JR Clark Band: News

The J R Clark Band will be returning to the world famous Midway Tavern for New Years Eve! The Midway is always a party! This club in famous worldwide, being featured in People Magazine, the Chicago Tribune and CNN. The atmosphere is great. The very reason the J R Clark Band chose to record there latest "live disc" there!

http://www.myspace.com/thejrclarkband

The J R Clark Band will be releasing their latest CD, a "Double Live Album" on April 24th at the Legendary Midway Tavern in Mishawaka, IN. Hope to see everybody there who can make it!

J R Clark will appear on 88.1 FM WVPE on Saturday April 18 at 2:00 p.m. to promote the bands latest cd which will be released April 24th!

Look for our latest CD in the near future! This will be a "live" CD and we think our fans will be pleased! Recorded at the Legendary Midway Tavern in Mishawaka, IN on Jan-24 2009. We had a great crowd and we were hitting on all cylinders! We will keep you posted!

Host of Kalamazoo musicians up for annual Jammie Awards
by John Liberty | Kalamazoo Gazette
Thursday January 08, 2009, 8:45 AM
Regional indie music awards move to online voting for two categories

John A. Lacko / Special to the Gazette
The local bluegrass band Who Hit John? also picked up two Jammie nominations. The band members are, from left, Nathan Dannison, Kris Kehn, Ian Gorman, Mick Vliet and Dan McCartney.

GRAND RAPIDS -- The organizers of Jammies X, or the 10th annual Jammie Awards, the regional music awards put on by Grand Rapids-based independent radio station WYCE-FM 88.1, have shaken things up a bit this year.

For the first time, there will be People's Choice awards for best local album of the year and best new local artist as decided by online votes. All you have to do is go to www.grcmc.org/radio/ and enter your e-mail address. You'll then be sent to the entire list of artists that have been nominated. Several Kalamazoo artists have been nominated.

The Jammies also expanded to 15 categories, which will be voted on by more than 100 volunteer programmers and staff members at WYCE prior to the Feb. 17 ceremony.

The online voting began Jan. 1 and will finish at midnight Jan. 31, so get out and support local musicians. It's real easy.

You can also see the full list of all the nominees below. The winners will be announced at Jammies X on Feb. 17 at the Intersection in Grand Rapids.

Local bands picking up People's Choice nominations

Best local album of the year
-- Allison Downey, "Across the Sea"
-- Crossroads Blues Band, "Slippery"
-- Dooley Noted, "Edible Audibles"
-- Greensky Bluegrass, "Five Interstates"
-- Jam-Lab, "Gain"
-- J.R. Clark, "Getaway"
-- Joel Mabus, "Retold"
-- Kalamazoo Community Rhythm Project
-- The Mickeys, "Walk Along"
-- Phil Barry, "Between the Carolinas"
-- Who Hit John?, "Old Gray Road"



Local BLUES Album of the Year
CLARK~JR Getaway
CROSSROADS BLUES BAND Slippery
ESPARZA~TOMAS Live @ Naya
FARRIS~HOWARD Catching the Dream
HILGER~STEVE Live in Eastown
LANDIS~SHEILA & RICK MATLE Blues in the Night
MEASURED CHAOS Live
MR. B Joybox
MUDDY V AND THE HOUSE ROCKERS Muddy V and the House Rockers
ROOT DOCTOR Live at the Cadillac ClubÂ

Be sure to cast your votes for the J R Clark Album "Getaway" at www.wyce.org. Click on Jammie award voting.

Check out live video footage of the J R Clark Bands performance at the State Theater in Kalamazoo on their myspace link. www.myspace.com/thejrclarkband.

Check out the J R Clark bands other website on myspace- www.myspace.com/thejrclarkband

The J R Clark Band will appear live on FM 88.1 WVPE hosted by Ol' Harv on November 10 at 2:00 p.m They will do an on air interview and possibly playing live while promoting their upcoming show at the Midway!

If he could pass the fez hat to a new bluesman, who would that be?

``There is one guy who is out there who is really following my footsteps,'' he said. ``J.R. Clark. If you're standing outside and you hear the music, you would think it's me. He's pretty much that good.''

He heard Clark while standing outside waiting to play one of his many shows at Wonderful's.

``I heard this music and I thought, they're playing one of my records. And then he started singing, and I thought, wait a minute ... .''

Clark didn't sound very surprised when told that Lil' Ed sees him as his musical heir.

``We're pretty good buddies,'' Clark said. ``Years ago I saw him open for George Thorogood, and I've been hooked since.''

Clark began playing 15 years ago, learning guitar from Lil' Ed albums. After meeting Lil' Ed, he learned from him personally.

``Every time I see him play, it just fires me up,'' Clark said.