Josie Little wins the Big Blue Button award for the second year in a row edging out Uncle Leon’s “Beer Train” by almost 150 votes proving that talent, tenacity, savvy marketing, a great personality, and a well chosen camera angle will beat out anyone’s thirst for beer every time. We love you Josie, and remember if you win a third year you will receive half of a crocheted sports-bra from Popa2unes (tell him we sent you).
Runner Up: Uncle Leon “Beer Train”
In our never-ending quest to make fun of Foursquare, which was started at the lesser-known festival in Austin, we would like to crown a “Mayor” of Couch by Couchwest. Not only did this person help us recruit dozens of bands and musicians, he also helped with publicity, constantly checked in on twitter, spammed all of his Facebook friends with videos, scared the children with creepy photos, and kept us of all very, very amused. He was more useful than our intern.
Deputy Mayors: @toomuchcountry, @BoogieStudio22, @AnnieTUFF
One of the best parts of CXCW is interacting with everyone through twitter, be it artists, fans, enthusiasts, jokers, and other weirdos. This year one twitterer stood out from the rest with gems like this: “aw, man! i was totally gonna use a commodore 64 for my rhythm section but i couldn’t find the power cord,” and “@_KennyRogers is Mr. Rogers going to do a song for @couchxcouchwest this year?…figured he could at least drop in to see what condition my cushions were in,” and “If @sxsw is the veritable “Who’s Who” of the music world, then @couchxcouchwest is surely the “Who The Hell Is That and Where Do I Get More” and he tweets us a photo of coffee and cigarettes and call it breakfast. He’s also not a bad singer/songwriter either.
Other people who were awesome twitterers (follow all of these people!):
st1ck3r
YumaWray
LeapingPenguin
maggiesfavorite
sam6025
toomuchcountry
magearwig
nowthissound
popa2unes
WhiskeyT
AnnieTuff
lustymonk
BoogieStudio22
jgstott
HukeGreen
commonfolkmusic
thejujuqueen
Okay, so three years in may be a little early for a Lifetime Achievement Award, but hey, did anyone really think we’d last this long when we started that tumblr account oh so long ago?
This award goes to someone who has sacrificed many nights and weekends over the last three years to get the music of his hometown (the Florence/Muscle Shoals, AL area) to the CXCW masses. This year he was scheduling video shoots before we had even updated the dates on the website. That’s someone who cares about the music. If our math is correct, there have been 8 different artists/bands with a total of 13 videos who we might never had heard of were it not for Corey Hannah and his great videographer skills. We’re going to post a few of our favorites below, and if you like what you see, also check out Live From the Shoals, another project that Corey is involved with.
Thank you Corey for all the music you’ve brought us and we’re looking forward to what surprises next year brings!
The Pyles – CXCW 2013
The Pollies – CXCW 2013
The Bear
Doc Dailey – CXCW 2011
Last year, this award ended up going to the town of San Luis Obispo because of all the great bands that submitted videos from there. This year, we noticed an influx of videos from the great state of Alabama. We couldn’t pin down just one part of the state where great music was coming from, so we want to party with the entire state! To see all the great bands from Alabama who posted this year, just click the Alabama tag at the bottom of the page.
Runners Up: Dead Amble looks like they’re having a blast on the rooftop in Astoria and the Blind Owl Boys sure do look like a lot of fun.
None of our other videos can beat Dan Stuart‘s view and description of his home in Oaxaca, Mexico.
Runners Up: Doc Feldman gave us a great location with this deserted distillery in Kentucky and Peter Simon shows us the streets of Baton Rouge, LA.
Also Scenic: Gretchen Peters & Ben Glover, Fifth on the Floor, & Blind Owl Band.
We loved everything about this video – that it was filmed on the New York City subway, that random people kept on shouting “beer train,” that the chick with the book kept giving snide looks… That’s why Uncle Leon has earned 2013′s Most Creative Location award! Note: If we had done a best drinking song award this year, this song would’ve won it too.
Runner Up: Anna Roberts-Gevalt showed us her crankie from the aisles of her local grocery.
Also creative: Magnolia Collective, magearwig, Hallelujah the Hills, The End Men
We pretty much knew who was going to win this award the minute we watched this video in its entirety. Mark Piper and friends embodies the CXCW attitude on drinking, especially when the girl on the right falls over and doesn’t even try to get up. Cheers to winning this award, Mark!
Runner Up: Granted, Todd Farrell, Jr may have had some help earning this spot since we rejected a couple submissions of his one night for not being drunk enough.
Also Drunk: Chris Watts Band, Chris Porter
Grainne Hunt from Ireland won the difficult category of Best Cover with her version of Tom Waits’ “I Hope I Don’t Fall In Love With You.”
Runner Ups: James Scott Bullard and Have Gun Will Travel were two other covers that we loved. Ed Tang gave us the most unexpected cover of the week with his Wu-Tang/Vanilla Ice medley.
Other Great Covers: Wes Floyd & the Great Daisycocks, Forest Sun & Ingrid Serban, & The Whispering Tree.
We’ve never seen an eight-year-old sing quite like Emi Sunshine, much less write songs at that age. Plus, how cool is it that she has a pet rooster?
All of our younger performers were impressive this year, so be sure to check them out here: Jessie Jones, The Foresters, The 7teens, & Hank.