The nominations are in! Voting will begin MONDAY, January 26, 2026.
As the reader, you helped nominate the artists in each category. Our task was to ensure each nominee was eligible and placed in the correct category based on their own streaming service designations. For example, if an artist was nominated for ‘Alternative’ but is officially listed as ‘Pop,’ we honored the nomination but moved them to the appropriate category.
Take time to listen to each artist before voting opens.
Eligibility requirements are listed below. Without further ado, here are the nominations for The 2025 Born & Bred Best of ALTERNATIVE:
A Blue Shell Paradox listen HERE
A Story Told listen HERE
Acid Mind Drainage listen HERE
Hannah & Her Empty Orchestra listen HERE
Kurt Shultis listen HERE
Ligature. listen HERE
Matt Mullins & The Bringdowns listen HERE
Optimistic Young Bastards listen HERE
Soda Pop Gypsies listen HERE
The Argument listen HERE
The Farside listen HERE
ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS
This part is very important. To be eligible to be nominated, an artist must have released ORIGINAL music between December 1, 2024 and November 30, 2025. Music that came out in December 2025 will be eligible for the 2026 awards. The other requirement is that the artist must be either from West Virginia or live here now and base their career out of the state. So if an artist was born in Grafton, but now calls Nashville their home and released music in June of 2025 , they meet the eligibility requirements. If an artists was born in Wisconsin, but now calls West Virginia home and released original music in September 2025, they are eligible.
