In this tenth year of the Blue Water Music Awards, the annual awards ceremony and party honoring the local music scene returns to where it all began: Lynch’s Irish Tavern in Port Huron. While the first BWMAs — or BWAMMYs, as they’re sometimes called — took place in 2011, last year’s awards show was canceled due to COVID-19, making 2022 its 10th annual celebration of the awards. local musicians. Jesse Jacks is hosting this year’s event, which is scheduled for Wednesday, February 23, at Lynch’s Irish Tavern.

Tim Hunter has been involved with BWAMMYs since the beginning. He was part of the late-night conversations that led to its founding, chatting about local bands outside the Roche Bar until it was later but sooner. He has been the organizer of the event for seven years now. We spoke with Tim about the big event, the local music scene and the importance of honoring Blue Water musicians and the fans who support them.

Keel : You were involved in the Blue Water Music Awards from the beginning. How does it feel to see it grow and evolve?

Tim Hunter, organizer of the Blue Water Music Awards.Tim Hunter: It started a year with friends, just chatting. We were out until about four in the morning, just to have a few beers. We were outside and the bar had closed and everyone was gone. And we were talking about the Grammys and the Oscars and my friend said, you know what, I don’t care about any of this until I can give one of my friends an award. That’s how we started. And since then, we’ve actually had a band that won a Blue Water Music Award to perform at the Grammys. It was War and the Treaty.

Keel : Being so close to the music community here, how would you characterize the Blue Water music scene?

Tim: I honestly feel like it’s very tight-knit, everyone supports everyone. It’s the camaraderie of everyone being together. I remember a few years ago, in one night, three different events happened. The shows started at different times so that all three people could attend. It’s stuff like that that makes me happy. If you wanted to see six different acts in one night, you could have.

Keel : What do you have planned for this year’s BWMAs?

Tim: We take it back to where the very first Blue Water Music Awards took place: Lynch’s Irish Tavern. We had it there the first year and this is the 10th year so we have it there again. We’re going to have performances from Porn Cursive, Pee.Tzu, Storm Theory, Tweer, and a new band called Rock Tsunade who sing Anime songs. And then there’s also the after party at Lynch’s, and we’ll do karaoke.

Keel : And how about the awards ceremony itself? Anything special planned?

Tim: We added a new category this year, Best Music Video. A lot of people were recording music videos because of the pandemic, so we created a whole new category. And we opened it up a bit this year. Normally there are only three nominees per category but this year we have five. We’ve included nominees from 2020 and 2021 because we didn’t have an awards show in ’21 due to Covid. So if anyone has released music in those two years, they are eligible for that year’s award.

Keel : What is your favorite category ?

Tim: My favorite category is always the Corey J. Kuhr Award for Best Music Fan. Cory was a friend of mine and he was my DJ partner – we did Cool Kids Communication. And he passed away a few years ago. This is the third name change we are awarding. It started with the Roadie Award, then we called it the Best Fan Award after that. After Corey’s passing, we named the Top Fan Award in his honor. We were toying with the idea of ​​having the best DJ award named after him, but Corey was a music fan before he was a DJ. This award means a lot to me because of what it is.

I believe that we are all fans of music first and foremost. We are musicians but above all we are fans of the music that made us want to be a musician. I think recognition is something near and dear to a lot of people and Corey was near and dear to a lot of people’s hearts.

The 10th edition of the Blue Water Music Awards is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, February 23 at Lynch’s Irish Tavern. The event is free and open to the public. Voting is also open to the public and remains open until 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday, February 22. Click here to vote online.

*This interview has been edited for length and clarity.