A New Direction for WAMI

Jason Klagstad’s passion for music began at age seven when he stole his sister’s ukulele. By age 12 he became a professional guitar player. During his 60-year career, he has performed with musicians such as Howie Epstein, Jerry Harrison, Plumb Loco, Semi Twang and Elephonic.

In 2022 Klagstad became president of the Wisconsin Area Music Industry (WAMI).

WAMI began in 1980 to connect musicians across the state and provide resources to enhance their careers. Unfortunately, according to Klagstad, the organization’s priority shifted towards the WAMI Awards Show, which left the board’s activities and ability to connect with musicians across the state as afterthoughts.

Back to the Future

In rebuilding WAMI from the ground up, Klagstad and Ann Rakowiecki, who coincidently purchased her first guitar from Klagstad and also joined the WAMI board in 2022, have been working with other industry insiders to get the organization back to its original mission. Collectively, they want to create a more inclusive and transparent organization that benefits all Wisconsin musicians, venue owners, and industry professionals.

As a start, WAMI has extended its membership offerings into 10 industry-related categories. Membership fees fund scholarships, provide performance opportunities, host educational sessions, and give members access to 600 live music venues and 7,000 musicians across the state.

WAMI’s leadership is committed to creating more opportunities for music professionals to connect and learn from one another. Its website acts as a central hub with access to a member directory, industry-related resources, and a calendar of events. In addition, the organization uses the online forum on the site and its Facebook Group to enable people from all parts of the industry to ask questions, build relationships, and ultimately form collaborations.

“We’re 13 months in and there’s still a lot of work to be done. There were zero members last year. Right now, there are a thousand. We’re making progress,” remarks Klagstad.

What about the WAMI Awards?

Another critical element in WAMI’s revitalization is the nomination process. WAMI partnered with Broad Jam, a third-party, independently verified platform, to ensure fairness and eliminate bias. This is the same voting system used by the Academy of Country Music, the TEC, and the Madison Area Music Awards. Klagstad explained: “The reason we hired an independent, third-party supervisor is so that we are completely taken out of the mix. We don’t have access to any of the data.” There were 4,098 nominations made across 56 categories this year. In the first round of voting, restricted to members only, an astonishing 56,000 votes were cast, reducing the final list of nominees to 756.

The 41st WAMI Awards Show will take place on Sunday, May 21. It will feature several live performances, a presentation of awards in all 56 peer-voted categories, several People’s Choice awards, and the induction of four new members into the WAMI Hall of Fame.

WAMI’s Hall of Fame recognizes excellence and influence of Wisconsin performers. This year’s honorees are Hildegarde, Bobby Hatfield of The Righteous Brothers, Greg Koch, and Willy Porter. “Our board of directors is extremely proud to contribute to WAMI’s unbroken tradition of honoring state musical excellence and legacy and warmly welcomes this year’s new inductees,” said Klagstad. Koch and Porter will co-host the show this year. Klagstad’s former band, Semi Twang, was inducted in 2021.

Collaboration Over Competition

For the second year in a row, WAMI will partner with Guitars for Vets to produce over 100 performances on a WAMI stage at Summerfest. In addition, the organization will be adding a second stage this summer where students from around the state will play.

In addition to everything else happening at the WAMI Awards Show in May, four scholarships will also be revealed. Another series of scholarships will be announced at Summerfest. In the future a place on the organization’s website will serve as its real-time scholarship portal.

When asked about the announcement of scholarships at events like the awards show, Klagstad said: “It’s not that one is greater than the other. They’re both the same. The award show helps to validate musicians amongst their peers—like the Grammys, the Emmys, and the Oscars. But it must have credibility to do that. We have built credibility back into the award show, which makes it the grounds for communicating outward. Scholarships help give musicians hope for the future.”

Invariably, talk of the WAMI Awards raises questions regarding geographic reach and inclusion of diverse music forms, which have plagued the organization for years. Klagstad and Rakowiecki both said they recognize the challenges of inclusivity within the industry and want to make WAMI more diverse and representative of all types of musicians from around the state.

When he became president, Klagstad traveled the state hosting listening sessions. As a result, he better understands how badly the organization has communicated with music communities outside of southeastern Wisconsin and into communities of different music types. A high priority for him, and the entire board, is to form partnerships to help the organization address both issues.

“We are champions of live music performance. WAMI’s role is to help musicians grow in their careers. It doesn’t matter if you’re a weekend warrior or if you are making a career out of being a musician. We need to be intentional in outreach. We want everyone to feel as if they belong,” echoed Rakowiecki.

Overall, WAMI’s new leadership is working hard to create an organization that benefits the state’s musicians, venue owners, and other industry professionals. For the first time in years, their efforts may be what the music community needs to come together.

To learn more about the organization and its 41st Annual WAMI Awards Show, visit wami.org.