Mt. Pleasant councilman earns independent music awards 4 years in a row

Andy Davis may want to consider a standing airline reservation for Nashville each fall.

For each of the past four years, the Mt. Pleasant resident has headed south to accept one — or more — Josie Independent Music Awards. The Josies are the country’s largest independent music awards ceremony, given out each year in Nashville, and Davis has been a regular winner.

In fact, Davis has been there so often, he’s now winning alumni awards. On Oct. 27, Davis earned a Josie for Country Album of the Year in the male alumni category.

His latest album is “The River.”

“It’s hard to wrap my head around, honestly,” said Davis, 34, who is also a borough councilman in Mt. Pleasant. “To have the support of our fans and to be able to impress the judges this many times is amazing. All the credit in the world to my band and crew for making it happen all the time.”

It’s been quite a few years for Davis, who was working as an on-air radio personality at Pittsburgh country station Y108 FM when he earned his first award nomination in 2017, from the Academy of Country Music.

“To me, music is about constantly pushing to be better and communicate stories people can relate to,” Davis said. “The Josies are not easy to win, and it’s an amazing opportunity to be in a room full of so many talented artists who are all fighting for a chance to be heard.”

And although he was the only one to bring a Josie home this year, Davis wasn’t the only Western Pennsylvania musician in the Nashville crowd on Sunday night.

Alle-Kiski Valley hard rockers Sourmash, who have won several Josies the past few years, were nominated in seven different categories including Rock/Metal Group of the Year, Rock Song of the Year for their tune “Die For You” along with individual musician categories. In fact, band members Nick Farine, Tim Henry, Brian Forsha and Dave Stanoszek were all nominated for Musician of the Year in the guitar, vocalist, drummer and bass player categories.

Greensburg’s Derek Woods Band was nominated for Social Impact Music Video of the Year for their song, “Thank You For Being Here.”

In addition, Derry native Lauren Rose Thayer earned nominations for Rising Star of the Year in the Country Female category, and Song of the Year for her tune, “Hello My Name Is.”

Finally, musicians from Pittsburgh-based MTS Records earned several Josie wins, including:

• DPB, Social Impact Music Video of the Year for “Undefeated 3.0 (The Movie)”

• Eleyet McConnell, Southern Rock/Country Rock Album of the Year for “Crazy World”

• Pam Ross, Multi-Genre/Female Artist of the Year