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Music Awards Winners

The Ridglea Theater welcomed 300-plus folks for our 24th or 25th annual shindig.

April 1, 2026

Inside-Cover — Photo courtesy The Fender Benders

The hundreds of guests were fabulous, the performances grand, the production smooth, and the winners gracious for our 24th or 25th Annual Fort Worth Weekly Music Awards ceremony Sunday at the Ridglea Theater. And, yes, LABELS screaming, “Fuck, ICE!” during their acceptance speech for either best punk band or album of the year — they won both; I just forget when the righteous epithet occurred — counts as actually more than gracious. There are some bad things that we sane, rational American citizens would like to do the Trump Gestapo that go way beyond words. For instance, separate those ass-clowns from their families, ship them to a third-world country they’ve never even been to, and imprison them there. That would be a start.

Anyway, our annual Music Awards ceremony. The overall timbre was inspirational. The one theme that pretty much everyone on the mic underlined or touched on at some point involved doing the seemingly unthinkable in this cruel, soul-sucking timeline: putting down our phones, getting up off the couch, and supporting live local music in person.

I’ve been doing this shit for the Weekly for a long time. I wrote a Fort Worth-centric music column every week for over 20 years. That’s well over a thousand stories, and at around 700 words a pop at minimum, that amounts to nearly 730,000 words about Fort Worth music. That’s almost as long and perhaps needlessly arcane as the Bible — but with much less incest, death, and destruction and a lot more booze and smokes. Super-long story short: I’ve seen a lot.

With the exception of the occasional fluff piece in the Star-Telegram, we were the only ones taking local musical artists seriously, affording them the interest, patience, and exposure that often went to Dallas or touring acts in bigger yet lesser newspapers and magazines. It wasn’t just me. Ken Shimamoto and Caroline Collier also pounded out profiles and reviews every week for years, and while I’m not sure of those two’s relationship to the current scene, I know mine is distant at best. With a wife, 14-year-old, dog, and turtle at home, I don’t get out as much as I used to. I still listen to all the great artists that Steve Steward, Patrick Higgins, Kena Sosa, and Johnny Govea write about for us every week, and allow me to say as a 23-year scene supporter, the music is there. Is it as hot-shit as Fort Worth circa 2007? No, but then again, nothing ever will be. The upshot is that lots of Fort Worth folks are making exceptionally tasty music.

One thing that singer-songwriter John Zaskoda said while inducting his dearly departed friend Nick Choate into our Hall of Fame that stuck with me involved artists making their own spaces. We may all pine for the glory days when Lola’s/Wreck Room, The Moon, The Grotto, and The Aardvark regularly packed their rooms with shaking bodies for mostly Fort Worth-local, often original live music. But maybe that’s because we’re old. There are still spots here. They may not be as wheels-off as the clubs of yore, but that’s a good thing. Almost all our presenters and recipients implored the Ridglea crowd to just go see shows. Listening/watching online is fine. Having your face melted by a kickass band in the flesh, even finer.

Thanks to everyone who showed up and showed out, including our performers: LABELS, best female vocalist winner Mollie Danel, best pop act Cavono, and the dream team of Robert Ellis, Aden Bubek, Summer Dean, best producer winner Jordan Richardson, and John Ruhl. For our Hall of Fame class of 2026, we’d also like to thank Richardson for inducting producer extraordinaire Bart Rose, Quaker City Night Hawks’ Sam Anderson for saxophonist/humanitarian Jeff Dazey, James Hinkle for local music ally Ms. O, and Zaskoda for producer/musician Choate (R.I.P.).

Shoutouts also to the Weekly’s Jennifer Bovee and Michael Newquist for putting together one of our best Music Awards ceremonies yet; to our sponsors Mullen & Mullen, Mrs. Renfro’s, and Printed Threads; and to our presenters Brett Bowden (Printed Threads owner), Hinkle, Cut Throat Finches’ Sean Russell, and Steward.

We also need to thank you, our readers, who not only compiled the ballot for us but selected the winners through popular vote. And the winners are …

ALBUM

White Hot, LABELS

SONG

“Devil’s Game,” Two Guys Walk Into a Bar

ROCK BAND

Royal Sons

NEW BAND

Ghost Roper

PLACE TO HEAR LIVE MUSIC

Magnolia Motor Lounge

SINGER-SONGWRITER