Preparing for the 2023 SAMMY Awards show, local media and Hall of Fame inductees came together to build excitement for this year’s upcoming award ceremony on March 3 at The Palace Theater on James Street in Syracuse. The SAMMY Awards has become well appreciated within the Central New York music community, going back to 1993.
The SAMMYs will honor Hall of Fame nominees, as well as presenting awards in 14 different categories, as well as a People’s choice award. The night will also feature performances from Brownskin Band, The Carolyn Kelly Blues Band, Chuck Schieles Quatro, Not Robots! and Trauma Cat.
On February 7, the SAMMY hall of famers and representatives get together to hold the annual awards show press conference. Hosted at the home of SubCat Studios, founded in 2001, were more than willing to help present and prepare for this year’s awards.
For the 2023 SAMMY Awards, Hall of Fame inductees include, Larry Hoyt, Carolyn Kelly, Doug Thaler along with nominated music educator of the year Kevin Dorsey and Irving Kaufman for the lifetime achievement award. Early Tuesday morning, a few hall of famers gave insight on the SAMMYs and their contribution to the awards show over the years.
Honoree Larry Hoyt shared, “The SAMMYs is really great in so many ways for so many different reasons. We have so many talented people here in Central New York who deserve more recognition than they normally would receive.” Hoyt began writing for the Syracuse Post Standard and along the way became a part of the original committee that brought the SAMMYs together.
Along with Hoyt, NYS Music spoke music educator of the year Kevin Dorsey. Dorsey has been a music educator in the Syracuse district for 25 years and previously won two SAMMY awards in his past years as a musician. Dorsey stated, “I’m honored and I’m humbled really.. This is what I’ve wanted to do with my life and there’s people out there who feel like I’ve done it at a level that’s deserving of recognition. People are recognizing the work I’ve done with my students and I’ve had 3,000 students in the past 25 years and I’m truly honored.”
2023 SAMMY NOMINEES
BEST JAZZ ALBUM
• London McDaniel – The Christmas Album • Shawn Seals & SMX – Color
• Test Kitchen – Wings of Dreams
BEST AMERICANA ALBUM
- Brian and the Beautiful Birds – Brian and the Beautiful Birds
- Christian Parker – Every Passing Mile
- The Dirty Doves – Bumblebee Brandywine
- John Cadley – I Never Knew
- The Rollin’ Rust – Road Rats
BEST OTHER STYLE ALBUM
- Jeff Tripoli – Wabi Sabi
- Jim Elenteny – Twelve String AcousticGuitar Music
- Max Scialdone – Christmas Songs
- Tom Rasely – Nylon
- The Turbulents – Stick to the Script
BEST ELECTRONIC ALBUM
• AK Kastro – 2009
• C-u-RT – The Yellow Seahorse
• Everett – Alien’s Attempt
• Mazedude – Game Remix, Tracker Homage • The Stranger – Cold Out Here
BEST JAM BAND ALBUM
• Adam Brooks – Ain’t All About You
• Anthony Saturno – Mixed Bag of Beans, Vol. 1 • Master Thieves – Wanderlust
BEST POP ALBUM
• Amoreena – The Garden
• Cloey Tierno – I Fell in Love with the Rain • DreaMe – Chapter 22 New Beginnings
• Jess Novak – Bad Bitch
• Keith Calveric – Untold
BEST HARD ROCK ALBUM
• Gainer – A Blackened Embrace
• Head Underwater – It Gets Worse
• No Blush – No Blush
• Our 11th Hour – Of Halos & Hand Grenades • Stone Thrower – This is Permanent
BEST R&B ALBUM
• FB – For U
• FB – For U Too
• Nate Glyn – Greatest Hits (2017-22)
• Shawn Seals & SMX – Session Files #1
BEST ALTERNATIVE ALBUM
• Bell & Sgroi – Candy Apple
• The Kiwis – Strange Danger
• Sound Discard – Riptide
• Steven Page – Excelsior
• Trauma Cat – The Truth Doesn’t Live Here
BEST SINGER/SONGWRITER
- Breaking Bones – Sleepyhead
- Cam Caruso – On the Other Side (5 YearAnniversary Edition)
- Gina Holsopple – All the Things I Wanna Hear
- Jason Decker – Fall Under The Sun
- Paul Case – This Love
BEST COUNTRY ALBUM
• Lisa Gentile – Start Flying
• Mike Gibson – Suburban Hillbilly • Steven Cali – Own Kinda Fix
• Tink Bennett – Collaborations
• Whiskey Hollow Rush – Linda Lu
BEST ROCK ALBUM
• Ben Wayne – spectator
• Bradford Allen – Selfishly Empathetic
• Glass Image – Mixed Emotions
• Irv Lyons Jr. – What Are We Fighting For
• O T B (Old Tall Buildings) – Lost In The Loud
BEST HIP-HOP OR RAP ALBUM
• Blackman Preach – 12 Years Gone
• Christenelle Diroc – With Synchronosity & Serendipity
• FB and Exoticz – The Round Table
• Slick Fashionz & Queeto ABF – The World Is Yours • The WiZdom G.O.A.T. – Perseverance
BEST SINGLE
• Adam Brooks – Gone & Forgotten
• All Poets & Heroes – Give It To Me Straight • MániSoul – Run This Back
• The Real RAW Breed – Sun Don’t Shine
• Ryla – Intuition
Held at the Landmark Theater starting in 1993, the SAMMYs are more than ready to recognize the talent of the music community in Central New York for 2023. For 30 years the awards show has been acknowledged as one of the number one local music events hosted in Syracuse, New York. With that said, mark the date, as the 2023 SAMMY Awards will be one to remember!
