other possibility for Prince's aloofness could be that the
Minnnesota
Music Academy has only 250 members of which only 207 voted this year.
There
must be well over 3000 musicians attempting to make a living from their
talents in Minnesota and not all have an interest in State's music
scene as a
whole. Therefore the MMA doesn't mean that much to many musicians...
it's
okay, as a voting member, I plan to change all that with a little help
and
cooperation... I think the MMA should have a membership of at least
1000. The
membership being as small as it is tends to make the outfit rather
cliquey:
meaning the awards are more of a popularity contest.

This was all too apparent when Shannon's nominations for Best Female
Vocal,
Best Major Label Record, and Artist of the Year were booed  by some in
the
crowd at the Awards ceremony. My personal feeling was not only should
Shannon
have won all she was nominated for, she should have been nominated and
won
Best New Artist. When Jonny first came to Minnesota from Fargo, ND he
was
shunned by the MMA his first year, but soon was making an impression.
For one
thing,  before he ever signed with A&M he had a huge fan base from
North
Dakota and Minnesota... his band were ND natives and when he signed
with A&M
they were all Minnesotans. Shannon went from Fargo to Minnesota
directly to a
record contract in less than a year without developing a lot of fans in
MN....
she shows up now on TV at least as much as Jonny and in the music biz
there
is much buzz about her as she well deserves... but she never made her
presence known in Minnesota the way Jonny did. She fired all but one
Minnesotan from her band. Jonny continues to give back to Minnesota
with
benefits like Heart & Soul and has accepted the Governor's and other
politicians invitations to play at their fundraisers. Minnesotans feel
Jonny
is as much Minnesotan as he is a North Dakotan.

Shannon will be doing the Basilica of St. Mary Benefit for the second
time
this year, but she seems more interested in New York than in Minnesota
nowadays. Someone 14 years old with that much success can leave a lot
of "New
Artists" at home with a bad taste in their mouths. I think jealousy
enters
into the picture for most Minnesota wannabees... still I believe she is
as
great as Jonny but will need to make her loyalties known before she
makes a
mark in Minnesota.

Michael Mueller
MMA member, Saint Louis Park, MN