Each year, hundreds of local musicians and members of the Syracuse music community attend the SAMMYS, an annual celebration of the Syracuse music scene, celebrated since 1993. This week, the nominations for the 2022 SAMMY Awards in a variety of categories were announced, along with Hall of Fame nominees who make up the rich history of CNY.
SAMMY awards are given based on the judgement of submissions sent to the SAMMYS Board by musicians in Syracuse and the surrounding area. This year, 161 artists submitted 171 recordings, which were then reviewed by an independent panel of music industry professionals and educators from around the country, led by James Abbott.
The awards show will feature performances by Jon Rogalia & The Swamp Boys, Letizia, The Real RAW Breed, and Tom Kenny & The Hi-Seas. In addition to these performances, awards will be presented in 11 recording categories, as well as the People’s Choice awards for Best Artist or Band, Best Event or Music Series, Best Academic or Musical Organization, and Best Venue. The Brian Bourke award sponsored by CNYAlive.com for Best New Artist will also be announced. As in the past, this year’s Best New Artist will receive six hours of recording time from SubCat Studios.
Revisit the 2020 SAMMY Awards with photos from Joshua Davis
Fans can join the SAMMYs action by participating in the annual People’s Choice vote, in each of four categories: Artist or Band, Event or Music Series, Academic or Musical Organization, and Venue. Voting is free, open to the public and continues through February 28 here.
The 2022 SAMMY Awards nominees are:
BEST JAZZ
• Bob Holz – Live in New York And L.A.
• Chuck Lamb & Peter Mack – Exit 33
• E.S.P. – Ready or Not
• The Pietra Group – People Chain
BEST AMERICANA
• The Dirty Doves – Pure & Simple
• Gegorge Mann – A World Like This
• Harmonic Dirt – Rhode Island Street
• Len Widdekind – Highway of Time
• Nashua Robb – Sunroom Sessions: About Time
• The Ripcords – Unmasked
BEST JAM BAND
• Count Blastula – Strange Mutations
• Ramshki Alley – Ramshki Alley
BEST POP
• AK Kastro – College Rd.
• Coral Blue – Paris is Burning
• The Jess Novak Band – A Thousand Lives
• River Westin – Candy Cigarettes
• Stoyan – Cancel Me
BEST HARD ROCK
• Gainer – Cold Case
• Less Than Hate – Less Than Hate
• Unwanted Ghosts – The End is a Gift
• Void Emperor – Void Emperor
BEST R&B
• Anna Shelay – Unlinkable
• Diana Jacobs Band – Love Each Other, Love Our World
• Free Boody Institute – Myths, Legends & The Hard Truth
• Lamar Lamb – Love & Pain
BEST ROCK
• Anna Shelay – Unlinkable
• Diana Jacobs Band – Love Each Other, Love Our World
• Free Boody Institute – Myths, Legends & The Hard Truth
• Lamar Lamb – Love & Pain
BEST ALTERNATIVE
• The Leaps – Spinning the Wheels
• Mike Gibson – Feb6: Grief & Nonsense
• Outside Voices – Grind
• Trauma Cat – Prepare to Apologize
BEST OTHER STYLE
• Alex Seubert – Works from Space
• Asael – Moment
• Fritz’s Polka Band – The Hands of Time
• Jeff Tripoli – Rhythm Cadence for the New Renaissance
• Paul Davie – Half and Half
• Everneau – Revolution
• Jeff Gordon – Local Boy
• McWray – Thunderin
• Not Robots! – Not Robots
• Steve Romer – Slow Demise
• Tommy Gunn – Chulo
BEST HIP-HOP OR RAP
• Christenelle Diroc – In Our Crystal Castle
• Coughlin – Miles
• Exoticz – For the Love of Music
• VinnyVeg – 1104 Vol. 2 The Leader Of Real Shhh
BEST COUNTRY
• Jon Rogalia – Twenty Eight
• Whiskey Hollow Rush – Torn Up from the Corn Up
The SAMMY’s Awards Show will be held on Friday, March 4, 2022 at the Oncenter Crouse Hinds Theater at 7:00pm. Tickets are $25 and will be available at ticketmaster.com. Online streaming of the event will also be available for $15.
The 2022 SAMMY Hall of Fame Inductees
The SAMMY Hall of Fame honors esteemed individuals with roots to the Syracuse Community, who have throughout their careers, advanced to the top of their fields.
RUSS TARBY
Russ Tarby has been covering entertainment, music and more in Central New York since the 1970s. Tarby was raised in Liverpool and graduated from Christian Brothers Academy in 1970. He wrote for college newspapers at both SUNY Oswego and at Indiana University. From 1969 to 1999 Tarby worked as a production assistant at WCNY, operating camera on productions such as the “Bluegrass Ramble Barn Dance,” “All-American Jazz” and the annual New York State Marching Band Competition. His reviews and features have appeared in publications such as The Syncopated Times, the Village Voice, Buffalo Beat, Metroland (Albany) and the Ithaca Times. In 2000, he was named music writer of the year for weeklies by the International Association of Alternative Newsweeklies.
In the 1980s, he worked as a freelance contributor for the Post-Standard reviewing concerts. The zenith of each year was covering the New York State Fair, for which he would write two reviews daily – one for the free afternoon show and another for that evening’s Grandstand headliner. He served as music and books editor for the Syracuse New Times for 12 years. While at the New Times, Tarby served on the steering committees that founded the Syracuse Area Music Awards. He also collaborated on the Horns-a-Plenty project, putting instruments into the hands of disadvantaged students, and inner-city music education projects.
Tarby has interviewed and profiled dozens of local and national artists including Benny Mardones, B.B. King, Roosevelt Dean and Joanne Shenandoah. Tarby has also been the recipient of several Syracuse Press Club awards for his reviews and profiles. More recently, Tarby has been writing a weekly column for the Star-Review, “Livin’ in Liverpool.” He has devoted time to booking and emceeing concerts in Liverpool and has acted as program director for the ‘Liverpool is the Place’ Summer Concert Series since 2002.
ROBERT TOUSIGNANT
Robert “Bobby T.” Tousignant, aka Bob Avery, started playing drums at the age of 10 years. He has now been playing for 65 years. As a performer, Bobby T. saw chart success as a member of The Music Explosion, who had a hit in 1967 with “Little Bit O Soul.” The song was originally released by the band The Little Darlings in the UK in 1965. The Music Explosion’s version reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1967 and went on to sell 5.5 million copies. The song went on to be covered by The Ramones.
Following his tenure with The Music Explosion, Bobby T joined the New York-based Crazy Elephant in 1969, scoring at number 12 Billboard hit with the song, “Gimme Gimme Good Lovin’.” Bobby T has toured with Gene Pitney, The Easy Beats, The Happenings, and The Buckinghams. He has also performed with Joe Walsh’s James Gang, Graham Nash with The Hollies, The 5th Dimension, Neil Young & Crazy Horse, Deep Purple, and the Mysterians and the bubblegum pop groups, the 1910 Fruitgum Company and Ohio Express.
Most recently, Bobby has performed with the Nate Gross Band and has opened for Poppa Chubby, Samantha Fish, Amy Helm, Joe Louis Walker, Elvin Bishop and Walter Trout, Tommy Castro, and Grammy winners Jason Ricci and J.J. Appleton.
LOS BLANCOS
Los Blancos is a barnstorming, roots n blues band from Syracuse, spending the last 26 years creating miles of smiles while careening between genres and styles. The band formed organically in 1996 at an open mic night at The Inn Complete, the SU graduate student bar. Guitarist Colin Aberdeen, bassist Steven T. Winston, guitarist Jose Alvarez and drummer Paul Roehrig, musicians from different backgrounds convened as the first incarnation of Los Blancos.
The band picked up regular work based upon cool grooves, warm vocals and hot playing, culminating in the release of its first record, ‘For Sale By Owner,’ on Dr. K records. Subsequent personnel changes included the addition of keyboardist Mark Nanni; Roehrig’s departure; the addition of drummer Garnett Grimm and Alvarez’s return to Mexico after the band’s second release, ‘Special Blend.’ Los Blancos evolved in response to these changes, in roughly 2003, with the addition of top-tier drummer Mark Tiffault.
Winston is the anchor for the group. His gift for capturing the essence of a multitude of musical styles has been the lynch pin around which Los Blancos has explored. Aberdeen, the emcee since inception, fuels the party with ribald one-liners and a background in early acoustic delta and country blues, giving his electric ensemble playing its unique qualities. In 2017, the band became a three-piece of Aberdeen, Winston and Tiffault, featuring a floating fourth chair, which allowed for the inclusion of many musicians.
They have played every type of event, primarily as the soundtrack to people’s lives. Their music has been used as bumper music on The Tony Kornheiser show, as advertisement music, and on adult film soundtracks. Los Blancos played on two of Grammy-winner Alvarez’s releases, ‘Diggin In’ and ‘Tomorrow and the Next Day,’ which featured Terrence Simien, the bandleader with whom he received those Grammys.
JEFF STOCKHAM
Multi-instrumentalist Jeff Stockham is well known to Upstate New York music fans. A graduate of the Eastman School of Music and a veteran of the renowned Eastman Jazz Ensemble. His performance credits read like a Who’s Who of the upstate music scene. He has performed with numerous Central New York musicians, including the Central New York Jazz Orchestra, Salt City Jazz Collective, the Stan Colella Orchestra, DeSantis Orchestra, The Fabulous Ripcords, Second Line Syracuse, The Blacklites, The Destination, Little Georgie & the Shufflin’ Hungarians, Larry Arlotta, the Syracuse University Brass Ensemble, and Syracuse Symphony.
He has backed up numerous national artists and has been a member of the orchestra for the national touring company of “Les Miserables.” He has toured Europe and Africa with blues guitarist Jimmy Johnson. Jeff is also one of the few musicians worldwide to play jazz on the French horn. He was a Featured Artist at the 2016 International Horn Symposium at Ithaca College. He is a trumpeter and French hornist in Thelonius Monk Jr.’s “Monk on Monk” big band, which has toured Europe, Israel, and the United States several times.
He is the leader and solo E-flat cornetist of the SAMMY-award-winning the recreated Civil War Excelsior Cornet Band, and is solo E-flat cornetist of the 47th PA Regimental Band, President Lincoln’s Own Band (appearing in the Steven Spielberg film “Lincoln”), the Federal City Brass Band (appearing in the Emmy-winning Netflix series “House of Cards”), and was a historical consultant and performer in several other films. He was formerly Instructor of Jazz Trumpet at Hamilton College, LeMoyne College, and Colgate University, Visiting Lecturer of Trumpet at Cornell University, and was Instructor of French Horn and Jazz Trumpet at Syracuse University. He is an avid collector of antique brass instruments, with over two hundred in his collection.
J. AVERY HEAD – MUSIC EDUCATOR OF THE YEAR
J. Avery Head was introduced to bagpiping while in 10th grade. He had already played piano and French horn. His best friend in band, Ron Smallman, also played bagpipes. Ron taught Avery and he joined the Balmoral Highlanders of Syracuse. Ron and the band’s Pipe Major, Tom Hinchey were both excellent and demanding players and taught Avery to play quite well. After graduation, he attended the College of Wooster, in Wooster, OH, where pipers often led the band. There, under the auspices of band director, Stuart Ling, Avery led the group and established a program to teach pipes to students. The band grew from five pipers to 12 by the time he graduated. During one of his summer breaks, Avery joined Tom Hinchey and played with the Clan MacFarlane Pipe Band of St. Catherines, ON, one of Canada’s most prestigious bands.
Avery attended the University of Cincinnati where he earned a Master’s of Science in Chemistry, eventually landing a job with Dow Chemicals in Midland, MI. It was there where he met his wife Beth while playing for a community theater production of “Brigadoon.” After three years of teaching high school chemistry in Cleveland, Avery sought a new position, landing him here at Liverpool High School where he taught for 30 years. Upon arrival, he became involved with the Syracuse Scottish Pipe Band and elected Pipe Major within six weeks. He has been directing the band ever since (1974). Over the years, he has taught a number of noteworthy players and has competed in solo competitions, earning a number of medals.
Avery has always strived for his bands to be competitive. They compete each year in locations throughout the Northeast and Canada, performing in many different venues, including a Rod Stewart concert, hockey games, baseball games, the Empire State Games, the Lockerbie Memorial, graduations, and many parades.
TOM KENNY – LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT
Tom Kenny & The Hi-Seas are a Los Angeles-based Rock n Roll/ Soul /R&B band that “brings the party” wherever and whenever they perform. They are the embodiment of no-holds-barred, all-in rocknroll. Simply put, their mission statement can be summed up as follows: “Hey, let’s have as much fun as humanly possible!” Drawing on influences ranging from Sam Cooke to The Shangri-Las to The Righteous Brothers, their rockers cause dance floor mayhem and their soulful ballads induce swooning. There’s no doubt that you and your socks will part company once you experience Tom Kenny & The Hi-Seas.
The band’s manic frontman is Tom Kenny. Tom is the highly regarded voice actor behind the immortal “SpongeBob SquarePants”, The Ice King from “Adventure Time”, many voices on “Rick and Morty”, and literally hundreds of other animated characters. He won an Emmy in 2018 for outstanding contributions to an animated program. Tom Kenny began as a standup comedian and on-camera actor where he quickly started to notch up appearances from Late Night with David Letterman to Conan O’Brien, and the Drew Carey Show. He played the evil Binky the Clown in the cult classic Shakes the Clown.
Tom’s has hundreds of voice credits his first VO role was Heffer on the classic Nicktoon Rocko’s Modern Life. A sample of his credits include: Powerpuff girls, Adventure Time, Dexter laboratory, Ultimate Spiderman and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends and Catdog.
Kenny is probably most well known as the voice of an icurably optimistic sea sponge who lives in a pineapple under the sea SpongeBob SquarePants. He has been the recipient of two Annie awards for his voice work on SpongeBob Square Pants and as the Ice King in Adventure Time. Also receiving an Emmy for SpongeBob in 2018.
The Hall of Fame Induction dinner will be Thursday, March 3, Upstairs at the Dinosaur Bar-B-Que from 7-10pm. The list of inductees and bios are available on pages 5-11 of this packet. Tickets are $30 and can be purchased at syracuseareamusic.com/tickets. Free online streaming of the event will also be available.
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