The Wisconsin Area Music Industry announced today the nominees for its 30th awards show. The WAMI Awards have made great strides toward becoming less insular over the last several years, and by and large this year's list of nominees is pretty astute, including many of the state's breakout musicians from the past couple years and the most probable breakouts of next year—though the WAMI's usual bias toward WAMI members remains in some of the small categories. What's most impressive about this list is how many emerging Wisconsin artists have made a name for themselves outside the state. In years past, the WAMI Awards felt mostly like wish fulfillment, but this year there are genuine success stories to celebrate.
This year's ceremony is Monday, April 12 at the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center in Appleton. The complete list of nominees is below:
Artist of the Year: Cory Chisel; Fever Marlene; Bon Iver; Kings Go Forth; and Danny Gokey.
New Artist of the Year: New Dog Trick; WhiskeyBelles; Pezzettino; Carrie Melton; and Jeanna Salzer.
Song of the Year: "Born Again" by Cory Chisel and the Wandering Sons; "You Never Know" by Pezzettino; "Victim to the Beat" by Kid Millions; "My World" by Bascom Hill; and "Las Vegas Nights" by Verona Grove
Swing/ Big Band Artist of the Year: Swing Nouveau; All Star SuperBand; Big Mouth & the Power Tool Horns; Fat Brass; and Groove Hogs.
Blues Artist of the Year: Reverend Raven and the Chain Smokin' Altar Boys; Houndstooth; Aaron Williams & The Hoodoo; Sue DaBaco and the Wise Fools; Mean Tooth Grin; and Alex Wilson Band.
Male Vocalist of the Year: GNO; Danny Gokey; Black Wolf; Cory Chisel; Justin Vernon (Bon Iver); and Chris Szebini
Female Vocalist of the Year: Jessica Bierman; Ronnie Nyles; Jayme Dawicki; Jamie Brace; Jeanna Salzer; and Amy Jo Doty.
Cover Band of the Year: Rabid Aardvarks; Half Empty; Johnny Wad; Oil Can Harry; New Dog Trick; and Sonic Circus.
Bluegrass Band of the Year: Liberty Bluegrass Band; .357 String Band; Salt Creek; Hand Picked Bluegrass; and Art Stevenson and High Water
Country Band of the Year: Grand Union; Geoff Landon and the Wolf Pack; Saddlebrook; Chasin' Mason; Tim Castle & Young Southern; and Nashville Pipeline
Rising Star of the Year: Tallan Latz; Jayne Taylor; Callback California; Kayla Hawkins; Hanna Gaffney; and Village Idiots
Reggae/ World/ Ska Band of the Year: Unity; The Invaders; King Solomon; Something To Do; Kojo; and Natty Nation
Christian / Gospel Artist of the Year: Saved By Grace; Chad James; Skillet and Danny Gokey
Alternative Artist of the Year: Jaill; Lucas Cates Band; Will Phalen & The Stereo Addicts; Pat McDonald; Awesome Car Funmaker; and The Daredevil Christopher Wright
Hard Rock / Metal Band of the Year: Spiral Trance; Kindred Soul; Profane; 9mm Solution; World Minus One; and 4th Floor
Pop Artist of the Year: Bascom Hill; Jayme Dawicki; The Vega Star; New Red Moons; The Lackloves; and The Subcontinentals
Hip Hop/ Rap Artist of the Year: Frankie Flowers; Rusty P's; Black House Gang; The Figureheads; Kid Millions; and Prophetic
Polka Artist of the Year: Steve Meisner Band; The Jerry Schneider Band; The Happy Schnapps Combo; Copper Box; and The New Generation
R & B / Soul Artist of the Year: The Eddie Butts Band; Soul Food; Jerome Garrett Hunter; Midnight Groove; and In Black 'n White
Tribute Band of the Year: Beatallica; The Tempters; Light Up; Mark Shurilla and the Greatest Hits; Separate Ways; and The Boogie Men
Jazz Artist of the Year: Jack Grassel; Jazz Orgy; Chris Crain; Paul Spencer Band; Mrs. Fun; and Streetlife
Americana Artist of the Year: Liam Ford Band; Copper Box; Andy's Automatics; Blueheels; and Rowdy Prairie Dogs
Rock Artist of the Year: Boxkar; Steve Grimm; Sandcarvers; Verona Grove; Annex; and Greg Waters & the Broad Street Boogie
Album of the Year:
"Whiskey Tango Foxtrot" by The Sandcarvers;
"Inevitable" by Bascom Hill;
"Death Won't Send a Letter" by Cory Chisel & the Wandering Sons;
"Unmap" by Volcano Choir; and
"Recession Proof Rap" by Kid Millions
Guitarist of the Year: Chris Dame; Billy Flynn; Tom Thiel; Dale Sellers; Frank Calarco; and Alex Wilson
Bass Player of the Year: Chris Steelman; Guy Fiorentini; Chris Okkerse; Gary Christensen; Matt Miller; and Rick LaJeunesse
Drummer of the Year: Greg Thiel; Jeremy Kuzniar; Bobby Sellers, Jr.; Ryan Schniedermayer; Dave Schoepke; and Mike Underwood
Reeds / Brass Player of the Year: Steve Cooper; Peter Neumer; Warren Wiegratz; Al Groth; and Andy Spadafora
Keyboard Player of the Year: Dave Wake; Connie Grauer; Dean Lea; Rick Forkes; Brian Gruselle; and Kevin Machan
Specialty Instrumentalist of the Year: Tommy Greywolf; Russ Greeley; Steve Cohen; Danny Jerebek; and Cecilio Negron Jr.
Producer of the Year: Marc Golde; Joey Halbur; Gary Tanin; Pat Lilley; Justin Perkins
Recording Studio of the Year: Nexus; Renwood Messenger; Rock Garden; Limelight; and Smart Studios
Venue of the Year: Mill Creek; Milwaukee Ale House; BuBs Irish Pub; Turner Hall; High Noon Saloon; and Tom, Dick and Harry's
Radio Station of the Year: 88Nine RadioMilwaukee (88.9); WAPL, 105.7 (Appleton); WMSE 91.7 FM (Milwaukee); WJJO 94.1 FM (Madison); and
WIXX 101 (Green Bay)
Print/Online Media of the Year: Shepherd Express; OnMilwaukee.com; MilwaukeeRocks.com; The Scene; The City Pages; and Maximum Ink
I can't believe Donnie Pick and the Unit didn't make not one Nomination. WHO'S VOTING FOR THIS STUFF??????
You said "Unit"
Tommy Greywolf!!!!! WooHoooo
I sure am Glad to see that Meantooth Grin is on the list, Wish they would have been placed in Album of the year, Great Great Band
Congrats to all the nominees! Tim Castle and Young Southern have my vote for country band of the year! They put on the most amazing show! Best of luck to you all.
The Thiel boys are sooooo talented...both Greg and Tom get my vote!
I find a great portion of "Koolness" quite offensive, vulgar, and counter-productive. I think it does more harm than good. It contains the seeds of a naive and primitive understanding of reality, power, class, and how even the capitalist system functions. From a Marxist perspective it could be categorized as counter-revolutionary opportunism. Closer, maybe even allied, to the tea-bagger audience (http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2010/sd210410.html). Like Bill Cosby, it engages in blaming the victim and holding up the virtues of the decadent capitalist system. (See Class Dismissed and The War on Kids documentaries). The message ultimately preserves the capitalist system which is all that is globally vile and globally crumbling before the authors blind eyes. Dead Prez message in "They Schools" is closer to a revolutionary vision on education. The kind of education "Koolness" is upholding has led to a 'poverty of expectations' and the liquidation of the middle class. Neo-liberalism is coming home to roost and neo-fuedalism is the future. The primary functions of education within the capitalist system is to help accumulate capital and legitimize the system, thereby preserving the system with the added ingredients of apathy, ignorance and obedience. The higher the degree, the more obedient one is. It's as simple as that and it's all about pimping people. This song wants oppressed people to fantasize about holding power in a repressive state apparatus conducting three imperial wars of occupation and mass slaughter using both its military and institutional violence around the world to terrorize people in the name of empire. The cost of war and prisons is big business for US corporations to keep it going. Merrill-Lynch World Wealth report for 2009 estimates there are 8.6 million people in the world with a combined "liquid" wealth of $32.8 trillion. Of that population, there are appox. 78,000 people (0.9%) that have $14 trillion in a world with a population of 6 billion, half of which live on less than $2 per day! 50,000 people die every day from hunger, tens of thousands die from water borne diseases and thousands of woman die from simply giving birth. All this is what the author pretends to be "kool" while demonizing and dehumanizing the oppressed human trash. "Koolness" is about idolizing capitalism and it's racist power structure. It celebrates all it's myths, illusions and delusions and is more a revolutionary fraud perpetrated against the masses, looped into our ears on 88.9
I think you might be reading into this far too deeply in the wrong direction. From where I stand, Frankie Flowers is making a statement about how African American males lack positive role models for the most part. Right?
Adam, I'm surprised this post made here unlike radiomilwaukee where I developed this analysis in greater 'depth' and got censored. The Shepard censors too but that's another story. I think your directions are mixed up and your standing in the shallow end of not thinking deep enough on the subject. Sometimes reality and truth are hard to digest and confront, but with proper diet and exercise your backbone will strengthen! If you ever read 'Combat Liberalism' (http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/selected-works/volume-2/mswv2_03.htm) you'd understand the principles to write such an analysis. It's not a personal attack on the artist but moreso on the song. Do you really think 'positive' role models are to be found by African American males preserving the capitalist system and power structure? We need more than White Power in a black face (http://uhurunews.com/video/play?resource_name=barack-obama-white-power-in-black-face-part-1-video). It's still an illigetimate system and instead of defenders we need rejectors.