Carrie Melton & The Minor Fall

Though new to the local music scene, Carrie Melton and the Minor Fall have wasted no time cutting their teeth with an aggressive schedule of live shows peppered throughout Milwaukee. An acoustic collaboration of guitar, bass, drums, violin and banjo, Melton and Company revive Americana with a fun, fresh take on humble influences. Be on the lookout for new material and a new release from this young upstart. - Dawn Ziolkowski Intercontinental Milwaukee Underground Music Series

The Wisconsin Area Music Industry announced today the nominees for its 30th awards show. The WAMI Awards have made great strides toward becoming less insular over the last several years, and by and large this year's list of nominees is pretty astute, including many of the state's breakout musicians from the past couple years and the most probable breakouts of next year—though the WAMI's usual bias toward WAMI members remains in some of the small categories. What's most impressive about this list is how many emerging Wisconsin artists have made a name for themselves outside the state. In years past, the WAMI Awards felt mostly like wish fulfillment, but this year there are genuine success stories to celebrate.

New Artist of the Year: New Dog Trick; WhiskeyBelles; Pezzettino; Carrie Melton; and Jeanna Salzer.

http://www.expressmilwaukee.com/blog-4929-wami-awards-announce-2010-nominees.html - Expressmilwaukee.com

The 2011 WAMI CD Roulette had 21 diverse songs submitted for review in the contest by a cross-section of Wisconsin’s finest musicians. The Judges had their work cut out for them! There was some great music all around for this 3-hour event held at Cascio Interstate Music in New Berlin, Wisconsin. Songs were selected anonymously and judged on a points scale for a variety of criteria including: Originality, Performance, Musicianship, Vocal Quality, Lyricism, and Songcraft.

This year’s panel of judges included Lisa Enders Medill from the Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI), Kevin Machan – keyboardist from the band Rabid Aardvarks, Kris Raymond – President/Founder of the Grafton Blues Association, and Rick Rand a producer and manager of several Wisconsin bands.

1st Place – Nora Collins 2nd Place – Carrie Melton and The Minor Fall 3rd Place - Great Lake Drifters (Ryan Elliott) Congratulations to this year’s WAMI CD Roulette winners! There was some GREAT MUSIC presented and the judges had their work cut out for them! Thanks to all who entered. - Wamimusic.com