Band Spotlight

In the last five years Ben Bedford went from being a guy playing open mics around town to a nationally known and highly respected folk singer of original music. He did it the old-fashioned way, by writing good songs, performing well and working hard to promote his music to the world outside of Springfield. His […]

For over a year and half now The Ramblin Blues Band has traveled around the local music scene roaming through venues all over central Illinois. The quartet of Keeli Zerrusen (lead vocals), Matt Combs (bass), Josh Patterson (drums) and Ryan King (lead guitar) play a good variety of the greats including tunes by Led Zeppelin, […]

About two years ago Kevin Hawkins decided to make a living playing music and that’s exactly what he’s done. Now known all over central Illinois as the fun lovin’, music makin’, get-a-party-goin’ Hipbone Sam, the guy who yells “Let me hear you say yeah!” played nearly 200 shows in 2010. By offering venues the choice […]

When his band Holden unexpectedly folded in 2007, Tom Cantillon – the Tommy of the High Pilots – took off from his native Santa Barbara, Calif., for a year in New York City using the inspiration of the Big Apple to fill a songbook. Returning to the Golden State in 2008, Cantillon formed the High […]

In honor of National Drum Month, Prairie Drum presents two world-class drummers with roots in central Illinois in an evening of entertainment and education. Dale Armstrong, a Bloomington native, moved to Nashville 30 years ago and made his mark as one of the most sought after studio and live drummers in Music City, USA. Armstrong […]

Longtime friends and musicians Aaron Stanley and Robert Reynolds kicked around the idea of a cool 90s cover band for a few years until putting the notion into motion last summer. The pals agree they disagree on each other’s taste in music except when it comes to their formative years of the 1990s, “to the […]

Warning, warning this is only a reunion show. Please do not get extremely excited about Park doing more recording or touring. Miles Parkhill reports all band members including Ladd, Alex and Aaron are proud papas and plan to continue devoting precious time to the family. Nevertheless they all miss music a lot and you can […]

Established as one of the finest pure blues bands in central Illinois, Bluesmattic built a reputation by persevering through fine playing and good performing. The rocking blues trio of Robert Beam (guitar), Greg Campbell (bass) and Scott Henrikson (drums) began as a unit in 2006 combining decades of previous experience from different areas. Beam came […]

These two seasoned veterans of the local music scene recently collaborated on a CD of original tunes and intend to perform them at the CD release show. Conceived by Lounsberry (vocals, keyboards), Lowder (vocals, percussion) contributed to the production as the two performing songwriters combined to create a project designed to “capture an audience that […]

Not so long ago, vocalist Rod Grant, guitarist Johnny Johnson and bass player Doug Antonacci, all former members of Late Arrival (a previous winner in IT’s Best of Springfield for band duties, by the way) and vets of other bands, began planning for another foray into the music scene by searching for drummers who could […]

Jessica Jolly and Nate Blesse started an acoustic duo a few years back to get experience playing out and give the world a chance to experience Jessica’s original songs. Drummer Robert Burtnett joined in late 2009 and the trio played “more than a few gigs in the area and abroad,” but the group solidified as […]

With a new album produced by Chad Gray and Greg Tribbett of Mudvayne out in May of 2010 and fresh from a sweet spot on the main stage of OzzFest tour, the South Florida hard rock quartet Nonpoint is out to make a point. The debut single Miracle charted higher than any other from the […]