And the winners are...

Our first-annual GO Music Awards were a smash hit thanks to almost 1,000 voters and the bands that rock our city. Here’s a look at the winners.

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There are a lot of band names found in each issue of GO, but unless you know someone in a given group (Jesse James Wax Museum, for example) you might have no idea of what kind of music they play, much less if they’re any good. (For the record: a rootsier take on Belle & Sebastian, and yes.) We could write articles about bands and artists from now until Sanjaya’s solo album comes out, but it’s your opinion of local music that really matters. So the first annual GO Music Awards arrives with you, the loyal local musichead, in mind. You’ve been to the shows late at night at places such as The Bar Next Door, The Outland and Remmington’s Downtown. You nominated your favorite artists to the final ballot and you voted for your favorite from among the top five. All we did was design nifty trophies out of rock (because you can’t carve trophies out of hip hop or bluegrass) and write about the winners in each of seven categories. The eighth category, Best Band, sent the five most-nominated groups to a battle of the bands competition at Rock’n Ribs on Saturday, April 21 to play before a panel of four judges and a fantastic crowd to determine the winner. You can read about the results of that and the other categories in the coming pages. Don’t see your favorite artist in the winner’s slot, or even in the top five? There’s always next year. Until then, read on; Springfield’s best musicians await.

BEST BAND
BEST SOLO ARTIST	BEST HIP HOP
BEST BAND, BLUEGRASS OR COUNTRY	BEST DJ
BEST ROCK BAND	BEST COVER BAND
BEST BAND, FAN VOTE	BEST ALBUM OF THE YEAR
EDITORS' PICKS