The 8th Annual Lehigh Valley Music Awards will be held tonight in Hellertown, where many familiar names can expect to add more pieces to their busy mantles. The majority of the awards are picked by fans, who voted online throughout the last month, but their votes are likely to prove again that the Lehigh Valley music scene is still, like the area around it, a work in progress where a few dominate and many others are still working for recognition. They will also prove, however, that the scene is just as diverse as the populous.

Bands like 39 Goodbyes (emo whether they like it or not), KEF (jam band whether they like it or not) and the Mississippi Pig Farmers (whatever they are, I think they like it) are slated to perform. Add them to almost 10 more bands covering the jazz, hip-hop and folk genres and you get the closest thing to a Lehigh Valley mixtape since they released the CD honoring the last group of LVMA nominees. It's looking at the past winners, though, that shows a lot of the same names seem to win the awards- names such as Jake Kaligis, Sarah Ayers and Craig Thatcher who deserve all the accolades they get, but trend towards older audiences. These names also appear in many of the overwhelming number of categories (Best Entertaining Band AND Best Live Performance?), making it even harder for a newer artist to break in. I don't have the time or the knowledge to go through all the categories and make picks, but these younger/newer artists have the best chance to walk away with awards tonight: 39 Goodbyes, Tug McRaw, The Swimmers Union and KEF.

Tonight's show at the Meadows in Hellertown is slated to kick off at 5 with a buffet that you can get into for just a $5 dollar donation to the Salvation Army plus any canned food or new toy you'd like to give; all who do are automatically entered into a drawing for a $50 grand prize later in the night. The awards are still a great opportunity to sample everything the Valley has to offer as the organizers have done a great job of showcasing diversity in the performers they chose for tonight, even if the list of winners doesn't turn out to be nearly as  eclectic.

-Ryan