ROCKWiRED READER'S POLL AWARD WiNNERS

AND THE WiNNERS ARE...
CURTiS PEOPLES, JANE BADLER, CiAM, THE SLANTS, & THE CHERRY POPPiN' DADDiES EMERGE ViCTORiOUS iN 2009 ROCKWiRED READER'S POLL AWARDS

(ANAHEIM, CA) The winners of the 2009 ROCKWIRED READER'S POLL AWARD were announced on a special one-hour edition of ROCKWIRED LIVE on March 7, 2009 at WWW.KTSTFM.COM by hosts BRIAN LUSH and SINE DOHERTY. Unlike victors of the past, some of this years winners were a surprise for ROCKWIRED's founding editor BRIAN LUSH. "It's surprising in a good way I suppose." says LUSH. "With ROCKWIRED, we always like to think that we do things a little differently and in turn look for something completely different in music. This year more than ever we did feature artists that I think were a little more radio friendly in certain respects, but the winners ended up being an art-rock band called CIAM and on the other hand you have a former sci-fi actress releasing this dark and quirky album. You never what's going to happen here next."

This was ROCKWIRED's third annual award season and this year the name of the proceedings was changed from the the ROCKWIRED AWARDS to the ROCKWIRED READER'S POLL AWARDS to keep in step with the website's growing reputation as a music magazine. Another change was the number of nominees. This year there were seven nominees per category. "2008 was a big year for ROCKWIRED. It was the most artists we had ever featured in our history" says LUSH. "The artistry had really gone through the roof this year and we wanted to give all of this great music a fair shot."

This year, ROCKWIRED retired it's MESSAGE BOARD as the sole means for voting. Electronic voting was made possible through MICROPOLL.COM.

The BEST MALE ARTIST category was awarded to singer/songwriter CURTIS PEOPLES for his debut CD 'CURTIS PEOPLES'. The vote was a landslide."There was definitely a lot of enthusiasm that surrounded PEOPLES and it showed in how people voted." says LUSH "This one really didn't surprise me all that much. He's a young guy with a good head on his shoulders and I really think he's going places. His best work is still ahead of him."

Rounding out the nominees for BEST MALE ARTIST were MIKE ZITO for the album 'TODAY', MUTLU ('LIVIN' IT), KRIS SEARLE ('SLOWLY DIABOLICAL'), JEFFREY HALFORD ('BROKEN CHORD'), EARL R. JOHNSON JR. ('JUICY'), and ED VALLANCE ('THE MODERN LIFE').

Winning for BEST FEMALE ARTIST was sci-fi sexpot and former MISS AMERICA contestant JANE BADLER for her out-of-left-field debut CD 'THE DEVIL HAS MY DOUBLE' "Traditionally, the BEST FEMALE ARTIST category is always a contentious one." says LUSH "JANE had a lot of competition with some very formidable artists such as SIMONE (daughter of NINA SIMONE), ARDEN KAYWIN and DELANEY GIBSON. At one point or another, there was always a different artist that was ahead in this category. Clearly this category is always the one to watch every year just to see how things play out. It's great that the winner was a bit quirky."

Rounding out the nominees for BEST FEMALE ARTIST were AMY KUNEY ('BIRD'S EYE VIEW'), CHINA FORBES ('78), and ALYSSA GRAHAM ('ECHO'). BADLER was also nominated for BEST ALBUM but was awarded to THE SLANTS for their album 'SLANTED EYES, SLANTED HEARTS'.

Art-rockers CIAM won the BEST BAND slot by an overwhelming margin. "Once again, this one was a surprise!" says LUSH. "Even though I always knew that the buzz surrounding these guys was electric, I sort of expected some of the more traditional sounding rock stuff like STAR OFF MACHINE ('BURN THIS'), FIXER ('BEFORE THE SUN'), or even a band like THE FRONTIER BROTHERS ('SPACE PUNK STARLET') to take this one home. But good for CIAM though. I'm happy for them."

Other nominees for BEST BAND included MINK ('MINK'), SICK OF SARAH ('SICK OF SARAH') and THE CHERRY POPPIN' DADDIES ('SUSQUEHANNA').

The Oregon-based dance-rock band THE SLANTS secured the title for BEST ALBUM with their widely acclaimed debut album 'SLANTED EYES, SLANTED HEARTS' and according to LUSH, he is sure the band themselves are not the least bit surprised. "When the nominations were announced, I got a message from the band on our MYSPACE page saying that we might as well give them the award right now. Well, here you go guys." says LUSH "Personally, I think there was a lot of stiff competition in this category as well. I think the artists this year made really strong records."

The nominees for BEST ALBUM included STAR OFF MACHINE ('BURN THIS'), THE CHERRY POPPIN' DADDIES ('SUSQUEHANNA') ZO2 ('AIN'T IT BEAUTIFUL'), JANE BADLER ('THE DEVIL HAS MY DOUBLE'), ARDEN KAYWIN ('THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM'), and AMELIA ('A LONG LOVELY LIST OF REPAIRS').

The winner fro BEST SONG was 'HI AND LO' by THE CHERRY POPPIN DADDIES off of their 2008 comeback effort 'SUSQUEHANNA'. The punchy ska number was a favorite of LUSH's. "I'm very pleased that this one came out exactly the way I had hoped it would."

Rounding out the nominees for BEST SONG were 'DINOSAUR' by LUSTRA, 'ROCKET SURGERY' by AMY KUNEY, 'THE WORST KIND OF WAY' by DELANEY GIBSON, 'LET IT GO' by ARDEN KAYWIN, 'JUMP BLUES' by THE FRONTIER BROTHERS, and 'AIN'T IT BEAUTIFUL' by ZO2.

"This was a surprising uncomplicated voting process!' says LUSH. "We're (ROCKWIRED.COM) looking forward to working with MICROPOLL again for future projects and most definitely next year's polling season."