The winners of the 39th annual Wisconsin Area Music Industry (WAMI) Awards will be announced at the annual awards show, to be held Sunday, April 14 at Turner Hall Ballroom.
At the same time, WAMI will induct three artists into the WAMI Hall of Fame: Paul Cebar, The Chordettes and Realm.
Tickets for the show, which are $25, $40 for VIP package and $15 for students, go on sale at noon on Wednesday, Dec. 19 at the Turner Hall, Pabst Theater and Riverside Theater box offices and online at
pabstheater.org.
Cebar has been a stalwart on the Milwaukee scene for decades, first as a solo performer and later with The R&B Cadets and his bands The Milwaukeeans and Tomorrow Sound.
The Sheboygan vocal quartet The Chordettes charted big in the 1950s with songs like "Mr. Sandman" and "Lollipop."
Milwaukee metal band Realm was active in the 1980s and early '90s, having signed to Roadrunner in 1988.
Wisconsin music fans, including non-WAMI members, can vote in the
WAMI People’s Choice Awards at WAMImusic.com between Feb. 2 and 28.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
