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Celebrating Syracuse's Hometown Music

Zhiyan Zhong/WAER news

  The Palace Theater was filled with some renowned musicians this morning as a preview of what’s ahead next month at the 2016 SAMMY Awards.

The SAMMY’s… also known as the Syracuse Area Music Awards isn’t a complete acronym but, Director Liz Nowak says it’s as close to the Grammy’s as they could get.  The committee’s mailbox was stuffed full with 118 submissions recorded in 20-15, the most ever.

“Quality of recordings, the songwriting, the performances and the multitude of recording studios we now have available in the Syracuse area,” said Liz Nowak.  “I mean back in my day you went to rosewood in Ithaca and now there’s 5-6 points in Syracuse with outstanding studios.”

Skip Clark and Dixon announced SAMMY Award details today.

  The music categories include Best Pop, Country and a new category, “Best Other Style.”  WOLF D-J Skip Clark shares the Jazz nominees.

“And for best jazz, Andrew Carol, Jimmy Cox and Bob Holz”

The awards show will take place next month at the Palace Theater on March 4th. The night before, the Sammy’s hold its Hall of Fame Induction ceremony.  This year’s inductees are “Little” George Rossi, Bells of Harmony, Jam Factory and what 95-X D-J Dixon says is a legendary Blues / Rock band...

“One of the earliest British blues band Savoy Brown with founder guitarist Kim Simmonds at the help helped launch the 1967 UK blues boom movement that brought blues music back to the US invigorating the style forever.”

SAMMYs Hall of Fame event: March 3rd @ 7:00 p.m. Award Show March 4th @ 7:00 p.m.
Credit Zhiyan Zhong/WAER news

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  Now, the People’s Choice Awards portion of the SAMMY’s are currently underway.  You can vote online at Syracuse Area Music dot com.

Chris Bolt, Ed.D. has proudly been covering the Central New York community and mentoring students for more than 30 years. His career in public media started as a student volunteer, then as a reporter/producer. He has been the news director for WAER since 1995. Dedicated to keeping local news coverage alive, Chris also has a passion for education, having trained, mentored and provided a platform for growth to more than a thousand students. Career highlights include having work appear on NPR, CBS, ABC and other news networks, winning numerous local and state journalism awards.
John Smith has been waking up WAER listeners for a long time as our Local Co-Host of Morning Edition with timely news and information, working alongside student Sportscasters from the Newhouse School.