The biggest night of the year for West Michigan Music returns when the Jammies take over all three stages at The Intersection Feb. 28.
The annual celebration of all things local music, and fundraiser for Grand Rapids community radio station WYCE 88.1 FM, the Jammies put the spotlight on rising stars and legendary talent right here in West Michigan with an evening packed full of performances.
This year’s lineup includes 18 Michigan acts, in alphabetical order: Adrian Wright, Big Timmy & the Heavy Chevys, The Cosmoknights, crystal trench, Ficus, Hannah Laine, Headband Henny, Jennifer Westwood & the Handsome Devils, Jordan Hamilton, Kyle Brown & the Human Condition, Money Soup, Mystic Dub, Overdrive Orchestra, Red Thyme, Sonny Ski, Third Coast Swing, Whorled, and The Wild Honey Collective.
“A lot of the lineup this year is a bunch of fresh faces,” WYCE Music and Program Director Chris Cranick told REVUE. “(We’re) shining a light on some of those artists that would not get the platform otherwise. There’s some artists on here that you may be familiar with from other groups, but maybe they’re doing a solo thing now, or starting a new project… We’re always trying to keep that mix of all the genres, that eclectic mix of music that you hear on WYCE.”
With artists from nearly every genre of music from bluegrass to hip-hop, jazz to alternative, the Jammies will hand out nearly 20 awards honoring the best music of the past year, including WYCE artist and album of the year. There will also be listeners’ choice award winners recognized at the event as well, reflecting votes cast by those in the community.
“There’s some awards that were given out in the past that haven’t been in quite a few years, that will be coming back,” Cranick said. “We’ll have a pop category, because we had a decent amount of artists that I would consider to be performing pop music. And we have made the decision to split up folk and Americana into respective categories, just because we do have a lot of artists in West Michigan – that’s kind of the West Michigan sound, is that folksy Americana – and just to make it so it’s not one huge category of a bunch of artists, we decided to split those up.”
The Jammies are also bringing back the Against All Odds Award from last year to celebrate the artist that has overcome incredible hardships to create their music.
Celebrating the 25th year of the Jammies, Cranick said he’s excited to recognize the milestone anniversary while also helping to begin the next era of the event as well.
“This will be the first year that we’re actually going to have tickets for the event,” Cranick said. “In past years it’s been a suggested donation. And last year we had record breaking attendance, but the donations did not reflect that larger attendance. I try to remind people that first and foremost it really is a fundraiser for the station being a non-profit. For the same price as going to see a three or four band bill at a local venue, you can see 18 bands.”
One of those 18 bands is Cranick’s own group Overdrive Orchestra, who are also up for Best Rock Album.
“Long before we even started planning the event, basically, when my band dropped the record last year, I just recused myself,” Cranick said, adding how it will all be in the hands of the vote of the other volunteer programmers at WYCE, and the public vote, to decide who wins.
Cranick’s first experience with the Jammies came as a musician when his debut solo album was nominated long before he ever started working at the radio station. So being a part of recognizing other local musicians now has come to mean a lot to him personally.
“It had a real big impact on me,” he said. “I mean, that was a record that I mostly did for myself. I had gone through a bad breakup. And that’s what that album is, is just a breakup album. And it was me proving to myself that I could do it. I recorded everything myself. I played all the instruments, and sent it out to get mixed and mastered. It was very much just like a cathartic release. And obviously, you want people to enjoy your art, but it was really just for me. So to get the response from all of the programmers here spinning it was amazing. And then to have it nominated for a few Jammies just blew me away. I mean, I had just moved to Grand Rapids that year in 2018, so I was definitely the new kid in town. It just had a profound impact on me. And still to this day I think about that when I put together the lineup, and especially when I get local and regional releases sent to the station. Those get a high priority of getting on the air, even more so than national releases.”
WYCE 88.1 FM Presents: Jammies 25
The Intersection, 133 Cesar E. Chavez Ave. SW, Grand Rapids
Feb. 28, 6 p.m., All ages, $10
Grcmc.com/wyce, Sectionlive.com
