Music

Heads up out there, music fans, the Springfield Freejazz and Creative Music Forum presents BoxDeserter Trio, an innovative ensemble of major players from the avant-garde music landscape, at 7:30 p.m., on Tuesday, April 21, at Charles & Limey’ s Lounge (620 S. First St.). The improvisational group, comprised of Skeeter Shelton (saxophones), Thollem McDonas (piano), […]

For the last several years Russian-born singer-songwriter Marina V always scheduled a stop in Springfield for a visit and a show right around the Christmas holiday. During her 2007 yuletide stopover, the MacMurray College graduate ended up in the hospital with emergency gallbladder removal surgery. Everything turned out fine once the disgruntled organ was out […]

Please join me in offering hearty congratulations to The Station as they commemorate 10 years together as a working band in 2009. Over the last decade, the Chatham-based group spent about half of that time playing on the road, released three CDs, including a double live set, Speed of Sound (2008), and won in two […]

When I saw the famous and fantastic band Asleep at the Wheel scheduled to perform at the Kirkland Fine Arts Center of Millikin University in Decatur, that alone seemed to be enough for a column. Then upon further investigation I discovered a couple more living legends coming to the same place on the same weekend: […]

Oh man, you just got to love the blues. From this music based on things not being so good, seems to come good things, or at least most folks claim to feel better and act happier after hearing the blues. Funny how that works. Springfield gets its fair share of good blues acts through town. […]

Looks like we’re in for a varied and diverse selection of live music adventures this week in the good, old, capital city. Maybe it’s because a Friday the 13th, the Ides of March and St. Patrick’s Day (the parade day and the actual date) are all in the upcoming week, but whatever the reason, the […]

Rejoice all you fans of the blues and join in a celebration of the 23rd anniversary of the Illinois Central Blues Club. Our arts community is truly blessed to have a privately formed group that sticks together through thick and thin, good and bad, loud and quiet, hot and cold, and whatever other varying situations, […]

The second 2009 presentation of the WUIS-sponsored concert series, Bedrock 66 Live! could hardly be more opposite than the first. Sarah Borges rocked the Hoogland in January, with reports of delightfully raucous behavior demonstrated by the rowdy fans enjoying the rock-influenced, pop sounds of the Boston-based singer-songwriter. At this month’s performance expect intensely quiet sounds […]

For those of you who were wondering, the French words Mardi Gras actually translate into “Fat Tuesday,” a reference to the day before Ash Wednesday which signifies the beginning of Lent, a period of fasting and preparation for those of the Christian faith in anticipation of the Easter holiday. If I was a betting man […]

In a column last month I mentioned a few of our standard weekly club shows, giving them the annual plug-in-print. Since then I’ve been accosted by more than one patron of the Springfield scene, wondering why I left out the many other weekly gigs going on around town. My reasoning went that the shows I […]

In these troubled economic times it’s hard not to notice the subtle irony in the tale of a young band called The Graduate, who are unemployed, without a record label and looking for work. But the indie-pop-rock quintet, based here in Springfield, isn’t standing in a line waiting for a bailout. These guys are busy […]