I'm very honored to announce my EP Desert Dreaming under project name Lone Granger has received two Indian Summer Music Award nominations ISMA, for 2016. It also received a couple of New Mexico Music Awards nominations and is up in the preliminary NAMMY nominations. Awards, while nice, are like resume items. In fact recently I was having a conversation with a big festival organizer. I asked how the committee goes about choosing performers to perform. I was told they just looked at the awards and went from there. 100% truth.
Awards matter to others, to fans, to festivals, to bookers, to everyone else but the musician it seems. That is my case anyway. I often forget or am on the road when the deadline for these awards come around and miss it. Plus it costs money to enter awards contests. Some more expensive than others. That being said I am still honored because ISMA send their entries out to experts in Native American music. Folks who are in the music industry listen and judge each one. That says a lot to me instead of the on-line popularity voting type of award that I'm not crazy about. I'm already introverted enough but to have to beg and hassle people to vote for you makes me feel like I'm pandering. I do enough begging in my music career as it is.
Below are the categories for my nominations:
Central/South American Indigenous - Lone Granger - "Shamans Dancing"
Spiritual - Lone Granger - "Shamans Dancing"
"Shaman's Dancing" is my favorite song on the EP Desert Dreaming. I would love to make a video for it with my friends all drumming and dancing. My ancestor was a seer, shaman, whatever you wish to call it, for a tribe in what is now Mexico. Since childhood I've had visions that I later understood were signs of a Shamanic Path. Shamans are just appointed. They must demonstrate understanding and then learn learn learn and apprentice many years. Of course Shamans are universal in every indigenous culture on the planet.
When I wrote and recorded this song I was picturing Shamans dancing round a fire under the Milky Way in ceremony. Thy lyrics say, "Calling peace/Calling love/Calling Joy/Calling grace." If you want to get the song my website has various ways to buy it via my website store, iTunes, CDBaby or Amazon.com. Just please buy it and don't steal it. It's not exactly expensive. Thank you. And please share my news with others.
I'm here in S. Elgin, IL again performing at the World of Faeries Festival on the Fox River under ancient Oak trees. I love it and look forward to seeing some of you again. If you know folks in the greater Chicago area please let them know. After this I'm to do shows in Iowa, Omaha and Lawrence, KS. All the dates are on my website calendar.
Peace
Randy
INDIAN SUMMER MUSIC AWARD NOMINATED