There's the Grammys, the Whammies, Wisconsin's version of the Music Awards show.
We also have the mamas, which recognizes outstanding artists in the medicine area.
And now there's the Bammies, the Bay Area Music Awards, honoring performers and music industry
professionals from Brown, Door, Kiwani, Marinette, and O'Conto counties.
And only in the second year, the Bammies are expanding the celebration to two nights.
Wednesday and Thursday, March 19th and 20th, starting at seven, both nights.
And it's happening at the historic Tarleton Theatre in downtown Green Bay.
There are also 42 categories that are going to be honored between the two award shows.
And the Tarleton Theatre co-owner and creator of the Bammies, Tarle Knight,
along with music journalist from the Green Bay Press Times,
General Fisher, recently joined Mino and the Mayor.
The morning show on civic media radio stations, WGBW in Green Bay, and WISS in Oshkosh,
to talk about Northeast Wisconsin's growing music scene and what it means to the area.
You got this young man here who's doing everything humbly possible to make sure that the arts thrive
in Green Bay, Tarle Knight, who's up for a Bammie, just got what young entrepreneur of the year or
something like that. Congratulations. Congratulations. What a great honor you got.
Thank you guys. Thanks so much. That's fantastic.
I'm looking forward to all the great things we have coming up next.
The opportunities to get out in front of people in the area.
And your name came up is, you know, and that's nice that you not only grew up in the music scene,
but now you've got the resources to have venues for the music scene.
And I think that's what we needed in Green Bay.
Well, something that, you know, like you've mentioned, as I was coming up in the scene and
continue to, you know, found out that we need more spaces that are receptive to being a venue,
a space of stage, a screen for exhibiting everybody's artistic and creative vision here in
the city. So I'm proud to keep that work up and excited to do it.
And Janelle, who covers arts and music for the press times, you think there's enough going on
in this community? Oh, absolutely. I think the big guide in city pages every week is evidence of
that. I could, I could work on the big guide for hours and hours each week and still not
find everything that there is to do. That is an awesome section of your paper.
Anybody wants to know what's going on around this entire area entertainment-wise?
You've got a great section. How do you compile that whole thing? Because there's got to be like
40 different things there. It's amazing. Yeah. So it's mostly submission-based. People send a lot
of those events in. So I'll have bands who are performing send me their info exhibits that are
opening the art galleries in town are really good about sending their stuff. Like Facebook events
or organizations that we've written about before. If they've got stuff going on, it's always fun to
read that though. You realize how much is going on in this area. And really it's a fraction of
what's going on in this area I couldn't possibly write. And I think people need, it's it's not
work, but people have to put a little effort into finding out because people say there's nothing going
on. And then, you know, like you say, I can't even cover it with all those pages you have in there.
Tarl, you've always got stuff cooking. And of course, there's plenty of sporting events too in
this community. But I just think people, you know, it doesn't, it's not that hard, right? I mean, you
can. Yeah. If you know where to look, there's plenty of stuff going on around town. And there's
how did you get involved in that aspect? Yeah. So I actually, I was an English major. I was
majoring in English with an emphasis in literature. But when I started at the press times,
I started a news, actually. So I covered meetings, I covered feature stories, and I still do cover
some meetings and some new stuff. But I kind of fell into that art. Hey, one second. What's the
latest she would have had to stay for one of your meetings? Four. Four in the morning. Oof.
Mev's us. It was. It was not. I don't know. It just was what it was. All right. And you're not
yet enough to have covered those things. Green Bay music scene. But the arts is so much more than that,
right? Yeah. Visual arts. And of course, you got the crafts and how do you cover it all?
We said that people send something. Do you have, are you biased? I'm sure you bias because you're
not. But you've got to get a lot of more requests from the music scene, right? Because it's kind of
self-promotion a little bit. Not as many as you would think. Actually, a lot of the music scene,
they'll send me their shows. But a lot of times, like, if I find out about an album coming out,
or if I find out, like, I know Sinner and the Saint is performing their last ever show as a group
on Friday. And I find out about a lot of that on Facebook. It's a lot about knowing where to
look. And I think sometimes those bands don't necessarily know where to look to reach out about
something like that. That Sinner and the Saint is a band because that would be like good comedy.
You know, like, kind of Taylor, you know, you and me, Sinner and the Saint.
I wanted to applaud because Sinner and the Saints performing at the tracks at one of the venues
that we've got on. I brought Broadway. How is it for you, Tarot, getting, you know,
life entertainment? Is there enough out there enough of a base to bring in on a regular basis?
Sure. Absolutely. You know, at the tracks, as opposed to the Tarot and Theater,
is a smaller, live music venue. And we can facilitate 50 to 100 people in there. So it's a small
local, more intimate, right? Is that on Broadway? Yeah, it sounds like that. Wouldn't that be cool?
Or won't that be cool? Not wouldn't it? And when it happens, how someone is going to make it big,
and that will become more of a historical place to go see. You know, like, there's a body
play here. I got this start here. Yeah. Yeah. I played here all the time and 100 people
and now, yeah. Well, we're betting on everybody. Yeah. Yeah. Everybody in the local community,
what that business is doing and that stage really only facilitates small or local bands.
Which is great though. So I love those settings. You know, that's a proof of concept that there,
there's a music scene enough in Green Bay and the surrounding areas that a whole business is
surviving just facilitating a stage for them. How much work did it take you to get to where you
are right now with this? And you get that huge award that you got for. How long do you have?
What was the official name of the award? It was the future of 15 and young professionals,
young entrepreneur of the year award. That's awesome. Congratulations on that. But it was,
I mean, blood, sweat and tears literally for you, huh? Yeah. And you know, it's a great way to
to celebrate my 30s coming up. So I'm excited. I'm so proud. I spent my whole 20s. Second work
in high 30s. What do you do with your life? Yeah. Don't be like us.
I wanted to ask you why the bannies, why did you decide to start the awards? They call the bannies.
What was the reasoning behind that? Yeah. Well, it was a great way to celebrate all of the wonderful
things that go on in the music community. A lot of folks don't know how how how thriving Green
Bay's community really is. Or what a success story it is. You have great things going on in
Appleton with the Mila music and it matters in a Milwaukee and all the other great cities around
us in the Midwest. But Green Bay is really an undiscovered gem. It's kind of a hidden secret.
You know, Green Bay really is. It's got a special place in the Midwest with punk, metal,
bluegrass music, singer songwriters. There's a community for all kinds of different genres.
Where we have had probably 12 different types of music entertainers. Over the years,
we're doing maybe more time. What do you think? It's more. How many different types of
parties? Yeah. That's the word I was trying to find. And you said how many? I said 12. I would say
at least 10, but probably closer to 20. Yeah. They sing that jazz, you know. I know it's just
a very different stuff. And every one of them is like, I'd go see you and you know,
there's just it's all it's different, but it's quality. Absolutely. Yeah. It's all quality.
And so what a what a great way for us to connect together to network with other musicians
and performers and venue owners and those artists that come in though, you say to me, sound like
so and so they're kind of like my kind of like one sound like myself. You know what I mean?
But people do pick a genre and then you compare them to the best, which I think is a compliment.
But they're really trying to carve out their own original music, which I think is awesome.
Absolutely. That Green Bay has got great original originally. That's what I, you know,
celebration that we can have of live local original music. Tell me the difference to the way I
mean awards, which everybody knows and the BAM me awards. Just I know there's a lot of similarities.
It is a great way to dress up. It's black tie red carpet event. And while the whammies are more
Wisconsin state-wide recognition of the music industry, the the bammies of the Bay Area music
awards, those focus on five communities directly touching the Green Bay, you know, at the body
of water. And so that's Marinette County, O'Connell County, Brown County, Kiwani County,
do people send in, I mean, who's who's your panel, your judges? Yeah, so we have a committee
to banny awards committee. It's a local industry professionals from almost all of the counties.
And so we've diversified in order to get some representation there of the route, our community,
and beyond. And again, that was the Tarleton theater co-owner and bammies awards creator,
Tarle Knight, along with Green Bay Press Times music journalist, Janelle Fisher. They were on
minor in the mayor, the morning show on civic media radio stations, WGBW in Green Bay,
and WISS in Oshkosh. The bammies are coming up this Wednesday and Thursday, March 19th and 20th,
7 p.m. both nights at the Tarleton Theater in downtown Green Bay. Tickets are available at the
venue's website. Go to the Tarleton, T-A-R-L-T-O-N, the Tarleton.com. You can also see the list of
categories, along with the entire list of bammies finalists. Congratulations to all. And get out
and support your local music scene. For Maxing Radio, I'm Terry Barr.
