Ten Ton Man has been in and out of love, bars, trains, and after such an eclectic journey... the itinerant bluesman has finally released his debut record, 'Fall Down.' But for all the stylistic highways Paul Livornese's scruffy baritone travels throughout Americana, his songs are most effective when used to bring down the hammer, like the judge/jury/executioner style of 'Dearly,' a track where he vows justice for those betrayed. Thankfully for the rest of us, he has plenty of songs about redemption here too. See him when he plays ZirZamin on Wed, Mar 27th. - Mike Levine (@Goldnuggets)

This is the category gathering NYC based bands who play roots music in all its traditional glory. Or at least that's what we intended it to be - a couple of bands in the list (namely, Sewing Machines and The Balboans) obviously mis-categorized themselves when submitting for this poll...

Total Submissions in this category: 23

Artists Qualified to the Poll's Next Stage (starting soon):

1. Swear and Shake - 8.16 (out of 10)
2. The Ludlow Thieves - 7.66
3. The Courtesy Tier - 7.5

Honorable Mentions (score above 7):

Sewing Machines, The Balboans, Ten Ton Man, Runaway Dorothy, Zak Smith, Mail the Horse, Alana Amram & the Rough Gems, Kayleigh Goldsworthy, David King + The Confirmed Bachelors, Elijah Ocean, This Old Ghost, Thomas Bryan Eaton.

Jurors: Ben Toledo (Deli Portland), Jacqueline Caruso (Deli LA), QD Tran (Deli Philly)

The Deli' Staff