The musicians of the “Winter Dance Party 1959” played Kenosha, Wis., on Jan. 24 of that year, one of the few stops on an ill-fated sojourn which ended for Buddy Holly in an Io]]> Rock musician. Fine artist. Cycling champion. If lifelong Springfield resident Jeff Williams does not qualify as a genuine renaissance man, he’ll have to do until one comes along. In addition, t]]> Dwight Yoakam is a purist and a reactionary, but that doesn’t make him any less of a rebel. Despite his old-school Bakersfield twang and unabashed reverence for golden-]]> Almost no one reads poetry anymore, which means that you probably haven’t read Actual Air, one of the very few poetry collections written by a working singer/songwriter]]> Super Furry AnimalsSongbook: The Singles, Vol. 1 (XL) Let’s give it up for Wales. As if Dylan Thomas, Bertrand Russell, and John Cale weren’t enough, ]]> Black leather fingerless gloves. Love Club and Stripping Glitter. Tattoos of strange designs in stranger places. Cahokia Mounds and MoonPandas. What link ties these odd and peculiar things together? A]]> Robert Pollard From a Compound Eye (Merge) Nestled in a black hole somewhere in the unobservable universe, there is a parallel reality in which Robert Pol]]> It began with a childhood dream of becoming a radio personality. But when Angel Macon sent demos to countless area radio stations, none responded. Instead of idly waiting for that big break, Macon too]]> Drumming is an obsession for Dennis Maberry, who started banging away on a drum set 25 years ago. For years, he played with rock bands until he couldn't maintain a semblance of a normal life. H]]> Love your neighbor as you love yourself. It’s a commandment familiar to both Jews and Christians, but it takes a person of strong faith to both talk the talk and walk the walk. Ri]]> John Sluzalis loves swing music. The drummer still listens to recordings by Glenn Miller, Duke Ellington, and Count Basie, and over the years he's even organized his own big bands. But Sluzalis was fo]]> No singer/songwriter bums out more beautifully than Aimee Mann. Since her early days fronting ’Til Tuesday, she’s lanced every painful carbuncle on the dark side ]]> For a band that hasn’t existed as long as the Dubya administration, Head of Femur has carved out quite a dominion. The founding members, vocalist/guitarist Matt Focht, ]]> Few things in life are certain, but it’s safe to say that the Kronos Quartet will never put out a bad album. It’s equally likely that you’d never hear ]]> Will Johnson is the indie-rock equivalent of Joyce Carol Oates, cranking out a seemingly endless supply of songs for his various musical personae: cerebral head-]]> The Forty-Niner Bye-Bye (518 Bruns Lane, 787-4937) has a long and storied past in Springfield bar history. Now new owners are celebrating the next chapter in the colorful tale of the his]]> The last time Marita Brake played Springfield was in 1967, and the location was the Something Else Coffeehouse, located in an old brownstone on the northeast corner of Fourth and Capitol. ]]>