D.I.Y.

Little Known D.I.Y. Artist Linda Chorney Networks Her Way To Grammy Nomination

Linda-chorney-jukeboxThough the Skrillex path to getting 5 Grammy nominations seems powered by building a huge, enthusiastic fanbase and making the underground accessible to the masses, Linda Chorney's path is quite different. This relatively unknown 52 year old singer/songwriter received a Grammy nomination in Americana with almost indiscernible record sales and mostly limited YouTube views. How did she do it? She networked on GRAMMY365.

Linda Chorney has a modest social footprint with just over 2000 fans on Facebook and only one video on YouTube that made it past 10,000 views.

Yet Chorney's latest DIY effort, "Emotional Jukebox," has received a Grammy nomination for Best Americana Album in contention with Ry Cooder, Emmylou Harris, Levon Helm and Lucinda Williams who are all quite famous. Though my money's on Levon Helm's "Ramble At The Ryman", in part because it has such a great backstory, Chorney's approach to getting a nomination is also a pretty good tale.

Linda Chorney joined the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences via GRAMMY365 as a voting member in early 2010. She submitted her album, Emotional Jukebox, for preliminary consideration in the Americana category. Then she and her husband, Scott Fadynich, who assists with her business, contacted around 6,000 Grammy voters via GRAMMY365's networking tools. 2,000 accepted her as a contact.

Apparently enough of them liked her music or just decided to cut her a break that she got nominated for Best Americana Album against major established stars, all with prior Grammy victories!

Though this approach was well within the guidelines for NARAS members, it must not be widely or successfully exploited cause it certainly caught the Americana establishment by surprise:

"Nobody in our field — managers, booking agents, radio promoters — knows who … this chick is."

"I'd never heard of her before. Nobody I talked to about it had ever heard of her before. … I don't really know what's going on."

Linda Chorney plays the part of the upstart quite well:

"I am Occupying the Grammys — I am the 99%…I'm the middle-class that got a friggin' shot, and I got in there. And the irony of hearing that people are upset that the little nobody who hasn't sold a thousand copies of her little album managed to get in there — somebody's upset about that? Really? You want to just take it all, and not share the wealth? It's so unbelievable."

With final Grammy voting coming up December 23, Chorney says she's "gonna do what I did on the first round." You go, girl!

Hypebot contributor Clyde Smith maintains his freelance writing hub at Flux Research and blogs at All World Dance and This Business of Blogging. To suggest topics for Hypebot, contact: clyde(at)fluxresearch(dot)com.

Guest Post on 12/14/2011 in D.I.Y. | Permalink | Comments (9)
Tags: , , ,
Share on:

9 Comments

  1. As a regular user of Grammy365.com I can say that artists that communicate using it have a much better chance getting noticed. Gotta fish where the fish are.

  3. WOW! Once this idea spreads, GRAMMY365 will probably inhibit the use of adding voters as contacts. Otherwise, more artists will be nominated for Grammys, even little Timmy down the street. Maybe not though, because voters have to some what like your music to cast a vote.

  4. My friend’s band got nominated two years ago for a Grammy and they had a very small fan base and no online presence. They’re manage had contacts and got them nominated is all. When I discovered this it really became a reality check. I’ll check this site out either way for networking purposes.
    Free album download at http://www.facebook.com/chancius

  6. My understanding is that Linda Chorney joined Grammy365 in Feb 2011, after completing a year of recording ,editing , and mastering Emotional Jukebox..the recording was of quality which matched that of a big label. This was able to be completed because of the backing of a long time fan and friend, The Roc Doc.. This “Passion Project” was not intended for Comercial release, but to be sold to her large personal fan base..some Sponsers from the 5 previous albums, some at shows, and some from the Indi distribution of various outlets.
    With alot of pushing from the early listeners, she was coxed to submitt this album for consideration,NAND did so in 8 categories..
    Grammy committee reviewed the submissions, and they were accepted in each category. Voting members were contacted and asked to consider her music, they voted and she made it into Americana surrounded by legends.
    Yes this is a great story, but it is more about the music than anything else..do yourself a favor and search it out, listen to Emotional Jukebox and the other 75 published songs, then feel free to be the critic. You might just understand why this recording and this artist has scaled this enormous mountain.
    It’s about time that great independent music can get exposed to the masses, where it was once controlled by corporations

Comments are closed.

Top