Charleston is one helluva music town. It may not be as old-school cool as Detroit or as outlaw badass as Austin or as hipsterific as Brooklyn, but the Holy City has an unholy amount of musical talent. Take Shovels & Rope for instance. The husband-and-wife duo of Michael Trent and Cary Ann Hearst can stand toe-to-toe with all the big-time movers and shakers in Nashville, and their time in the national spotlight is long overdue. Of course, there are plenty of other acts in Chucktown that are every bit as good as today’s current chart-toppers. And here in the pages of our annual City Paper Music Awards, we’ve got quite a few of them. Read on and learn who City Paper readers chose as their faves for 2012.

2012 City Paper Music Award Winners
2012 City Paper Music Award Winners Complete List

A look at who will walk away with this year's City Paper Music Awards. — City Paper Editorial Staff


The Ballad of Michael & Cary Ann
The Ballad of Michael & Cary Ann The Shovels & Rope duo find love, adventure, and fleeting fortune on the road

Cary Ann Hearst and Michael Trent, the husband-and-wife band known as Shovels & Rope, are having a devil of a time backing their Winnebago into several parking spaces near Summerville's town square. At the steering wheel, Trent is using the vehicle's built-in backup camera, but Hearst isn't so sure about it. — Paul Bowers


Bully Pulpit is not a heavy metal band
Bully Pulpit is not a heavy metal band Labels Suck

Bully Pulpit isn't exactly sure why Charleston voters would consider them the city's metal band of the year. Though it wasn't really a surprise to them either. — Susan Cohen


Dirty Dave scores with sold-out new mixtape <i>The Carolina Plug</i>
Dirty Dave scores with sold-out new mixtape The Carolina Plug The Geechee Hustle

With the release of The Carolina Plug just a few months ago, Dirty Dave Da Fly Guy's world just got a little bit bigger. His latest single, "I Got a Sack," has shown up on MTV Jams. "You know, it's one thing to hear your stuff on a local level, but when you hear a song you made on a more national platform, that's just a completely different feeling. I like it," Dirty Dave says. "It makes you feel like you were doing the right thing all along." — Kevin Young


The Flat Foot Floozies tap their way into your hearts
The Flat Foot Floozies tap their way into your hearts Lazy Bones

When Brad Edwardson, the Flat Foot Floozies' guitarist and double bassist, found out that they had won Jazz Band of the Year, he sent his fellow old-time players an e-mail with the subject line, "You'll never believe this one." — Susan Cohen


Joel Hamilton crafts music for the astral plane
Joel Hamilton crafts music for the astral plane This is Your Brain on Hugs

We don't really know what Joel Hamilton means when he tells us via email that his latest one-man music project, Mechanical River, is "twirling through hyperspace at the speed of mud, leaving everything that has a mouth with the sharp taste of numbers and the smell of hugs." But if hugs smell the way Mechanical River sounds, then someone needs to bottle that scent. It rocks. — Elizabeth Pandolfi


The Local Honeys play it sweet and old-timey
The Local Honeys play it sweet and old-timey Cross-pollinators

Something special happens when Rachel Kate Gillon and Sarah Bandy harmonize. "We become one," Gillon says about her bandmate in the Local Honeys. During our interview, Gillon and Bandy are sitting with the rest of the band — drummer Camela Guevara and upright bassist Brad Edwardson — on the deck at the Tattooed Moose, and it's obvious they all get along famously. — Paul Bowers


Win a CPMA and get a Patch Whisky original
Win a CPMA and get a Patch Whisky original Music Awards trophies highlight local artist

The winners of this year's City Paper Music Awards will take home trophies designed by Patch Whisky, one of the funkier street artists who's ever passed through Charleston. — Paul Bowers


Fowler's Mustache guitarist steadily improving
Fowler's Mustache guitarist steadily improving Great Spirits

This year's City Paper Music Awards show on Thurs. Nov. 8 has a philanthropic slant: Donations will be taken at the door for Fowler's Mustache guitarist Nick Collins. — Susan Cohen


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