Local Musician of the Year (Wonderland)
Song of the Year ("Blue Lights")
Songwriter(s) of the Year (Wonderland)
Best Blues (Carolyn Wonderland & the Imperial Monkeys)
Best Female Vocalist (Wonderland)
Best Guitarist (Eric Dane)
Best Drummer (Leesa Harrington Squyres)

Carolyn Wonderland and the Imperial Monkeys
"Blue Lights" came fully out of left field. A smoldering, blind-side knockout of a yuletide lament and this year's winner in the Song of the Year category, the track can only on be found on a three-song, limited-edition Justice Records EP. Yes, it's a Christmas song, but its sorry sentiments are applicable year round. Ugly breakups, after all, are hardly exclusive to the holidays.

"Now Betty told Margaret / And your best friend Sue / That she talked to Linda / You said we were through," Wonderland holds forth in her weary, soul-sapped lilt, one that, much like the best whiskey, only seems to grow more gut-searingly potent with age. "And those are such sad words / That I hate to hear / There'll only be blue lights / On my Christmas tree this year."

Wonderland didn't pen those lyrics (they belong to longtime friend and collaborator Kenny Blanchet, as does the music), but she makes them her own, leaving little doubt that they were written with her road-burned temperament in mind. Such is the toll on musicians' personal lives when a band travels as much as the Imperial Monkeys have in the last few years.

Besides being away from their loved ones, they've been MIA for the last two Press showcases and every awards ceremony in recent memory. But all that road work has earned them a profile on the festival and club circuit disproportionate to the meager popularity of their recorded output. That might explain why this year's Best Drummer winner, Leesa Harrington Squyres, was pulled back into the Monkeys' fold just months after she'd turned in her notice, claiming she'd had enough of the lifestyle.

Meanwhile, playing so much has tightly fused the group's ragged ends. Harrington Squyres and Chris King never fail to lock into a low-maintenance backbeat to set your pacemaker by, while Eric Dane continues to unearth the perfect Stonesy leads to soothe Wonderland's chronic case of the blues. Though the band's songwriting evolves in fits and spurts, their emotional honesty and infallible work ethic add poignancy to even their murkiest creative currents. And naturally, getting out of town so much has only bolstered their local mystique -- a get-off-yer-ass lesson other Houston bands could stand to learn.

As for the Imperial Monkeys' inexplicable habit of garnering the winner's share of the votes in the Best Blues category -- an honor they loathe -- it looks like they'll have to suck it up. Unconditional love is a bitch. (Hobart Rowland)

Best Local Label (Justice Records)

From a statistical standpoint, the last 24 months at Justice Records have been sluggish, to say the least. Indeed, significant layoffs were the biggest news at the Houston label in the last year. Justice could boast only six CD projects in all of '97, and two of those were a limited-edition EP (Carolyn Wonderland's eloquent bummer of a Christmas greeting, "Blue Lights") and a re-release (Willie Nelson's 1971 effort Yesterday's Wine). As for 1998, nada so far.

But things might be looking up for Justice -- or so we've been told in so few words. Rumors that a juicy deal is imminent seem to be drifting closer to fact. Theories on what that deal might be have ranged from the possibility of Justice's being absorbed by a major label to its entering a mutually lucrative deal with a mammoth industry player while still maintaining autonomy. Whatever the case, we ought to hear something by summer's end. And judging from preliminary samples of Jesse Dayton's latest material, Justice may have, at the very least, a critical and artistic smash on its hands. If label president Randall Jamail plays his cards right, Justice might turn that into a commercial victory as well. (H.R.)