My Ballot: Fids and Kamily Awards 2013

The 2013 Fids and Kamily Awards were recently announced. I was a participating voter for the second consecutive year (thanks, organizers!). In going over my blog, I  had reviewed more than 50 "qualifying" CDs from domestic and international recording artists. From that list, I narrowed it down to 23 whom I felt more comfortable "ranking" in my top 10.

I passed the list to my wife, who hears music with Ben (12) and Matt (2 3/4) at times when I am not with them. She highlighted several entries, commenting that there were numbers from those performers that the boys would sometimes "burst into singing."

I also factored in the number of times that selected cuts turned up on Ben's playlists once they exited my review queue and made their way into his "Record" folder in iTunes. Clearly, songs that were played once (as a courtesy) and never again for months at a time meant they were discounted pretty quickly.

In cross-examining my list with the "winners," there are a few key omissions. I want to explain that my list is comprised of CDs that were sent for review but may also have been purchased. That being said, two of the top 10 CDs (TURN TURN TURN by Dan Zanes and Elizabeth Mitchell and the debut album from SHINE AND THE MOONBEAMS) never reached our home.

I'm not saying that my votes would have displaced any of the artists who finished higher. However if I factored in certain songs from Shine and the Moonbeams that we heard on Spare the Rock (which Ben subsequently requested for purchase), arguably they might have moved up a spot with 8-10 points.

That being said, I'm satisfied with my list, which includes several artists who did NOT make the top 10 (or even the top 20):

1. Deep Sea Diver – Recess Monkey
2. When the World Was New – Dean Jones
3. It's Not Fair to Me – Bill Harley and Keith Munslow
4. Again! – Billy Kelly and the Blah Blah Blahs
5. I Found You – Caspar Babypants
6. Recess – Justin Roberts
7. Bandwagon – Joanie Leeds and the Nightlights
8. Hootenanny – Jambo
9. Love, Monsters, and Cake – Princess Katie and Racer Steve
10. S. S. Brooklyn – Lloyd H. Miller