Contest # 2: Who Do You Think Is A Voice to Hear

This post is going to stay up at the top of the page for the next month, until the first of the year, but there is lots of new stuff going on down below so check it out!

Our second contest lets you the reader pick some of the Voices that should be features on this site in the coming year. Over the last year we at this site have tried to spotlight as many deserving voices as we can. In our Mission Statement we said:

We’re not here to be hip and find the next “Big Thing.” We’re probably as far from hip as possible. While sometimes we might stumble across someone that will end up as the “new thing” that’s not what we’re looking for. We’d be thrilled for some of these deserving artists to become Big Names, but we also live in the real world and realize that’s probably not going to happen. So every person that we can turn on to these undiscovered gems will be one more person listening and hopefully buying their music.

And that's a goal we still live by. Whether it be a new Voice like Brother Joscephus and the Love Revival Revolution Orchestra or one that's been around for awhile like Caroline Herring we want to help get the word out on this deserving talent. We've tried to feature all sorts of music, from metal to folk to country to rock to whatever catches our ear at the time. Again our Mission Statement says it as best as we can:

Unless you have a major record company promoting your newest release it’s hard to get noticed. In today’s rapid on-the-go world it’s hard to find the time to discover that artist that falls between the cracks. There’s a lot of good music out there that deserves a wider audience and that’s the goal of this site. We want to help you find that music.

So with that in mind we introduce our second contest (and hopefully more of you will contribute to this one) and ask you the reader who you think should be a Voice to hear? Who do you like and listen to that you think should get wider recognition? Who do you think needs to be heard? Leave your choice, leave a list of artists, leave a single artist, whoever you feel should be heard in the comments and we'll see about featuring them in Spotlights or Simply Six interviews this coming year. Please don't mention someone we've already featured, as we're looking for some new voices.

For everyone that leaves a comment we'll put your name in a hat and at start of the New Year we'll chose one lucky person to win a wonderful new prize. And what is that prize I can hear you all asking with bated breath?

The prize for our Second Contest is David Wilcox's newest album Open Hand. This is David's 16th album and features some of his best work. David's music touches a cord with people and he has a very dedicated fan base. If you haven't checked out his work you should. Our Simply Six is here and you can find his site here. Thanks to David Wilcox and his publicist for providing us with a copy of the album to give away.

And The Winner Is....

If you think I've forgotten the contest "What Music Means to You" I haven't. While we didn't get anywhere near the amount of people writing to us, the few we received were well thought out and interesting. It was a hard decision but we're going with Vinnie Bond from Big Leather Couch. He writes a lot about music on his site and always has some interesting finds. It's definitely worth checking out. So congrats Vinnie!

Contest # 1: What Music Means to You

This post is going to stay up at the top of the page for the next month, but there is lots of new stuff going on down below so check it out!

We're featuring our first ever contest on Voices to hear and boy are we excited! We don't get a lot of comments so I'm hoping that this contest motivates some of you out there to talk to us. In keeping with the theme of Sunday, which is the group Assembly of Dust, this contest was conceived from an answer that Reid Genauer gave to a question. His answer is

I know this is a potentially controversial thing to say but I believe music is like religion for many people. It’s not an either or decision (although for some it is) but it gives us hope, something to believe in, something to inspire us, somewhere to hide when the day beating you down, something to belong to. I think it is a powerful part of our culture

This parallels some of my own thoughts on music. Back when I was talking about Bruce Springsteen's appearance at the first Jazz Fest after Hurricane Katrina I had this to say.

I'm not a religious person and I have never gotten what such a person gets from going to church, until this show. This might be the closest I have come to finding my religion. I've always thought music was the closest I've come to following a religion and today I was in church.

So the topic of this contest is: What does music mean to you? Is it something to just act as background noise to your life or does it mean more to you than that. I have a feeling if you're reading this site music means something important to you. So in the comments leave a post as long or as short as you want and tell us what music means to you. I'll pick, I won't say the best, because in this case there isn't a best or worst, it's what moves you, but I'll pick the post that moves me the most and the winner will receive Assembly of Dust's newest album Some Assembly Required. It's a great album so it's worth taking the time and commenting. We'll let the contest run for the next month, so don't make me look dumb here and not have any comments, tell me what you think.