25 years of celebrating music in Modesto. What do the MAMA awards mean to the community?
is a Modesto Bee series that covers the moments, landmarks and personalities that define what makes living in the Central Valley so special.
It's always special celebrating MAMA's birthday, but this year took the cake.
The Modesto Area Music Association has turned 25 — older than some of the nominated artists, co-host Middagh Goodwin joked during the Tuesday night ceremony.
"Back in 2000, we celebrated at Club Maxx at the Doubletree and who would have thought that twenty-five years later we are still celebrating local music talent?" said Chris Murphy, MAMA co-founder.
Since 2001, the award ceremony has been held at the State Theatre of Modesto.
Each year, MAMA recognizes people in the community that have gone above and beyond as a performing musician and who also give back to Modesto music and encourage others to perform, according to a news release.
Throughout the year, MAMA works to book and pay bands for area gigs and support efforts to develop new programs in rock, indie, blues & jazz, Rockabilly, metal and other genres, according to the association's website .
"The MAMA Awards is a galvanizing force for creative good in the community that showcases annually the incredible concentration of talent in our area," said Sam Pierstoff, executive director of the Modesto Artists Movement . Modesto Artists Movement and MAMA partnered to put on Battle of the Bands in March 2023.
Murphy and Chris Ricci, current Modesto City Council member, were having lunch one day at Harvest Moon , discussing how many bands exist in Modesto that make the town special.
"We decided to to make this Grammy-style presentation for bands," Murphy said.
The very first MAMA awards — six of them — were golden Mrs. Butterworth's bottles made by Murphy's wife, Rebecca. For the 24 years since, Beeler Industries has made the awards out of stainless steel and has donated them to the association.
Flying Blind, Shelley Streeter, Built and the Red Pepper Cafe were among the first MAMA award winners. Home Grown was the first Lifetime Achievement Award winner.
"The MAMAs were a very big moment for us," Bryan Strait, front man for Built, told The Modesto Bee in October 2000. "It's not for the award, but for the respect we're starting to get."
Silvermoon Band won the Lifetime Achievement Award — and celebrated its 40th anniversary of performing rock music — in 2016.
"For me, personally, it's the crown jewel for achievements," Barry Day, drummer and vocalist of the group, told The Bee in October 2016. "This award, the recognition from the MAMAs people and people who have known us for all these years is the tops."
Jacob Drew, leader of the Central Valley Film Project, attended his first MAMA Awards ceremony in 2023.
"It was just such a wonderful experience and it really opened my eyes to the wonderful musical talent that I already knew existed," Drew said. "But it's one thing to know and it's one thing to live that experience."
After the show, it hadn't left Drew's mind how much he wanted to share local music with the world and help artists grow, he said.
So, he partnered with Pierstoff to put together a challenge, where artists and bands can submit their songs for a chance to be chosen for a free music video.
Visit centralvalleyfilmproject.com for more information.
Who were the 2024 MAMA Award winners?
While the majority of voters were in Modesto and Stanislaus County, votes extended into California and 44 other states including Alaska, Florida, New York and Kentucky, said vote auditor and CPA Michelle Powers. Some votes even came from Mexico, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden and Hungary.
Over 3600 people cast their vote for their favorite nominees.
This year's bests were:
Alternative Indie Rock: Valley Wolf
Hard Rock/Metal Band: Perfect Nightmare
Country/Americana: Western Bound
Jazz & Blues: Imaginary Friends
Punk (two winners): These Streets and The Flowers
Singer/Songwriter: Payton Mahoney
Youth: Friday Night Riot
Blue Collar:
Drag: Julian Moonlight
Latin Band: Texas Funk
Comedy: Jimmie Menezes
Event:
DJ: DJ Lag
Venue: Persuasion Brewery
Urban/Hip Hop: Cobalt 45
Lifetime Award: David Dow
Who is David Dow, MAMA Lifetime Award Winner?
David Dow was born in Modesto in 1954.
At 6 years old, he began classical piano lessons and started clarinet lessons a year later.
He started jamming in his garage while attending Roosevelt Junior High.
His first band, The Source, was formed in 1973. Dow played keyboard and sang — as he has in every band he's been a member of.
He was in an early new-wave band, Collage, when Chris Murphy was attending CSU Stanislaus in the early 80s, Murphy said. Collage would play on campus at the pub regularly.
The band formed in 1977, the same year Dow earned his B.A. in music at UC Santa Barbara and was hired as an instructional aide in the Modesto Junior College Music Department.
He received a certificate from M.I.T.'s Summer Computer Music Workshop in 1979.
A list of accomplishments, awards, worldwide performances and job titles later, Dow is now a professor at MJC teaching music technology, piano and music appreciation.
"This guy is truly amazing and so ahead of his time in electronic music. He continues to teach today and get more people in to music," Murphy said.
