The Central Canadian Bluegrass Awards, established in 1979, are presented annually by the Northern Bluegrass Committee at its
Huntsville
Huntsville is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Alabama. The population of the city is estimated to be 241,114 in 2024, making it the 100th-most populous city in the U.S. The Huntsville metropolitan area had an estimated 525,465 ...
,
Ontario
Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...
festival. This event also hosts the annual meeting of the Bluegrass Music Association of Canada (BMAC).
Nominations for the awards are made by leaders in the central Canadian
bluegrass music
Bluegrass music is a genre of American roots music that developed in the 1940s in the Appalachian region of the United States. The genre derives its name from the band Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys. Bluegrass has roots in African America ...
scene, and four nominees are chosen in each category. Ballots with the names of the nominees are distributed to members of the Northern Bluegrass Committee, BMAC and local bluegrass music clubs and associations in central Canada.
In November, when the ballots have been counted, Ontario bluegrass bands gather for a three-day event, Friday to Sunday, at the
Deerhurst Inn in Huntsville, Ontario.
[The North’s best Southern music]
''Cottage Country Now'', 20 December 2007 Participating bands are given the opportunity to showcase their talent during the weekend, and the awards are presented on Saturday evening in the hotel ballroom to a large audience. Bluegrass organizations throughout Ontario sponsor individual awards.
History
The first awards were given out in 1979 at
Ontario Place
Ontario Place was an entertainment venue, event venue, and park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The venue is located on three artificial landscaped islands just off-shore in Lake Ontario, south of Exhibition Place, and southwest of Downtown Toron ...
in Toronto by Pat and Jack Buttenham, who produced ''Canadian Bluegrass Review'' magazine. The 1980 and 1981 awards were presented at the Minkler Auditorium at Seneca College, and the 1982 awards ceremony was held at the Arlington Hotel in the town of Bright.
For the next ten years the awards festival was held at the Academy Theatre in Lindsay, Ontario. When the event outgrew the theatre, it was moved to Huntsville to the more spacious Deerhurst Inn.
After ''Canadian Bluegrass Review'' ceased publication, the Northern Bluegrass Committee took over the administration of the awards in the central region.
Categories
The awards are given in the following categories:
Owen Sounders picked for bluegrass awards
, ''Owen Sound Sun Times'', 21 November 2011
Festival
The awards ceremony forms part of an indoor weekend winter festival at which bluegrass musicians from central Canada gather to perform for their fans, network, jam, attend workshops and listen to guest bands from the United States and other parts of Canada.
See also
*List of bluegrass music festivals
A list is a set of discrete items of information collected and set forth in some format for utility, entertainment, or other purposes. A list may be memorialized in any number of ways, including existing only in the mind of the list-maker, but ...
*List of country music festivals
The following is an incomplete list of country music festivals, which encapsulates music festivals focused on country music. This list may have some overlap with the larger topic list of folk festivals, and may also overlap with the related top ...
References
External links
Northern Bluegrass Committee web siteBluegrass Music Association of Canada
{{Canmusicawards
Music organizations based in Canada
Canadian music awards
Canadian country music
Canadian folk music
Huntsville, Ontario
Bluegrass music
Music festivals established in 1971