You may not have heard of songwriter Billy Joe Shaver, but is it quite likely you’ve heard his songs. “Honky Tonk Heroes,” “I Been to Georgia on a Fast Train,” “Old Five and Dimers Like Me,” “I’m Just an Old Chunk of Coal (But I’m Going to be a Diamond Someday),” considered jewels in the […]
Tom Irwin
Tom Irwin, a sixth-generation Sangamon County resident, has played his songs and music for nearly 40 years in the central Illinois area with occasional forays across the country. He's contributed to Illinois Times since 2000 by writing Now Playing, a weekly music column, as well as features stories and other articles. He resides on the Irwin family farm in rural Pleasant Plains.
Posted inMusic
music notes 12-9-04
• Prepare yourself, children, for the greatest Christmas event in the history of Western Civilization (well at least in our little world of booze, bars, and party-ons, dude). The annual Festivus Fuddarestuvus goes public this year by sponsoring the ever-exciting and always entertaining Los Straitjackets at 9 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 18, in the Grand Ballroom […]
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now playing 12-2-04
I have no sense of time, but it seems to me that it was only a year and half or so ago when Stolie, a publicist/whatever-needs-to-be-done person at Bloodshot Records in Chicago, e-mailed me about the Songwriter Circle acoustic get-together I host at the Underground City Tavern. Our little therapy group meets on Wednesday nights […]
Posted inMusic
music notes 12-2-04
• Recycled Records, your civic leader in recorded-music sales and selection, now brings you live music during Downtown Springfield Inc.’s holiday walks. From 5-9 p.m. today, Thursday, Dec. 2, singer/songwriter Jill Manning and a funky bunch of friends host a Christmas hootenanny. On Dec. 11, elevator shoe unaffected grooves for customers from noon-5 p.m. Musical […]
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now playing 11-25-04
This weekend treat yourself to a triple dose of hot rockin’ blues from the good doctor himself when Springfield Shaky doles out three gigs in five days. First, Shaky (sorry, can’t tell you his real name) does his regular 7:30 to 1 slot starting Thursday night (doesn’t that seem like a very long time?) at […]
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music notes 11-25-04
n Greg Fundis and company, known to the rest of the world as 56 Hope Road, make another Springfield appearance on Friday at Jazz Central Station, atop the mighty Hilton. The Chicago-based group has been stopping in town every few months while pursuing an aggressive grassroots-booked touring schedule. After a crisscrossing of Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, […]
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music notes 11-18-04
• Just get out of the way there, Junior. Blues Power is all fired up, with four of central Illinois’ finest muzeekans goosing the throttle, chomping at the bit, and turning up the heat. Frank Herrin, Jerry Turley, Blair Fernandez, and Bad Bill Robinson are squeezing the juice from the electric blues at 8:30 p.m. […]
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now playing 11-18-04
As many in the partying world understand, Thanksgiving no longer is just about turkey and dressing, visiting family, and giving thanks for this best of all possible worlds. No, for many of us, the holiday is all about the night before Thanksgiving and the wonderful opportunity bestowed upon us by the powers that be to […]
Posted inMusic
music notes 11-11-04
• Here’s a chance to watch someone sing for someone else’s supper: Gary Burt, the Prairie Crooner, romps through the Sinatra catalog to help raise funds for the Episcopal Food Pantry. Burt, a southern Illinois native, began to take crooning seriously after his retirement. Now he has a Nashville-recorded CD and a film documentary about […]
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now playing 11-11-04
Is it better to burn out than to fade away? Neil Young said so in his 1979 ode to the rock & roll myth, “My, My Hey, Hey (Out of the Blue).” In keeping with the example laid down by the author of the Rust Never Sleeps concept, you burn out by keeping busy, being […]
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now playing 11-4-04
Making plans for a night on the town this weekend? How about checking out a new hip-hop group “borrowing” music from someone else’s record and complaining about paying for artistic property? Then we can sit and wonder if it’s the death of the genre. Don’t worry, that parasite of pop was never really alive. No, […]
Posted inMusic
music notes 11-4-04
• If you wanted to pick a pair of choirs, you couldn’t do any better than the Vienna Boys Choir and the African Children’s Choir. Now give them back-to-back shows in central Illinois and go look for a blue moon. The Europeans sing in harmony starting at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 9, at Illinois College’s […]
