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Reverend Zen Goes Winning Song of the Year At Effigy Awards

The New York group Reverend Zen continues to receive accolades as "The Boston Shakedown" was named Blues/Rock Song of the Year at the Effigy Awards ceremony held January 25 in Spain. In addition to their Song of the Year honors, Reverend Zen was one of the top five nominees in the Effigy Awards Best Artist in Style - Rock/Blues and was named a Finalist in the Best Instrumental, Best Group, Best Overall Artist, Most Popular Artist and Most Popular Band Category of the 2007/2008 awards.

The first annual Effigy Awards are part of Meer Music International's weekly show Fame Games, originating from Southern Spain. Fame Games is broadcast on one of Europe's largest networks, Onda Cero Radio 101.6FM and 94.6FM from the cities of Malaga and Marbella. Since their initial show in April 2006 Fame Games radio and internet broadcasts have grown a listener base of two million, with three hundred and fifty thousand monthly listeners, to become the number one internet show in the music industry. The show's English language broadcasts go out to an audience primarily in the United States, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom.

Paul Sedowski, CEO of Mere Music International, and his fellow Fame Games panelists remark, "Reverend Zen has gone and rocked our station totally and put big smiles on our faces with "The Boston Shakedown". They sound like a killer band that's tight, full of energy and swing, highly accomplished and credible. "The Boston Shakedown" is an excellent song with a great vibe. A very good band and a performance that rocks. In all the time we've been airing Fame Games very few bands come close to this one on technical merit with their songs. Their great musicianship and musical taste make it a pleasure to listen to this music. The group is one of our all-time favorites. Reverend Zen is an extremely credible band whose professionalism and class are easily apparent from the very first moment. Its musicians like these that deserve all the success."

Reverend Zen's Effigy Award win comes on the heels of the band receiving four Best Song Nominations in the Adult Contemporary Artist and Blues Category of The 2007 Los Angeles Music Awards for "Bad Attitude", "Don't Try to Tell Me", "The Boston Shakedown" and "Dangerous Times". The genre stretching group was subsequently named LAMA's 2007 Blues Artist of the Year. In December WCH Radio in St. Louis named Reverend Zen 2007 Artist of the Year for their debut cd Angels, Blues & the Crying Moon. The release has also brought the group two Finalist Awards from the 2007 Unisong International Song Contest in Los Angeles, for their songs "Magdalena" and "Bad Attitude", with "Dangerous Times" named a Finalist in the 2006 VH1 Song of the Year Contest in Houston. In early January Reverend Zen bandleader/songwriter Jack Evans was the recipient of a prestigious 2007/2008 ASCAP Plus Award in New York. "The Boston Shakedown" was previously a Runner Up in the 2006 VH1 Song Contest and has received awards from the Unisong Contest, the Mid-Atlantic Song Contest in Washington, D.C., the U.K.'s Singer-Songwriter Awards in London and the New York based Billboard World Song Contest. With their Effigy Award win Mr. Evans and Reverend Zen has now received thirty four music industry awards from around the globe.

Reverend Zen's Angels, Blues & the Crying Moon features a stellar group of musicians who've performed with Eric Clapton, Annie Lennox, David Sanborn, Bruce Springsteen, B.B. King, Shawn Colvin, Donald Fagen, John Scofield, Stevie Wonder, Paul Schaeffer, John Mayer and Elvis Costello. Since the album's release the band has received airplay and coverage in North and South America, Europe, Australia, the Middle East, Japan and Australia. Reverend Zen is also a Featured Artist on the recent compilation releases "Fresh Produce 4" from AAA format leader MVY Radio in Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket, Cape Cod, and Newport, R.I., "Music For Coffee Beings I" from RPW Records in British Columbia, Canada, "Songwriters & Storytellers" from the San Francisco Bay area's Indie Artist Alliance and "Just Talents" from Research Music in Miami, Rio De Janeiro, and Berlin.





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