This Week, Leon Bridges Went Live.
Each week, we take a survey of the local music scene and try to determine which acts in town are really putting in work and seeing it pay off. Which bands have the most intriguing shows coming up? Which bands are getting the most press around town? Which bands have accomplished the most notable feats of late? Based off these criteria, our music writers submit a list to be weighted and compiled into a master list revealed each week in this here space. We like to think it's fairly revealing. Check out our previous Buzz Rankings here.
After killing it on SNL last weekend (where, yes, he also dabbed) and then earning his first-ever Grammy nomination, there was little doubt that Leon Bridges would top our weekly, local music power rankings again this week.
Now with a December Buzz victory under his belt, that means August and October were the only two months in 2015 in which Bridges didn't top our Buzz Rankings at least once. (To make up for it, he went and topped the thing four times in September and three more in November.)
This is his 17th win all-time, putting him in the all-time lead, just a few ahead of Erykah Badu's 14 No. 1s.
For her part, Badu remained red hot this week too, trending on Twitter with her #AskErykah campaign.
Also, like Leon, several of this week's list-makers — Pentatonix, Snarky Puppy, Kacey Musgraves, Kelly Clarkson, Don Henley and Kirk Franklin — too earned themselves Grammy nods.
Then there are folks like The Polyphonic Spree and Ricki Derek that are throwing their big, annual holiday concerts at The Majestic and Granada Theater, respectively. And most everyone else on the list either took home a trophy at last night's Dallas Observer Music Awards ceremony and/or cropped up somewhere on our year-end best local songs countdown.
Busy week!
(Also receiving votes: One O'Clock Lab Band, Kirk Thurmond, War Party, Cygnus, $kaduf, Mariachi Quetzal, Kaela Sinclair, Cas Haley, Le Cure, Ishi, The D.O.C., Dorrough, Whiskey Folk Ramblers, Lindby, Oil Boom, The Misteries, Larry g(EE), Nervous Curtains, In Memory of Man, Quaker City Night Hawks, Texas Gentlemen, Ryan Thomas Becker, Party Static, Jay Luse, Randy Brooks, Neon Indian, Mind Spiders, Buffalo Black, Tidals.)