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Best Blues Band

Iko-Iko

This South Florida institution is the area's best because they are, well, more than just a blues band. The group's founder and lead singer Graham Wood Drout helped pioneer this region's blues scene back in the early '80s with the Fat Chance Blues Band, and his knowledge and understanding of the form is uncontestable. But along the way he has crafted an original body of work incorporating a host of roots influences, not the least of which is the swampy Louisiana groove and imagery evoked by the band's name. The current version of Iko-Iko is the strongest yet, featuring multi-instrumentalists Ron Dizubla and Doug Leibinger on saxes, guitar, and keyboards, and the band's most recent CD, Protected by Voodoo," is as finely tuned a product as any yet-to-go-national band could hope for. Tight, experienced, Iko-Iko satisfies the blues purist while forging its own more unique path.

Best Diva

LaGaylia

Histrionic vocals, drop-dead good looks, the haughty grace of a queen: LaGaylia is pure diva and then some. Holding court for years at Coconuts in Fort Lauderdale with the understated backing of acoustic group Wooden Ships, LaGaylia has recently been hitting local stages with Nickel 'N' Dime frontman John Eatmon in a much louder R&B configuration. All peak and no valley, her performances start at the top and then go over it. (Think Patti Labelle.) Pressing all the right buttons for those who demand emotional exhaustion over subtlety, LaGaylia slays her fans, who shower her with bouquets of flowers like any true diva deserves.

Best Diva

LaGaylia

Histrionic vocals, drop-dead good looks, the haughty grace of a queen: LaGaylia is pure diva and then some. Holding court for years at Coconuts in Fort Lauderdale with the understated backing of acoustic group Wooden Ships, LaGaylia has recently been hitting local stages with Nickel 'N' Dime frontman John Eatmon in a much louder R&B configuration. All peak and no valley, her performances start at the top and then go over it. (Think Patti Labelle.) Pressing all the right buttons for those who demand emotional exhaustion over subtlety, LaGaylia slays her fans, who shower her with bouquets of flowers like any true diva deserves.

Best Local Acoustic Performer

Marie Nofsinger

She came from Massachusetts and has long inhabited South Florida, but Marie's songs seem to drift out of western borderlands, all smoky with mesquite and a Texas-size longing. Standing resolute, cradling her guitar as both friend and shield, she sings of big empty skies and worn-out boots, looking back wistfully on love and history with a knowing voice that would almost break your heart if not for her punctuating smiles. After years of hustling cassettes, Nofsinger proudly released her first CD this year. Entitled Boots (Nofsinger is one folkie you won't see in sandals!), it is a great collection of acoustic originals featuring her confident strumming augmented by friends like Dusty Rhodes on bass and Bobby Hester on harmonica. Marie is a troubadour of the first order, gracing not just the stages of the region's top folk festivals but the late-night song-swaps around the campfires where reputations are made, places where she is known as one of the best.

Best Local Acoustic Performer

Marie Nofsinger

She came from Massachusetts and has long inhabited South Florida, but Marie's songs seem to drift out of western borderlands, all smoky with mesquite and a Texas-size longing. Standing resolute, cradling her guitar as both friend and shield, she sings of big empty skies and worn-out boots, looking back wistfully on love and history with a knowing voice that would almost break your heart if not for her punctuating smiles. After years of hustling cassettes, Nofsinger proudly released her first CD this year. Entitled Boots (Nofsinger is one folkie you won't see in sandals!), it is a great collection of acoustic originals featuring her confident strumming augmented by friends like Dusty Rhodes on bass and Bobby Hester on harmonica. Marie is a troubadour of the first order, gracing not just the stages of the region's top folk festivals but the late-night song-swaps around the campfires where reputations are made, places where she is known as one of the best.

Best Local Concert

Medeski, Martin and Wood with DJ Logic

It was the setting as much as the set that made this jazz funk trio's performance the best concert of the year. Keyboardist John Medeski went to high school at Pine Crest, a tony academy nestled in a northeast Fort Lauderdale neighborhood, and this show was a homecoming of sorts. Fresh from an appearance on the PBS series Sessions at West 54th, Medeski, bassist Chris Wood, drummer Billy Martin, and turntable artist Logic blazed through an inspired showcase of MMW's new album, Combustication. The crisp acoustics of Pine Crest's pristine auditorium and a hometown crowd of parents and friends made for a cozy high-school ambiance at a most uncommon venue. Inexplicably, punch was not served.

Best Local Concert

Medeski, Martin and Wood with DJ Logic

It was the setting as much as the set that made this jazz funk trio's performance the best concert of the year. Keyboardist John Medeski went to high school at Pine Crest, a tony academy nestled in a northeast Fort Lauderdale neighborhood, and this show was a homecoming of sorts. Fresh from an appearance on the PBS series Sessions at West 54th, Medeski, bassist Chris Wood, drummer Billy Martin, and turntable artist Logic blazed through an inspired showcase of MMW's new album, Combustication. The crisp acoustics of Pine Crest's pristine auditorium and a hometown crowd of parents and friends made for a cozy high-school ambiance at a most uncommon venue. Inexplicably, punch was not served.

Best Local Solo Musician

Scott Avery

A solo performer need not have a slew of computerized gizmos to be a one-man band, only a commitment to deliver as much music as he or she possibly can through his or her instrument of choice. When Scott Avery anchors a corner of a bar (such as Maguire's Hill 16 in Fort Lauderdale) with just his voice, his trusty Ovation guitar, and a stool, he unleashes a mind-numbing array of songs every bit as powerful as a full band. Avery inhabits his selections with an intuition that grasps their essence, turning everything from obscure rock nuggets to the latest pop hits into a singular repertoire that's all his. He is a man who knows how to entertain a crowd, but his CD release Night Fell Laughing, (a collaboration with multi-instrumentalist Michael Uhrich) is far more personal, a highly original affair featuring ornately constructed compositions performed with players like fiddler Jason Philbin (Goats Don't Shave). It reflects a depth that makes Scott Avery a standout among the area's solo performers.

Best Local Solo Musician

Scott Avery

A solo performer need not have a slew of computerized gizmos to be a one-man band, only a commitment to deliver as much music as he or she possibly can through his or her instrument of choice. When Scott Avery anchors a corner of a bar (such as Maguire's Hill 16 in Fort Lauderdale) with just his voice, his trusty Ovation guitar, and a stool, he unleashes a mind-numbing array of songs every bit as powerful as a full band. Avery inhabits his selections with an intuition that grasps their essence, turning everything from obscure rock nuggets to the latest pop hits into a singular repertoire that's all his. He is a man who knows how to entertain a crowd, but his CD release Night Fell Laughing, (a collaboration with multi-instrumentalist Michael Uhrich) is far more personal, a highly original affair featuring ornately constructed compositions performed with players like fiddler Jason Philbin (Goats Don't Shave). It reflects a depth that makes Scott Avery a standout among the area's solo performers.

Best Production Of A Musical

Das Barbecü

Thanks to the proliferations of Broadway tours, South Florida audiences are never far from at least a glimmer of the Great White Way. What's harder to sample are the off-Broadway hits, shows that -- because of their quirkiness or bold attitudes -- don't quite fit into the mainstream. One such musical was Das Barbecü, the riotous, Hee-Haw-inspired adaptation of Wagner's Ring cycle presented by the Actors' Playhouse. How do you present a spoof of a three-day opera cycle in two-and-a-half hours? Apparently, by throwing together giants, Norns, river maidens, star-crossed lovers, and the rest of the gang of Teutonic trillers (all possessed of Broadway voices) with sequins, lassos, and kitsch-inspired lyrics. "I could eat a/Pound of Velveeta" went one song we couldn't get out of our heads. Nor do we ever want to.

Best Of Broward-Palm Beach®

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