Best Local Singer/Songwriter

The plight of the stark, lo-fi troubadour is not an easy one. In a post-Bright Eyes, post-Mountain Goats world, indie rock has seen just about every riveting trick one lonely man with a guitar can get away with — as well as the ones he can’t. But when BEN TRICKEY strums and sings about the dark, emotional side of life as an imperfect man, you believe him. The characters and narratives in his songs resonate with somber timelessness, scorched tones and dirty production qualities that add depth to his frail and frazzled arrangements. www.bentrickey.com. less...

Combine equal parts peace-punk intellect, street poet and world-weary traveler with an outsider complex, and you have JUJU B. SOLOMON: a post-Dylan songwriting enigma. To his friends he is Benjamin, but on stage “JuJu” takes over as his songs wander through a whimsical terrain of ennui and sexual discovery tamed only by a unique sense of humor. His rich tales reveal much about his personality; in “The Only American in Coimbatore,” he combs through the intimate and emotional exploits of an American making sense of the peculiar ways of social life in India. His songs bend the boundaries of comfort, but that’s what makes them so alluring.

www.myspace.com/jujubsolomon

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What sets ANNA KRAMER apart from the troubadour masses isn’t just the honesty in her songs, but her ability to wander through an array of musical styles while maintaining her own identity. Kramer’s voice is more honest-to-goodness human than seductress. Rather wielding feelings like a club, she confronts highs and lows with authentic emotions that bend to expose the subtleties in her songs. Kramer’s modest presence breathes realism into her performances whether she’s traversing country-music desolation and Kinks-style Brit rock, or simply covering Buck Owens, Buddy Holly or Carl Perkins. Sweet melancholy is as much her calling card as is her rockabilly twang.
www.annakramer.net.

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ANNA KRAMER is a little lady with a great big guitar who has more in common with the Rolling Stones and Gram Parsons than anyone else. Her frayed jangle and twang meets country and rock and roll under the flag of the British invaders — a place where the old gods of guitar finesse dress like mods and jam on Kinks songs. Whether going solo or performing with a revolving rhythm section of Selmanaires and A Fir-Ju Well members, Kramer struts a distinctive rock walk that transcends the singer/songwriter ghetto. less...