As we race through our last days of February, there’s a range of reactions and actions swirling around as time marches on. So let’s go take a twirl to see what’s out there for us all right now.
Last Friday, Feb. 20, the Curve Inn caught fire and by now most of you are likely aware of this catastrophe. Not only did we lose one of our most consistent and cool venues, we also lost a homebase and hangout for our music community. We send out care and thoughts to Ami and Ray Merchant, Ric “Skippy” Major, all the employees and everyone who’s made the place come alive with the sound of music, love and fellowship through the years. There’s another article in IT with more news on what happened so we won’t go into all that here, but watch for donation spots at local businesses, especially bars. Plus, several bands have already sent hard-earned gig money to help out. From what I know, rebuilding just depends on practical matters of recovery, but we do know with the heart and soul behind the Curve Inn, if at all possible, it will be back
We now present a couple of announcements from area musicians doing good things outside of our hometown. Local horn player, educator and raconteur David Hoffman documents a decades long stint as a main musician in the Ray Charles Orchestra in his new memoir, Mostly Improvised. Interestingly subtitled as, How I Survived Ray Charles, Reindeer and 3,000 Hotel Rooms and lived a life out of tune, but mostly in time, the book, just out on Feb. 18, is only available online on Kindle.
Let’s send congratulations to Ella Gibson and company for winning the Spring Writers Showcase at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee. Gibson, a local native, is making her mark in the big world of Music City USA, so wish her the best, with more success on the horizon.
Here’s one more tidbit of music news and this pertains to Black History Month. At the Springfield and Central Illinois African American History Museum website and Facebook page there’s information about a late 60s Springfield group called the Ebonies. So you need to look them up and be amazed at what went on in the Springfield music scene over a half century ago that still continues to fascinate, entertain and educate.
On Saturday night, Harvest Market Farmhouse Brews hosts an all-star debut when Brandon Santini and Joel Gragg become the Salty Bros. With the addition of Eric Tinsley and Andrew Ray, a full on fearsome foursome appears, doing blues and more.
How about a happy birthday shout out to Chris Camp as he celebrates this weekend with His Blues Ambassadors and all of you at Lime Street Cafe. Have too much fun my friend, if that’s possible.
A celebration of life is planned on Sunday at Butternut Hut for Ed Stocker, who was also known as “Ed Weed” or “Grateful Ed” and a few other names as well, so appropriately it starts a-smokin’ at 4:20. The party musically features stalwarts of the local Penny Lane Deadhead scene, including Thomas J Beverly, Murder of Crowes, acoustic Sunshine Daydream and OAT.
Then head back to the Hut on Wednesday for the debut of ButterJam, presented by ElderBeard MusicWerx, featuring a different weekly host plus invited guests with Mace Hathaway kicking it off March 4 and Travis Ried up next on March 11.
There are so many listings listed in our listings (thanks to our intrepid calendar guy Daron) that I can’t even come close to covering them all. Please go look for yourself and we’ll see ya next week.
This article appears in February 26 – March 4, 2026.
