Home run! Steve Poltz is back in San Diego just in time to accept a major award<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\nLifetime Achievement Award-winner Poltz was colorfully introduced by his longtime musician friend, former San Diego Padres second baseman and third base coach Tim Flannery.<\/p>\n
\u201cSteve heals people with his music. He is an honest to God medicine man,\u201d said Flannery, who offered a number of colorful anecdotes about his escapades with Poltz over the past four decades.<\/p>\n
Poltz\u2019s eight-minute acceptance speech was a wonderfully animated homage to the power of song, the San Diego music scene that has nurtured him since not long after he enrolled at the University of San Diego at the age of 18, and to some of the legendary and near-legendary San Diego musicians who inspired him.<\/p>\n
They included Mojo Nixon, Buddy Blue and Country Dick Montana, all now sadly deceased, and such still-vital performers as Joey Harris, Shawn Rohlf, Cindy Lee Berryhill and others, as well as his sister, Kathy. He thanked her for her constant encouragement when he was a fledging solo artist and as the leader of The Rugburns.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019d play in every city in every little (dump) we could across the world, and I\u2019m still doing that (as a solo artist),\u201d Poltz said. \u201cThat\u2019s why I feel \u2014 at the young age of 66 \u2014 I\u2019m still too young to get a Lifetime Achievement Award because there are so many gigs left to play.\u00a0Making people smile (at concerts), we\u2019re the luckiest people in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Steve](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/sut-l-music-awards-0506-012.jpg\")
Steve Poltz won the Country Dick Montana Lifetime Achievement Award at the 35th annual San Diego Music Awards at Humphreys Concerts By The Bay in Shelter Island on Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (Kristian Carreon \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n
Ten artists performed at Wednesday\u2019s awards fete, including Poltz, Cullins, Whitney Shay, Robin Henkel, Sue Palmer, Obed Padilla, sullvn, The Frights, Agent 51, Eastern Street Kids and an ensemble featuring teen musicians from San Diego\u2019s Young Lions Jazz Conservatory. The group\u2019s virtuoso alto saxophonist, Kahlil Childs, 16, had to bow out Wednesday due to illness just four days after he and four of his band mates \u2014 Miles Dixon, Thiam Khosravan, Jordan Yeager and Luca Posillico \u2014 won top honors in the national annual Essentially Ellington competition at New York\u2019s Jazz at Lincoln Center.<\/p>\n
Song of the Year winners Slightly Stoopid, who won the Song of the Year award, will perform at Petco Park on June 13. The same downtown baseball stadium will also host a Sept. 12 concert by San Diego\u2019s Pierce The Veil, which was nominated in two categories this year.\n<\/p>\n
While no award was given for Loudest Constantly Yammering Audience at Any Awards Show Anywhere Ever, Wednesday\u2019s sold out crowd of 1,350 certainly merited strong consideration for such a dubious distinction. Their nonstop blathering didn\u2019t quite drown out the performances, although a number of presenters and winners struggled to be heard over the din.<\/p>\n
Of course, that\u2019s nothing new at the San Diego Music Awards, where a sizable number of apparently well-lubricated attendees honor music by talking (make that, yelling) over it as loudly as possible. Complaining about it is futile, so I\u2019ll take a different tack: Get louder! Let those performers know who\u2019s really the star of the show! You can do it!<\/p>\n
The last award of the night, for Artist of The Year, went to The Schizophonics, whose guitarist and singer, Pat Beers, sounded both surprised and extremely happy that his band was honored.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love San Diego,\u201d he said. \u201cWe moved out here 17 years ago and started this band. (San Diego) made us feel like part of this community and it\u2019s such a\u00a0 great community. Thank you. I love you all. Let\u2019s get a burrito!\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/sut-l-music-awards-0506-006.jpg\")
The Young Lions perform during the 35th annual San Diego Music Awards at Humphreys Concerts By The Bay in Shelter Island on Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (Kristian Carreon \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)
\n2026 San Diego Music Awards winners<\/p>\n
Country Dick Montana Lifetime Achievement Award:<\/strong> Steve Poltz<\/p>\nSong of the Year:<\/strong> Slightly Stoopid, \u201cStep Into The Sun\u201d<\/p>\nArtist of the Year:<\/strong> The Schizophonics<\/p>\nAlbum of the Year:<\/strong> Anthony Cullins, \u201cInside Out & Backwards\u201d<\/p>\nBest New Artist:<\/strong> Tigers in Cairo<\/p>\nBest Blues Artist:<\/strong> Chickenbone Slim<\/p>\nBest Blues Album:<\/strong> Low Volts, \u201cForbidden Frequency\u201d<\/p>\nBest Country or Americana Artist:<\/strong> Kimmi Bitter<\/p>\nBest Country or Americana Song:<\/strong> Alex Bergan (with Ash Easton), \u201cHair of the Dog\u201d<\/p>\nBest Country or Americana Album:<\/strong> Elizabeth Bowersox, \u201cCalifornia Queen\u201d<\/p>\nBest Folk or Acoustic Song:<\/strong> The Beard and The Bird, \u201cMy Dearest Eloise\u201d<\/p>\nBest Hip Hop\/Rap Artist:<\/strong> Brothers Burns<\/p>\nBest Hip Hop\/Rap Song:<\/strong> The Neighborhood Kids, \u201cThe World is Worth Saving\u201d<\/p>\nBest Indie\/Alternative Artist:<\/strong> Dusk Drama<\/p>\nBest Indie\/Alternative Album:<\/strong> The Film Company, \u201cStarving Artist and The Holy Ghost\u201d<\/p>\nBest Jazz Artist:<\/strong> Leonard Patton<\/p>\nBest Jazz Album:<\/strong> Irving Flores, \u201cArmando Mi Conga\u201d<\/p>\nBest Local Recording:<\/strong> Sue Palmer and Her Motel Swing Orchestra, \u201cEight to the Bar!\u201d<\/p>\nBest Pop Artist:<\/strong> Cassie B<\/p>\nBest Pop Song:<\/strong> Sara Jade, \u201cHippies Raised a Cowgirl\u201d<\/p>\nBest Pop Album:<\/strong> Hillandale Drive, \u201cLove, Fear & Everything In Between\u201d<\/p>\nBest Rock Artist:<\/strong> Mistress 77<\/p>\nBest Rock Album:<\/strong> The Suede Grenades, \u201cFlashbulb Memories\u201d<\/p>\nBest Rock or Indie\/Alternative Song:<\/strong> Daring Greatly, \u201cLucid Ride\u201d<\/p>\nBest R&B, Funk or Soul Song:<\/strong> Rebecca Jade, \u201cNot Me No Way\u201d<\/p>\nBest Video:<\/strong> The Gravities, \u201cStuck In The Desert\u201d<\/p>\nBest World Music Artist:<\/strong> Boostive<\/p>\nBest World Music Song:<\/strong> Smoke & Mirrors Sound System, \u201cAin\u2019t That Lovin\u2019 You\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The biggest winner at the 35th annual San Diego Music Awards Wednesday night at Humphreys Concerts by the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":472558,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[264],"tags":[18,117,19,17,2323,337,135524,9852,770],"class_list":{"0":"post-472557","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-latest-headlines","13":"tag-music","14":"tag-music-and-concerts","15":"tag-things-to-do","16":"tag-top-stories-sdut"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116532048147288012","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=472557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472557\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/472558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=472557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=472557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=472557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Leonard](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/sut-l-music-awards-0506-005.jpg\")
Leonard Patton speaks to the crowd after winning Best Jazz Artist honors at the 35th annual San Diego Music Awards at Humphreys Concerts By The Bay in Shelter Island on Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (Kristian Carreon \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n