Certain commitments known as New Year’s resolutions are commonly concocted around the beginning of a calendar year and generally concern a makeover of the self, often dealing with all kinds of ways to feel, act, look and be better. The word resolution, broken down, says to me, “re-solution,” as in finding a solution again or […]
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
Bossa Azul
Combining jazz guitar with Brazilian leanings, percussion beats of a universal nature and American blues harmonica with vocals in the original Portuguese of classic samba and bossa music, Bossa Azul invents a sound both “playful and sophisticated,” creating an acoustic/electric blend of inter-hemispheric influences that comes across as simultaneously familiar and distinctive. Translated from Brazilian, […]
Posted inMusic
Another year passed
Me, oh my how the time does fly! Looks like we are into another year of life on Earth for those of us fortunate to be participating. As far as milestones for 2012, I think the best for me was seeing my Mom turn 80 years old. We asked her to celebrate with a community […]
Posted inMusic
China Ryder
If what the world needs now is another Grateful Dead-style band doing a terrific take on the jam band genre, China Ryder is it. With former and current members of Perfunctory This Band, Brad Beneky (bass, vocals), Jeff “Smegma” Williams (keyboards) and Al Hibbert (rhythm guitar, vocals) in cahoots with Casey Cantrall (lead guitar, vocals) […]
Posted inMusic
New Year’s news
As I titled this end-of-the-year column I had no idea that the last two years I had come up with the same catchy words to name my final “Now Playing” of the year. I guess I started a tradition, and I’m sticking with it from here on out. The 2012 music scene in Springfield grew […]
Posted inMusic
The Seething Coast
In 2006 when “Springfield’s beloved indie pop band Resident Genius abruptly imploded at their peak,” The Seething Coast incarnated from the resulting tumult. Guitarists, singers and songwriters, Jay Vanselow and Jason Perry, scrounged the fresh moniker from a song by the band the Mountain Goats and carried on the soul and style of RG with […]
Posted inMusic
End of the world or end of the world ending?
With nothing else worth discussing this week other than the much purported and often promulgated “end of the world” coming on Dec. 21, 2012, here we go. I reasoned that spending, as Bob Dylan called “my precious time” on the subject, makes sense because, if the world does end on that date, then I missed […]
Posted inMusic
Hip-hop heroes
I must admit to being rather ignorant of rap and hip-hop music styles. I’ve heard certain artists and felt the influence of the genre in contemporary music, but overall I’ve not listened deep into the catalogue of this fairly new variety of music. All through the history of popular music the improvisation and musicality of […]
Posted inMusic
Dizolver
The music tandem team of Mark Packenham (bass, backing vocals) and Zac Broaddus (lead guitar, backing vocals) began working together in 2000, spanning a myriad of bands in their journey through the Springfield rock music scene. Pat Pierceall (drums, backing vocals) joined the guys in 2006 in an original group called Digdowndeep, and with a […]
Posted inMusic
December blues
For whatever reason, Springfield likes having the blues, at least when it comes to seeing bands that play the genre. And this month, just in time to thwart any possible pre-holiday, lowdown blue feelings, bands are in demand and plentiful. Our friends out at Boondocks, the new happening club on Dirksen Parkway (where Rockin’ Robin […]
Posted inMusic
Mulligan Munro
With the full intent of blending Irish and American folk music in song, Mark Butler (vocals, guitar, harmonica), Don Wright (vocals, five-string banjo), Mark Hudson (vocals, upright bass) and Katie Heilman (vocals, fiddle) became Mulligan Munro. As for what’s in a name, Mulligan comes from both the term for a stew made from on hand […]
Posted inMusic
UIS music at UIS
Most of the live music shows held at the University of Illinois Springfield, our still growing, four-year institution of higher learning on the southern outskirts of Springfield’s civilized world, come from beyond the college’s borders. Part of the reason for this apparent lack of college-based music making comes from the absence of an extensive formal […]
