Gruene With Envy Awards Ceremony: Amazing Talent, But Poorly Planned

After fighting the horrible Sunday afternoon traffic on I-35 we arrived at La Zona Rosa about 4:30 to find that the first acoustic set had already begun. The crowd was fairly small, but a constant buzz of chatter could be heard throughout the night. The event was more like a big party with live acts instead of an awards ceremony. We settled in off to the side to observe, but found out quickly that it was hard to understand anything that Jason Eady, Ryan James, and Ryan Turner were saying so we moved to the back of the room in line with the speakers. By this time the first three guys were done playing and the stage hands prepared for the next acoustic set consisting of Adam Hood, Wade Bowen, and Brandon Rhyder.

Brandon started out, then Bowen, and Hood, and they’d repeat like this three times. Brandon sounds exactly like he does on his album, and once again has an amazing set of vocals. Bowen’s latest album is definitely a nice album, but to truly appreciate him you need to see him live, he’ll blow you away. Adam Hood wasn’t as vocally gifted as the other two guys, but more than made up for it with his guitar, he really knows how to bend the strings to his advantage. He was entertaining, had enjoyable lyrics, and is well worth checking out again. He appeared to have more of a traditional/troubadour style (something I like) than most of the other artists. After Brandon’s fourth and final song, “Freeze Frame Time”, the stage was readied again for the next set.

The crowd cheered when Cory Morrow, Jason Boland, Aaron Watson, and Walt Wilkins took the stage. There was still an empty mic at the end when Morrow started off the set with “Big City Stripper”. Each artist took a turn playing and by the time they got to the end Stoney LaRue showed up to grace the crowd with his presence. Walt Wilkins brought his buddies out for one song and his wife for another. Cory Morrow saved his best song for last, Jason Boland pitched a new song to Stoney LaRue, and Aaron Watson sang a new piece which was also his best of the night. It was nice to see so many artists preforming, but there might have been too many on stage at one time. Aside from Boland and LaRue, most of the guys didn’t appear to have a lot of chemistry. Morrow remained fidgety during breaks while LaRue and Wilkins stepped back to joke around. Boland impressed me the most with his voice and he remained attentive to the other artists while they were playing, same for Watson. After four songs apiece the guys were done.

Then came half the awards ceremony, an underwhelming experience to say the least. Anne Hudson, from 98.1 KVET and ME Television, presented the awards. The only winner present to accept his trophy was Newcomer of the Year, Josh Grider who gave a half hearted speech. To be fair it wasn’t much of an awards ceremony to begin with and had he had a formal speech prepared it wouldn’t have meshed with the high school party atmosphere. Randy Rogers made a brief appearance to accept an award on behalf of Radney Foster.

Next up was the Eli Young Band, the first band scheduled to preform a full set. I’m generally not an over critical guy, but these guys were completely unimpressive. The crowd still cheered when they took the stage, one girl could even be heard screaming “marry me,” above the cheers. Personally, I don’t see what sets them apart from any other band playing in their garage. They might have some good lyrics, but I couldn’t understand half of what they were singing. The songs I heard definitely were not country.

Brady and I stayed for four songs. I would have liked to see the remainder of the awards presented and watched the other full set from Randy Rogers Band, but the combination of being forced to listen to the Eli Young Band and standing for five hours straight helped us decide it was time to go.

I got to see a lot of amazingly talented guys play, just them and their guitars. I’m a big fan of acoustics so it was nice to hear all that without having it drowned out by other instruments and sound theatrics. Despite the talent, I thought it was a poorly planned event, but all in all, it was well worth the money.