After an arduous past two years for live performing acts and musical groups, local band Cass and the Bailout Crew are starting off 2022 with a bang, recently being nominated for the “Best Rock Band” Central Pennsylvania Music award.

“We’re honored that we’re being mentioned in this and we’re honored that we’re being nominated and we appreciate that greatly,” said Mike Steppe, guitarist, backup singer and primary songwriter for Cass and the Bailout Crew.

“It’s always nice to get some type of recognition, to at least have our names mentioned on a little bit of a broader scale. We’ve seen, since we’ve been nominated for this, our Facebook followers go up, people from out of town that are seeing our name associated with other names…,” he said. “Being involved and being included in something like this is great and it’s a nice thing to go out to the ceremony, get dressed up and communicate with other music professionals and just kind of have bonding moments with people that you don’t know.”

Originally an acoustic duo between Steppe and lead singer, Cass Chatham, the group has since grown into an electric, four piece collective, with other musicians Nick Laylon and Mike Wrench Jr. joining on bass and drums, respectively.

“I think we played our first show in September of 2019 as a full band and then we played a few shows in 2020, up until March when the pandemic hit,” said Steppe. “I think we may have played just a handful of full-band shows in 2020. In 2021 I think we played, I believe, 97 shows in total between the acoustic duo and the full band…”

The band released its debut album, “Room to Breathe,” in May of 2021.

When asked what genres of music the band performs, Steppe noted that the group plays a variety of different genres of both covers and their own original music, noting a stylistic resemblance between the music of the band and Tom Petty and the Heart Breakers.

“We do covers. We do rock, country and a little bit of pop music. Our original music is probably in the lighter rock, towards Americana rock category, if I had to try to put a finger on what it is,” he said. “It kind of leans more towards eclectic storytelling, Americana kind of music.”

Steppe says that while the ability to tour and play live shows was greatly hindered by the early days of the pandemic in 2020, the band was still able to grow its audience through several virtual live shows, which were performed online for viewers.

“We were able to still build an audience (through digital shows). So, when we got back out to doing live shows, there were more people that had seen our videos that we posted on Facebook and Youtube during the shutdown… We were able to still put our music out so that it could be consumed and people could check it out, follow and find us when the doors to (music venues) opened back up,” he said.

When asked about how it feels to be nominated for “Best Rock Band” at this year’s Central Pennsylvania Music Awards, Steppe noted that he was happy to be in a category with so many talented songwriters and performers.

“I’ve listened to all of the music in our category (Best Rock Band) and there is some phenomenal talent out there. Excellent, original music. Excellent performers,” he said, noting how great it was to be a part of an event that helps to bring attention to talented local musicians. “If it generates interest in the area and other musical acts, that is a good thing…We always like to see other musicians having success because it is good for everybody.”

Those interested in participating in this year’s Central Pennsylvania Music Awards can visit www.cpmhof.com/awards, where fans may vote for their favorite act in each of the categories.

“There is a fan vote that takes place from now until the end of January on the website,” said Steppe. “So fans can vote until the end of January and then the judges will do the final voting. They will take into consideration the fan vote and each category has a specific judge, from what I understand,” he said.

This year’s ceremony is set to take place on March 24 at the Hershey Theater.

“We are up for best rock band of 2021,” said Steppe. “There’s some really great bands that are nominated besides us, so there is a great competition. Pennsylvania has a lot of fantastic musical talent, especially original music.”

Those looking to find music by Cass and the Bailout Crew can find their work on a number of streaming and online services including, but not limited to Spotify, iTunes, Amazon Music, YouTube and Pandora.

For more information about the band, upcoming tour dates and news regarding touring and future releases, visit cassandthebailoutcrew.com