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| Aoede Wins 2012 "Album Of The Year" And "Best Folk/Acoustic Artist" Singer/Songwriter Lisa Sniderman, aka: Aoede (pronounced A-E-D), has won Album of the Year for her 2011 release Affair with the Muse, and Best Folk/Acoustic Artist in the inaugural 2012 Artists In Music Awards. The awards were presented during the Artists in Music Awards ceremony, held during Grammy Week at the prestigous Key Club in Hollywood, Calfornia, February 10, 2012. The Artists in Music Awards gives special recognition to the best unsigned and independent music artists around the world. The Artists in Music Awards ceremony, created by casting agent, producer and host of the long-running online streaming radio program The Great Unknowns Presents, Mikey Jayy, was presented in front of a live audience of 1, 400 people and was also streamed live online in HD. Aoede will release her second full-length CD April 15, 2012, Skeletons of the Muse, which was partially funded by fans through Kickstarter. Skeletons of the Muse comes a little over one year since the release of her digital EP, Affair with the Muse, in March 2011, which shot her to #2 on Reverbnation's San Francisco pop chart and #74 on the national chart. Also in that time, Aoede has garnered numerous accolades for her music, won multiple songwriting awards, developed a popular blog, engaged fans through social media, and participated in national motivational speaking engagements where she offers support, advice, and encouragement. Aoede, who is also WomensRadio.com's recipient of a "Top Album of the Decade" honor, and "Top Artist of the Year" for 2008, in recognition of her CD release, Push and Pull, accomplished all of this, plus more, in quite the unorthodox fashion and against a very fierce obstacle - while suffering from a rare connective-tissue disease called Dermatomyositis for which there is no known cure. Dermatomyositis, which afflicts an estimated 5.5 people per million, attacks and weakens the immune system, muscles and skin as well as the mind and spirit, and if left untreated, could result in complete muscle wasting and long-term disability, as well as other complications. Aoede's condition, the onset of which inexplicably began in mid-2008, worsened in September 2010 to where she had to be hospitalized for 24-days of treatment and rehabilitation. She credits two forms of treatment that is helping her rebuild her body and spirit: Intravenous therapies and creating Affair with the Muse and Skeletons of the Muse. Aoede states, "A large part of my healing process remains creating new music and connecting with people. The objective in getting these songs out was because I didn't know what life was going to bring. Music is my lifeline. I cannot perform live for awhile; so I hope to reach those who feel helpless and alone and offer inspiration and support with every ounce of my soul. Being recognized by Artists In Music Awards is a true honor and privilege and incredibly gratifying. It shows me it is really all about the music." The unique Artists In Music Awards three-stage judging process stipulates that a combination of votes from fans and a panel of judges, comprised of music industry professionals, are required to advance the nominee to Final Category Winner Selection. A lack of first stage fan participation, resulting in low nominee fan votes, will lead to contest disqualification before advancing to the elimination round. In the event of a fan and judge vote tie, the fans cast the final vote. According to Mikey Jayy, "We believe we made the voting process as fair as possible. Aoede won Best Folk/Acoustic Artist with 50% of the votes, with the runner-up coming in with 25% of the votes. For Album of the Year, Aoede's won with 63% of the votes, with the runner up coming in with 27% of the votes. Because she not only had the support of her fans, but also had the support of the judges, with that kind of support, no one can argue that she didn't deserve both awards." Fans of Ingrid Michaelson, Regina Spektor, Feist, Lily Allen and A Fine Frenzy resonate with Aoede's prodigal and passionate songwriting skills that synergistically blend melody and lyric into compellingly captivating musical vignettes conveyed in her imitable breathy, bouncy, and enchantingly quirky soprano. Affair with the Muse was produced by Scrote (http://www.scrotemusic.com) whose credits include Maynard James Keenan's (Tool) side project Pusifier, Ministry's Paul Barker, 2-time Grammy-winner Bubba Hernandez, and The Stripminers, and engineering was handled by the Grammy-nominated Mark Needham (http://www.markneedham.com) who has worked with Shakira, The Killers, Chris Isaak, Neon Trees, Fleetwood Mac, and My Chemical Romance. An avid philanthropist, Aoede is also a co-founder of WomenROCK (http://womenrocksf.wordpress.com/), a Bay Area-based women-in-music advocacy group, and a driven environmentalist with a passion for water resources. write your comments about the article :: © 2012 Jazz News :: home page |