Yes, the music scene in Syracuse is lovely

Joe Driscoll smiled widely from the podium on the stage of The Palace Theatre on James Street during Friday night’s Syracuse Area Music Awards show. He gripped his shiny black Sammys trophy for best Jam Band recording with Sekou Kouyate and told the capacity crowd of 600 or so how he always laid claim to…

Celebrating a Sammy with Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers

Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers didn’t just accept his shiny black Sammys trophy and go home. Well, the singer, guitarist and songwriter perhaps did something of that sort the night in March after he won the Syracuse Area Music Award category for best Americana recording. Rodgers instead planned a Syracuse gig for the band that recorded the…

Beatlecuse proves to be an excellent match of city, music

Why would dozens of Central New York’s finest musicians get together on a cold February night in the Landmark Theatre in Syracuse to play Beatles music? Because they can. I mean, they really, really can. Beatlecuse 2015 on Friday night proved for the second year running that when you set these all stars of several…

Red Carpet treatment at the Syracuse Area Music Awards

The organizers of Friday night’s Syracuse Area Music Awards made sure the guests felt welcome. The lobby of The Palace Theatre in Syracuse included a red carpet staging area. They put a banner with the event’s sponsor logos on it, and pushed a big replica of the Sammys trophy on the side, too. In other…

Syracuse rocks live to the voice of SpongeBob

Before the hard-working members of new hall of fame band The Flashcubes were ready to call the Syracuse Area Music Awards officially over Friday night, they invited a good friend to the stage to sing with them for one last song. SpongeBob SquarePants bounced up to perform. Well, this being real life and not Nickelodeon,…

It’s time for Syracuse to flaunt the importance of local music again

There’s no national music scene without local music. There’s no international music superstars without local music. Simply stated: Every musical journey has to start in somebody’s garage. Or bedroom. Or living room. Much of the time, they start to jam with a neighbor. Or classmate. If they get confident, they’ll play out in public at…

It’s time for the nominees to start hoping for a Sammy

All it took was the voice and keyboard work of Ronnie Leigh to get me excited about the Syracuse Area Music Awards all over again. In Syracuse, jazz singer Leigh has been The Voice for many decades before NBC started a singing competition named “The Voice.” To start the festivities to announce what’s-what for this…