"From Your Garage to Grammy Live" - DC's own Black Alley Band needs your votes - Washington DC Music Events

CBS & The GRAMMY’S Launch “From Your Garage to Grammy ® Live!” Online Contest – Giving aspiring bands from across the country the chance of a lifetime to perform at Grammy Live. DC’s own Black Alley Band needs your votes as they vie for a trip to LA and a chance to perform at “Music’s biggest night – the 2012 Grammy’s!”

There is nothing more coveted, more prestigious, more “the thing that dreams are made of” for a singer or band than to be on the Grammy’s. Whether performing, being nominated or being honored – The Grammy’s and all of the events during Grammy week are simply a space and place where some of music’s best – new & old – shine. This year I will bring to you “The Road to the Grammys” with articles based on not only the 54th Annual Grammy Awards, but the events, people and things that make that Grammy week a special and memorable moment in music history.

View slideshow: Black Alley to the Grammys

“From Your Garage to GRAMMY® Live!” is a new contest that gives local bands from across the country an opportunity to be featured during GRAMMY® Live, a three-day online live streaming event, starting on February 10th, that covers all the best Grammy related events.

Bands had to submit their video’s starting on December 5th through January 2nd to be considered for the contest. Bands are divided by 7 regions: Pacific, Mountain, Midwest, Middle Atlantic, New England, South Atlantic and South and the initial round of voting took place from January 3rd to January 16th. DC’s own Black Alley Band, from the South Atlantic Region, successfully made it through the 1st round of voting and the second round of voting started yesterday, January 17th and will conclude on Monday, January 23rd at 11:59:59 pm PST. The final winner will be chosen on Tuesday, January 24th.

“In the spirit of music’s biggest night, we want to give locally known musicians a national platform that would allow them to be discovered by the music industry and fans across the country,” said Jack Sussman, Executive Vice President, Specials, Music and Live Events, CBS Entertainment. “The music business is a notoriously difficult industry to succeed in, so this contest is a way for us to help give a talented, undiscovered band the chance to break through and potentially become music’s next big act.”

Fans can go online to Facebook - VOTE FOR BLACK ALLEY BAND and fans can vote up to 10 times per band per day. SO VOTE OFTEN!! So be sure to vote and to encourage your friends to vote for Black Alley and send them to Los Angeles for the Grammy’s!

For more information on THE 54th ANNUAL GRAMMY awards, please visit: The Grammy website or The Grammy's on Facebook.

For info about Black Alley Band, visit: Black Alley Band website or Black Alley Band on Facebook.

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GRAMMY Live is three days of live coverage of the VIP events leading up to Music's Biggest Night®. The three day event includes events such as MusiCares Person of the Year, Special Merit Awards & Nominees Reception, Pre-GRAMMY Gala and Salute To Industry Icon, and the 53rd GRAMMY Awards Pre-Telecast including red-carpet and behind-the-scenes telecast.

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About Black Alley Band

For more than four years now, Black Alley has been pushing the DC music scene to its rhythmic limits. Determined to create an original musical elixir, Black Alley has taken the finest ingredients of funk, jazz, soul, rock, and go-go to create a sound uniquely their own –- they call it soul garage. Musically, Black Alley is a place where Bad Brains might chill with Chuck Brown; where Erykah Badu might slide through with Jimi Hendrix and remix a Nina Simone classic. Emotionally, Black Alley strives to connect the bitter and the sweet, the poetry and the pain, the simple and the profound. So, listen with your heart and park your ears at the soul garage…. Ladies and gents, welcome to Black Alley!....

The band is comprised of a group of dynamic musicians with diverse backgrounds. Each member is highly skilled, but together they create a sound that flows deep, rich, and thick like blackstrap molasses - a perfect blend for the sometimes sweet, sometimes soulful, always energetic voice of Black Alley’s leading lady.

Through the years, Black Alley has been committed to its original take on crank. The grind has been hard, but fun, and many are taking notice. Black Alley has been honored to share the stage with renowned artists like Raheem DeVaughn, Eric Roberson, Yahzarah, Ledisi, Bilal, Sy Smith, Emily King, Y’anna Crawley, Jaguar Wright, Carolyn Malachi, Dionne Farris, Levi Stephens, Maimouna Youseff, Phil Ade, Mint Condition, and Angie Stone. Fans, as well as artists absolutely love to rock with Black Alley.

With the proliferation of beat machines and all sorts of technical gizmos, music lovers everywhere often worry about the extinction of real creativity. But have no fear - Black Alley continues to emerge as a force of nature, ready to take the musical landscape by storm.