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Local Flint Music Scene Flint is most known for making cars and films about making cars by Michael Moore. In the 2010 Census the metropolitan area had a population of over 425,000. Campuses include University of Michigan at Flint, Central Michigan University and Mott Community College. The local scene is covered by The Flint Journal. The history of the Flint music scene has included Grand Funk, Ready For the World, ? & The Mysterians, MC Breed, Me Phi Me and Don Preston from the Mothers of Invention. Flint Music Acts JMAC * Lost City Band * Robert Marr * Frequency Fifty Four * DeJuan Jackson * Young Ken * The Rusty Wright Band * Danielle Bollinger * Justin Daye * Mandi Layne & The Lost Highway * Flint Local Music Scene History Flint local musicians adapted to the coronavirus shutdown of 2020 by offering live streaming performances on Facebook. Some of the local artists mentioned by East Village Magazine on April 29, 2020 were Kim Steby, Dylan Grantham, Alesia Byrd and Wendell Johnson and Erik McIntyire. The 47th Annual William C. Byrd International Young Artist Competition was held March 3, 2018 at the Flint Institute of Music. Vocalist Cheyanne Coss from Eaton Rapids won the top prize of $6,000 for her performance of "Knoxville: Summer of 1915" by Samuel Barber. This award has earned her the opportunity to perform with the Flint Symphony Orchestra. Second place winner of $2,500 was Joseph "Joey" Leppek of Brighton for his performance of "Here I Stand" by Stavinsky. Three other finalists each received $1,000. Rapper Bootleg, who is from Flint, held a benefit concert on February 24, 2018 to raise funds for families who have suffered from the Flint water crisis. The show took place at Otsego Club in Gaylord. Bootleg, whose real name is Ira Dorsey, became a fixture of the local scene in the 90s as a member of the rap group The Dayton Family, which earned a gold album called F.B.I. on Relativity Records in 1996. Organizations that benefitted from the event included the Police Athletic League (PAL) and the Flint Grassroots Initiative. Bootleg has met regularly with Flint Mayor Karen Weaver. The 34th Annual Flint Jazz Festival was held at the Flint Cultural Center on August 14, 2015. While this event is usually held at Riverbank Park, the venue was full of scheduled events, so it was moved. Jazz artists included Najee and Delfeayo Marsalis. Doug Earp, who launched Wyatt Earp Records in 1981 and died in 2004, was honored by his business parter Al Steele in 2010 with the final Earpfest. The event featured punk band Political Silence, who played live gigs in Flint in the mid to late 80s at places such as Prospect Hall, the Ukrainian Hall and Capitol Theatre. Earp helped many bands get gigs and was very supported of local bands at his store. The event was written about in this Flint Journal staff article 12/24/2010 at MLive.com. Empty Orchestra is a Flint band who decided not to release their latest album One More Time, All Together Now on CD. Instead they made it available only as a digital download and on vinyl. The thinking was if people buy a CD they're going to transfer it to their computer or iPod anyway. The band still likes the vinyl format partly because of the sound quality and partly because of the large artwork. The band performed for the album release party on September 29, 2012 at the Flint Local. They were written about in this Scott Atkinson article 9/25/2012 on MLive.com . The Flint Journal has presented Journal of the 20th Century, a nostalgic piece reflecting on the Flint music scene in the 1960s. It's a reminder how Flint participated in the mind expanding music of the sixties with several local artists who rose to national prominence. Question Mark and the Mysterians were from Saginaw and started getting airplay on WTAC-AM in 1966 with the song "96 Tears" before it hit became a big national hit. The band sent several postcards to the station urging them to play the song. Flint was also where Grand Funk Railroad started out. Their first national album called On Time was released in 1969. They went on to have several big hits in the 1970s. Regional artists who regularly played in Flint included Bob Seger, Ted Nugent, Alice Cooper and the Velvelettes. |
