FolkWorks Wins 2024 Best of The West Ambassador Award from Folk Alliance Region West

FolkWorks and Leda and Steve Shapiro have been honored with the 2024 Best of the West Ambassador Award by Folk Alliance Region West!  I will have the honor of introducing the Shapiros at the awards luncheon this October, and I’m looking forward to honoring them and highlighting their accomplishments.

Many of you may not be familiar with the award or even the sponsoring organization, Folk Alliance Region West.  So in this month’s blog I will be talking about the award itself, its history and past recipients.

The beginnings and definition of The Best of the West Award and FAR-West

First:  what is FAR-West?  The Folk Alliance Region West (FAR-West) is a community based non-profit 501(c)(3)  corporation and the western regional chapter of Folk Alliance International.  Largely through volunteer efforts and community support, FAR-West connects its vast region of listening rooms, festivals, folk societies, organizations, radio DJs, agents, managers, promoters, publications, and fans with the touring artists that cross its vast region.  In the US, FAR-West represents California, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, and Hawaii, and in Canada it represents Alberta, British Columbia, Yukon, and Northwest Territories.

Since 2003, FAR-West has produced an annual conference and also since 2020 select year-round programming to promote and support community connection, musical and cultural diversity, and professional growth within the contemporary and traditional folk music, storytelling, and dance communities of the North American West.

Read more about FAR-West HERE

The Best of the West Award

Established in 2005, the FAR-West “Best Of The West” Award celebrates individuals and organizations who have made a significant contribution to the FAR-West folk and acoustic music community in the North American West, maintained an enduring presence for at least a decade, inspire others by embodying folk values and traditions, promote, nurture, foster, and expand the audience and opportunities for folk music and musicians in our region.

A little bit about the nomination process and diversity of the two awards:

There are two Best of the West awards bestowed each year, one for an artist and one for the so defined “Ambassador.”  The Artist award criteria for an individual or group are that the awardee demonstrates excellence in craft, have an enduring presence in the geographic FAR-West folk community for at least a decade, embody or build upon folk values and traditions, and promote, nurture, foster, and expand the audience and opportunities for folk music and musicians in the FAR-West geographic region.

The criteria for the Ambassador Award for an individual or group are much the same as for the artist:  have an enduring presence in the geographic FAR-West folk community for at least a decade, embody or build upon folk values and traditions, and promote, nurture, foster, and expand the audience and opportunities for folk music and musicians in the FAR-West geographic region.  For this year (and you can see all the past year’s recipients below), FolkWorks is recognized along with its founders and managers, Leda and Steve Shapiro.

For a more detailed and interesting background on the award and FAR-West’s history, I urge you to  Read About The Best of the West HERE

And you can and should read Russ Paris’ fine history article on FAR-West: Read FAR-West Foundation History

In Russ’s article you will notice that Steve and Leda were inside the creation process from the beginning.  Representing their project FolkWorks, the Shapiros were foundational in the community-building and organizing that was essential in those early days.

Some History of FolkWorks (and a preview of the awards presentation)

As some of you may know, FolkWorks started out in January of 2001 as a bimonthly hardcopy newspaper with the intent of promoting folk music, dance and storytelling in the broadest sense throughout the greater Southern California area. The early editions consisted of 16 pages and contained interviews, CD reviews, listings of house concerts, venues, coffee houses, jam sessions and dances.  It contained a two-page event calendar and an extensive list of special events.  That first issue print run was 10,000 copies, created, written and distributed completely by volunteers.  Though the paper had grown to 32 pages since that first edition, the final print issue in July of 2007 was an abbreviated 16 pages with 16,000 copies distributed from Santa Barbara to San Diego.

At the end of 2007, FolkWorks migrated to an all online E-zine. It continued to feature CD, film, and concert reviews, columns and an expanded events calendar.  And in January 2020, the website was totally overhauled to become a modern, responsive website with individual content creators featuring the same content found in the original publication and much more.  Read Chris Wilson’s Article from FolkWorks The Truth about Leda and Steve Shapiro

PDFs of all the hardcopy newspapers plus copies of the digital Newsletters can be found here! Spend some time and enjoy reading through them.

Here is the full list of past Best of the West Award recipients  (due to pandemic-related issues, the years 2020 and 2022 did not produce a conference and no awards were given):

2005:  Artist:  Lowen & Navarro; Ambassador: Howard & Roz Larman – Folkscene
2006:  Artist:  U. Utah Phillips; Ambassador: Steve Baker – Freight & Salvage
2007:  Artist:  Rosalie Sorrels; Ambassador:  Clark & Elaine Weissman – California Traditional Music Society and Folk Alliance International Founders
2008:  Artist:  The Kingston Trio; Ambassador:  Mike McCormick – Whistling Swan Productions
2009:  Artist:  Joe Craven; Ambassador:  Bob Stane – Ice House / Coffee Gallery Backstage; Lifetime Achievement Award:  Faith Petric
2010:  Artist:  John McEuen; Ambassador: Cloud Moss – Kate Wolf Memorial Festival
2011:  Artist:   Laurie Lewis; Ambassador:  Phil and Vivian Williams
2012:  Artist:  Barry McGuire; Ambassador:  Chris Strachwitz – Arhoolie Records
2013:  Artist:  Chris Hillman; Ambassador:  Ed Pearl – The Ash Grove Foundation
2014:  Artist:  Barbara Dane; Ambassador:  Cassandra Flipper – Bread & Roses
2015:  Artist:  Cris Williamson; Ambassador:  Russ & Julie Paris;  Lifetime Achievement Award: Penny Nichols
2016:  Artist:  Danny O’Keefe; Ambassador:  Peter McCracken & the Centrum Foundation; Organizational Achievement Award: Seattle Folklore Society
2017:  Artist:  Alice Stuart; Ambassador:  Peter Langston & Janet Peterson –  Puget Sound Guitar Workshop; Organizational Achievement Award: Sisters Folk Festival
2018:  Artist:  Wendy Waldman; Ambassador:  Bob & Espie Riskin – McCabe’s Guitar Shop; Lifetime Achievement in Community Service Award: The Guacamole Fund
2019:  Artist:  Kate MacLeod; Ambassador:  Art Podell
2021:  Artist:  Nina Gerber; Ambassador:  Mickie Zekley/The Lark Camp;  Humanitarian Award:  Dan Navarro
2023:  Artist:  The Chambers Brothers; Ambassador:  Ellen Harper and The Folk Music Center Museum and Store

The FAR-West 2024 Best of The West Awards will be given at the awards luncheon at the annual conference taking place October 17-20 in Woodland Hills, California.
Find out how to register and attend HERE!

BIG congratulations to Steve and Leda Shapiro for their well-deserved recognition!

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And as always, thanks for reading! 
Love and Blessings,

Susie

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Award-winning recording artist, Broadway singer, journalist, educator and critically-acclaimed powerhouse vocalist, Susie Glaze has been called “one of the most beautiful voices in bluegrass and folk music today” by Roz Larman of KPFK’s Folk Scene.  LA Weekly voted her ensemble Best New Folk in their Best of LA Weekly for 2019, calling Susie “an incomparable vocalist.”  “A flat out superb vocalist… Glaze delivers warm, amber-toned vocals that explore the psychic depth of a lyric with deft acuity and technical perfection.”  As an educator, Susie has lectured at USC Thornton School of Music and Cal State Northridge on “Balladry to Bluegrass,” illuminating the historical path of ancient folk forms in the United Kingdom to the United States via immigration into the mountains of Appalachia.  Susie has taught workshops since 2018 at California music camps RiverTunes and Vocáli Voice Camp.  She is a current specialist in performance and historian on the work of American folk music icon, Jean Ritchie.  Susie now offers private voice coaching online via the Zoom platform.   www.susieglaze.com