It is wonderful to see Ernie Haase and Signature Sound nominated. Ernie has a great presence which was evident when he was with the Cathedrals but boy how he doth shine now. Great job Ernie. George would be real proud of you.

It's great to see The Booth Brothers finally getting the attention they deserve, but being a huge fan of them & SSQ, it's gonna be hard to choose in several of those categories. I'm thrilled to see them on the list so often. It's also great to see The Hoskins Family nominated for their last project "It's Over, Let Eternity Begin". It is an awesome CD! I can hardly wait to vote!

http://marciswords.blogspot.com

I am glad to see Rick Hendrix up for promoter of the year. Nobody works for his people like Hendrix. Good job.

Dale

Go Steve Cheney!!!! You are da man!!! Love you dude!

Mike said: I am very surprised that Guy Penrod is not nominated as male vocalist. I can understand his being shunned by the Singing News Fan Awards because of who is nominating and voting. I expected different results from the SGN staff.

Do all of you at SGN honestly believe that all (or even any) of your nominees are better than Guy? I am not bashing your picks. They are all excellent singers, IMO. They just don't measure up to Guy.

SGN: The SGN Music Awards are unique in that they do not represent anyone's favorites or even represent who might be the all around best. They represent the past year's accomplishments. They do not take into consideration anything but the past year.

Mike said: What is the criteria for nominations? The Imperials arguably have the best singers and group. Must they have a record release in the past year?

SGN: The criteria is the accomplishments of the prior year, in this case, the accomplishments of 2005 are taken into consideration. The Imperials have not had a new release in years, nor have they had a radio release in years. As much as we will not argue their talent, they did not meet the criteria for accomplishments in the year 2005.

Mike said:If Joyce Martin was eligible for "Best Live Performer" (which is better than "Best Dead Performer"), then why would she not be eligible for best female vocalist? She is perhaps the best famale gospel singer of all time.

SGN: As already stated, the awards do not represent the "Best" or the "Favorite," they represent accomplishments for the previous year's work.

Mike said:I would like to see you expand the awards to include favorite at various positions (tenor, lead, baritone, bass, alto, soprano). Although I agree that SG music has spread its umbrella to embrace many more styles (I am glad), the one part that is nearly exclusive to SG music is the low (or sometimes "lowly") bass singer. I did not see any bass singer mentioned specifically.

SGN: We did at one time consider honoring the various parts however almost every award system operates that way and we chose to be different.

We appreciate your feed back and hope we have answered your questions.