The Canadian Country Music Awards
The CCMA Awards are Canada's premiere national country music awards program. The awards were first established in 1976 as the Academy of Country Music Entertainment. In 1987 the name was changed to the Canadian Country Music Association. From the outset and under the direction of the first Board of Directors President, Hank Smith, the group has set out to organize, promote and develop a Canadian country music industry. This included the founding of Country Music Week.
In 1999 The CCMA began to air the awards show on CBC Television. The awards are now also broadcast on CMT in Canada, Great American Country (GAC) in the US and the Country Music Channel (CMC) in Australia.
More information is available on the CCMA website at
While the Canadian Country Music Awards focus on awarding Canadian country artists, there are a few categories that could potentially apply to bluegrass / old time style bands and artists, particularly if the group or individual is somewhat contemporary in style. These categories are in the 'Musician Awards' grouping and include Bass Player of the Year, Fiddle Player of the Year, Guitar Player of the Year and Specialty Instrument Player of the Year. There could be others as well in the 'Artist Awards' group. There has been at least one banjo player awarded the Specialty Instrument Player of the Year award.
In our opinion, it appears that the CCMA would be open to submissions from bluegrass artists and in fact, might actually welcome them. With all the excellent country artists here in Canada it might just be that the CCMA is not completely aware of the rich bluegrass/old time music scene in this country. So it might be worth making a submission.
The CCMA has a very clear process posted on their website detailing the rules for submitting yourself or your group for an award consideration. While this is fairly long and detailed, it is worth checking out if you are considering making a submission. Click on this link to see more.
