Band Spotlight

Conceived in the fall of 2016, organized as a band in 2017 and releasing their first CD in 2018, The Mazed is on the move and playing all-original music all the time. Originating as a collaboration between songwriters Shane Bumgarner (guitars and vocals) and Tim Lacy (guitar, percussion and vocals), after musicians Steve Clark (drums […]

There’s nothing in the world quite like this trio of “HeavyMetalPunkPsychobilly” music-mayhem makers, and more than likely, there never will be. Blessed with monstrous music chops and cursed with a desire to destroy any semblance of sanity (or maybe that’s the other way around), DeMON (Damon Soper on guitar and vocals), Jackhammer Washington (Jeff Cunningham […]

This award-winning, hard rockin’, busy, traveling blues man calls his stuff “Americana, roots rock and blues soul” to cover a wide range of an intense area of American music. Joel also adds in “rock ‘n’ roll, surf, swing, rockabilly, blues-abilly, funk, dunk, twang and songwriter” as parts of his musical expertise, making all this available […]

With a hometown base of Knoxville, Tennessee, this group of experienced musicians, hailing from all walks of the Americana landscape, puts out a new album (their fifth studio release) on Sept. 28 called Stranger to Me. Now stripped down to a rocking and focused quartet, much closer to the original 2009 band concept than the […]

Currently traveling all around the Midwest, West Coast and Canada from their music-soaked hometown of Detroit, Michigan, this soul-infused, funky blues band is making sounds while making the rounds. With the imminent Laura on sublime vocals, backed by husband and collaborator George Friend on guitar, plus Jeff Powe (drums/bass), Jonathan Staten (drums) and Jim Alfredson […]

As the son of “America’s Prince of Polkas,” 7-year-old Eddie Jr. began playing drums for his dad’s world-renowned polka band and on his Emmy-nominated television show. By the time young Eddie had picked up the accordion, his life’s work was before him as he followed in the footsteps of his famous father to build a […]

Born in Chicago to first generation Lithuanian immigrants, young Ivas first learned music through his family’s folk sensibilities, then as a teenager, felt the powerful pull of Chicago blues. After furthering his blues education in weekend performances while attending Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, he morphed into full-time music performance, playing the region with an […]

Just when you thought it was safe to go out to bars and quietly listen to contemplative acoustic sounds, along comes Barrence Whitfield and the Savages to knock your socks off and stick them in your ears. Barrence Whitfield and the Savages, who, back in the mid-80s, launched out of Boston as the darlings of […]

Offwhyte, born as Ryan Fernandez on Aug. 22, 1977, in Pell City, Alabama, now resides in Springfield as his music is heard around the world. He defines himself an “American rapper, vocalist, dancer, producer and videographer, known for a sound that is at once complex, intellectual, wholesome and true to the soul.” There’s plenty to […]

Around since 2012, this band has gone through a few personnel changes, but now “the artist formerly known as New City Road” is officially called N.C.R., and with the name change comes a slightly new direction. Once a mostly-classic country group, the latest lineup of Jessica Dooley (vocals, guitar), Robbie Mitchell (vocals, guitar), Harry Lounsberry […]

Kim Richey is, by all standards, a gifted singer and songwriter who carries herself with the presence of the artist supreme. Her life has been one of singular commitment to song but without pretension or demand, only a desire to make music that matters, whether it matters to anyone else or not. She’s toured consistently […]

As our young troubadour completes his “summer tour” of acoustic venues in central Illinois and heads back to college, we salute Jimmy Riemer in a job well-done of entertaining and performing for literally hundreds of listeners during the last couple of months. Way back in his younger days (a few years ago), Jimmy learned the […]