Austin Music Awards Announces First Honorees of 2019 Ceremony

The Austin Music Awards announces today the opportunity to get in on the ground floor of something truly special. Tickets for it go on-sale this Friday, 10am, for the Feb. 27 extravaganza.

What exactly are you buying into?

The bulk of the winners won’t be determined for a while yet. That’s up to you to decide, dear readers, by casting your vote in the Austin Chronicle Music Poll. Not coincidentally, the first ballot begins Nov. 15.

Most of the performers – a jaw-dropping mix of homegrown talent and international stars, rubbing elbows, making incredible music together (oh hello Bruce Springsteen, Pete Townshend, Chrissie Hynde, Fiona Apple, Blondie, Robert Plant…) – won’t be revealed until well after the final ballots are cast in January. After that, it’s a snowball gathering mass until the ceremony itself, which takes place again at ACL Live at the Moody Theater, emceed by KUTX’s Laurie Gallardo and Rick McNulty, and backed by Music Director Charlie Sexton and his house band.

Today’s other big reveal is that the 2018/19 AMAs will be honoring two longtime creative forces in the Austin music community. First up, storied singer-songwriter Alejandro Escovedo, who will become the third recipient of the Townes Van Zandt Songwriting Award, following honorees Terry Allen and Joe Ely. Hand in hand with the TVZ plaque comes the Margaret Moser Women in Music Award, which in February goes to Dianne Scott, an essential figure at the Continental Club as publicist, venue historian, and gatekeeper. Previous conferrees of this award, named for the Chronicle’s late, much-loved music writer Margaret Moser, include Susan Antone, Rose Reyes, and Liz Lambert.

Also new this year: a partnership with Margin Walker, the live music booking, promotions, and creative marketing and events agency/powerhouse behind Fun Fun Fun Fest, Sound on Sound Fest, Levitation, and more.

Better still, it’s all in service of a worthy cause – twice over. AMA proceeds have long supported the SIMS Foundation, providing mental health services for Austin’s professional musician community and their families, and now in 2019 expands to include the Health Alliance for Austin Musicians (HAAM), which arranges access to affordable health care to the same working musician community.

Incidentally, celebrating that working musician community has always been the point, and purpose, of the AMAs, going on 37 years now. That never goes out of style.

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The Austin Music Awards are presented by The Austin Chronicle, SXSW, and ACL Live at the Moody Theater. The AMAs are produced in partnership with Louis Black Productions and Margin Walker. Purchase tickets.