Monica and Josie are heading back to Memphis to participate in the annual International Blues Challenge competition, bringing their own brand of blues highlighted by a special blend of guitar playing and vocal harmonies. Last year the terrific two reached the semi-finals representing our Illinois Central Blues Club, and this year they head south as […]
Band Spotlight
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Cats on Holiday
The Cats are back! For anyone around the Springfield music scene from the 80s on, that can mean only one thing. Yes, that’s right, Cats on Holiday are back in town for a one night only Holiday show. Andon T. Davis Jr. (vocals, guitar), Joe T. Phegley (bass), Rick Snow (drums, vocals) and Perry Zubeck […]
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Milk N Cookies
Milk N Cookies Identical twin brothers James and Paul McElwain, or if you prefer, Dorian and Adrian Westwood, or just plain Milk N Cookies, or best yet, “ice devouring sex tornadoes” are one of the hottest things happening in house music and EDM (electronic dance music). When James/Dorian spun vinyl at crazy frat house parties […]
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ClusterPluck
ClusterPluck Utilizing acoustic instruments in a bluegrass-folk-pop-ish style, the five players in ClusterPluck (don’t you just love saying that name?!) bring it on and score high. Chris Rader (vocals, banjo, guitar), Justin Torres (vocals, bass, guitar), Derek Rutter (vocals, mandolin, guitar), Leah Osborne (vocals, washboard, ukulele) and Matt Gadeken (violin, vocals) go deep in the […]
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Idol Rumors
Idol Rumors No one does classic rock like the guys who learned the songs before they were classics. When bands like Queen, Kiss, Boston, Judas Priest and Aerosmith rocked our world, local musicians Rusty Lee Ellison (guitar, vocals), Jeff Ellison (drums, vocals), Tim Copp (bass, vocals) and Mark Agnew (lead vocals, keyboards) applied themselves and […]
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Fumée Gypsy Project
Fumée Gypsy Project What sounds come to mind when gypsy-jazz music gets mentioned? If it’s soaring vocals, speedy guitars and swinging bass you are in the realm of the Chicago-based Fumée Gypsy Project. This last year, Christy Bennett (vocals, accordion), Casey Nielsen and Nate Baker (guitars) and Christian Dillingham (bass) completed a crowd-sourced, fan-based funding […]
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Fireside Relics
Fireside Relics Starting out as mainly a cover band in 2009 after members met at an open mic, by 2013 Fireside Relics had undergone a few personnel changes while setting a new direction toward original music. They’re still known to pull out the covers from time to time, but the seven-piece ensemble of Kristi Lecocq […]
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Royal Son of a Guns
PHOTO COURTESY ROYAL SON OF a GUNS Hailing and railing from Chicago, while curtailing nothing pertaining to righteousness and proper behavior, this trio describes themselves as “barstool smashing miscreants” ready and willing to “take Americana on a psycho-cathartic hayride through the thorny nettles of the American roots music underbelly,” – and they mean it, folks. […]
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Todd Wolfe Band
Todd Wolfe Todd Wolfe befriended Sheryl Crow when she was a struggling backup singer in New York City and he too was “trying to make it” in the music business. Later, he joined her first live band in the wake of her early success and played the world for five years. He’s also associated himself […]
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Charlie Parr�
Often musicians who emulate a sound from the past are destined to succumb to the public perception of revivalist or tribute artist, but Charlie Parr consistently rises above such notions while proudly and succinctly performing on the perch of his musical roots. Influenced in the country-blues styles as popularized by the old blues masters such […]
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Icon for Hire�
Icon for Hire Originally from Decatur, our neighbor city to the east, this ambitious and inventive combo creates pop-punk, near-rap, electronic-alternative rock music that reaches into the collective consciousness of American contemporary sounds. Calling this the Hometown Show on their Rock ‘N’ Roll Thugs tour, singer Ariel, guitarist Shawn Jump, bassist Josh Kincheloe (not always […]
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Jarekus Singleton Band
PHOTO BY MARILYN STRINGER Brand new is not a term often associated with the blues, a genre steeped in tradition and rooted in form, but the talent and energy of Jarekus Singleton is challenging that conception. Combining the triple threat of guitar playing, songwriting and singing, Jarekus brings it all to the table as a […]
