Taking A Break

The hiatus in postings is due to family visiting.

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As promised, here are the general reasons why some acts were never even considered, let alone invited to the ceremony:

1. Substance.  A group may fire away with pyrotechnics, may don wild costumes, may prance around on stage with amazing vigor, may wow you with a machine gun rhythm section, may even talk dirtier than the next guy.  There are countless ways to try to attract attention.  But often there's nothing behind the schtick.

2. Attitude.  Some offenders in this category are easily spotted: the poseurs who think we need to know about their superiority; these are often frantic chord thrashers, or shouters, or in-your-face arm-thrusters. 

3. Dullsville.  The formulaic pablum servers who never wander from their predictable script.  These are often attempts to capture others' success, or to recapture former glory.

Obviously, these categories are caricatures.  Most losers have one foot in one of these mud-holes and the other on firm ground, making them difficult to spot.  Even some of our Mighty 55 have only made it into the pantheon by virtue of being so overwhelmingly talented in some other way that we end up forgiving them their dalliances in one or more of the above quagmires.

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The Mighty 55 just wouldn't be complete without a shout-out to #56, the act bumped out of contention when all musical chairs were finally filled.

So, here's the Tupelo Honey award, given to Van Morrison for his deserving catalog.