After months of rumors and speculation, the Green Apple Music Festival will commence this Thursday night with the 6th Annual Jammy Awards at the Theater in Madison Square Garden. Since its inaugural, the Jammys have become a highly anticipated annual event featuring intriguing and sometimes bizarre combinations of musicians playing together for lengthy sets between awards. In past years, The Disco Biscuits have shared the stage with Travis Tritt, Particle backed the B-52s, Umphrey's McGee supported Huey Lewis and one year, the finale featuring Bob Weir and Ratdog, Al Schnier, Trey Anastasio, Mike Gordon, Robert Randolph, Matt Abts, the Tom Tom Club, John Popper and a girl with wings playing the flute, finished sometime south of 3:30 in the morning.

This year's show features music's past: Peter Frampton, Richie Havens, Little Feat and Grateful Dead drummers Bill Kreutzman and Mickey Hart; music's present: moe., Mike Gordon, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones and Guster; and music's future: Grace Potter and Jake Cinninger of Umphrey's McGee. Keeping in tune with the improvisational spirit of the show, the combination of performers won't be revealed until they walk out on stage together. The Jammys are the one award show where winning and losing is trumped by who rocks the hardest.

Once the awards are handed out, the focus will shift to B.B King's and the adjacent Lucille's Grill. The celebration of Frank Zappa's posthumously awarded Lifetime Achievement Award will continue with Zappa Plays Zappa, Dweezil Zappa's new revue honoring his father, taking center stage. While the Zappa-fest takes place in the main room, U-Melt will carry on their tradition of owning the night, providing their own fireworks at Lucille's with their specialty, the high-energy, non-stop, after-hours set.

Right about the time U-Melt will likely finishing their set, the first of a series of hour long sets will commence on Vanderbilt Avenue, just outside of the Grand Central Terminal. The lunchtime crowd can catch Grace Potter & The Nocturnals at noon and Umphrey's McGee at 1:00 with the evening commuters catching Mickey Hart with The Mutaytor and Baaba Maal at 5:00 and Martin Sexton at 6:00. The free shows will continue on Saturday with a kid show featuring Constant Wonder at 11:00 a.m., Jonah Smith at noon, Ben Taylor at 1:00, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones at 2:00 and concluding with the Assembly of Dust at 3:00.

The Green Apple Festival will feature a wide variety of shows and will spread throughout New York City for the entire weekend.

Friday's highlights (April 21) include:

Umphrey's McGee at the legendary CBGB
Particle and The Mad Professor at the Bowery Ballroom
Assembly of Dust and Martin Sexton at The Cutting Room
Toots & The Maytals, Soulive and Grace Potter at Times Square's Nokia Theater
Licorice at the Knitting Factory
Steve Kimock and Stephen Perkins at the posh Canal Room
Strangefolk at the Lions Den
Bela Fleck & The Flecktones at BB Kings
Toubab Krewe and DJ Equal at Madison Avenue's Coda
Guster at the intimate Hiro Ballroom
Richie Havens returning to The Bitter End

Saturday's highlights include:

Tea Leaf Green at CBGB
Little Feat playing two shows at BB Kings
The Slip and The Ryan Montbleau Band playing a late night set at Coda
Steve Kimock and Stephen Perkins at the Blue Note Jazz Club
Bela Fleck & The Flecktones moving over to Irving Plaza
The Scissor Sisters at the Bowery Ballroom
Perpetual Groove and Rose Hill Drive at the Knitting Factory
Mike Doughty at New Jersey's Mexicali Blues

The Festival will conclude on Sunday with the Fab Faux reproducing late-era Beatles classics to the note with two shows at the Nokia Theater and The Scissor Sisters remaining at the Bowery Ballroom for another night. The true closing party will take place at the historic Ziegfield Theater with the premiere of Wetlands Preserved, a documentary focusing on the onetime jamband haunt. The Post-Movie Party will take place at Coda and feature Perpetual Groove.

The Green Apple Music Festival coincides with the celebration with Earth Day and Relix Magazine and Peter Shapiro have set in motion events that could create a "perfect storm" of a rock and roll weekend. With a whole host of musicians in town, guest appearances may be the norm rather than a rare treat this weekend.