The SAMMIES grow wiser

When the headlining act hobbles onto the stage wearing gray wigs and shuffling with a walker, you know it’s not any ordinary year of the SAMMIES.

A crowd of roughly 700 music lovers celebrated our 25th annual event last Thursday night, hosted by Nick Brunner of Capital Public Radio. We rang in the silver anniversary with a slideshow of local bands throughout the years—including enough ’90s spiky hair to potentially embarrass someone in the audience. Headliners Little Guilt Shrine were the “legacy act”—hence the gray wigs—and they screened a mockumentary poking fun at how everyone in Sacramento had forgotten who they were.

The champion of the night was clearly Hobo Johnson, who snagged four (!) awards: Artist of the Year, Emcee, Hip-Hop and New Artist. Dog Party won Release of the Year. In addition to entering the Hall of Fame, Hans! and the Hot Mess and the Infamous Swanks also won for Funk and Rockabilly, respectively. For the first time, Hall of Famers were eligible to receive new awards, so Hans! and the Hot Mess and the Infamous Swanks made a bit of history for our 25th year.

We also saw a sultry performance by Jessica Malone, winner of Singer-Songwriter, who belted her brassy tones in front of a spirited band. Dinorah, winner in World Music, impressed us with her virtuosic trills. As Dinorah accepted her award, she said: “Now more than ever, being representative of the world category is very special to me. We are not just Americans, we are world citizens.”

Read on for the rest of the world citizens who scored big this year.

The Winners

Hall of Fame 2017

Apple Z

Hans! and the Hot Mess

The Hucklebucks

The Infamous Swanks

Artist of the Year

Hobo Johnson

Blues Artist

Michael Ray

Country/Americana/Alt-Country

Fryed Brothers Band

Cover Band

Thunder Cover

Deejay

DJ Eddie Z

Electronica/Experimental

Spacewalker

Emcee

Hobo Johnson

Folk/Bluegrass

Dave Nachmanoff

Funk

Hans! and the Hot Mess

Hard Rock

Some Fear None

Hardcore/Industrial/Post-Hardcore

Kill the Precedent

Hip-Hop/Rap

Hobo Johnson

Indie

The Bottom Feeders

Jazz

City of Trees Brass Band

Live Performer

Drop Dead Red

Metal

Motorize

New Artist

Hobo Johnson

Pop

Humble Wolf

Producer of the Year

Sean Stack

Punk/Post-punk

Destroy Boys

R&B/Soul

Lauren Wakefield

Reggae/Jam

Island of Black and White

Release of the Year

Dog Party: ’Til You’re Mine

Rock

Race to the Bottom

Rockabilly

The Infamous Swanks

Singer-Songwriter

Jessica Malone

Teen

Destroy Boys

Tribute Band

Steelin’ Dan

World Music

Dinorah