“Let’s Keep the Blues Alive!”
— the earnest wish at the bottom of the hand-drawn fliers
advertising the coming of the Central Illinois Blues Club in
February 1986 — signifies all that the organization has stood
for since its inception more than two decades ago. Credit for instigating the club goes to Vicki
Biddle Chmura and her sister Jan Eaton who were, according to
blues-club lore (and Chmura’s impeccable memory), sitting at
a bar in Davenport, Iowa, talking about the Mississippi Valley
Blues Society, an organization promoting blues music in the Quad
Cities. After a conversation with the MVBS president, Chmura began
contacting other central-Illinois blues enthusiasts, checking into
the feasibility of a local blues club. Groundwork was laid by Sangamon State
University (now the University of Illinois at Springfield)
professors who, in the early 1970s, sponsored blues concerts at SSU
and purchased the tavern in the old Crows Mill School to host
barroom blues. The original 13 founding members of the Blues Club
— Chmura, Dan Bringman, Bob Sipe, Mike Townsend, David
Balmer, Mike Beatty, David Benner, John Corbett, Bill Engle, Pat
Hickey, Dick Hofman, Fred Johnson, and Mike King — met on
Feb. 5, 1986. Within a month of the meeting, the club boasted more than 40 card-carrying, dues-paying members,
the Blue Monday jams were rolling at Bruce’s Tavern, and the name
of the group had been changed to the Illinois Central Blues Club. On
May 9, 1986, a concert at SSU featuring Chicago bluesman James Cotton
was the first official ICBC-sanctioned special event. Throughout the years the organization has
hosted Blues in the Schools, a program in which musicians are paid
to play the blues for kids during school hours; sponsored many
indoor concerts and outdoor festivals; and has altogether been a
stalwart supporter of live music in the community. Now, after 20
years, membership stands at about 200, the Blue Monday jams have a
steady home at the Alamo, and the ICBC is a respected institution
on the local music scene, still avidly keeping the blues alive and
well.
The Illinois Central Blues Club celebrates its
20th birthday with an all-day party in the St. Nicholas Ballroom,
400 E. Jefferson St. The KMC Blues Brothers and the Low Down Blues
Band, plus a classic Blues Club open jam, cover the music from
noon-6 p.m. From 7 p.m. to 1 a.m., check out Springfield Shaky, one
of the first local blues performers to host a Blue Monday jam, and
Big Time Sarah and the BTS Express, a group first booked by the
ICBC in June 1986. If you missed Zolar X
many years ago when they were LA’s coolest weird band or if
you just missed last Wednesday’s show at the Hoog or, heck,
if you just plain miss them for any reason whatsoever, go see them
on Friday, March 24, at Viele’s Planet (126 E. Jefferson,
217-525-9029). Opening for the aging alien-looking musicians are
NIL8 (Springfield music heroes) and the Dials (Chicago band of
pop-loving women). You have my personal guarantee that Zolar X is
the only band dressed up to look like imaginary space travelers
appearing in Springfield this week. So don’t be a disbeliever
and get your alien-loving ass over to the Planet. I mean it. Well, perhaps the
previous guarantee was a bit premature: Now we have Neanderthal
Alien at Jazz Central Station (700 E. Adams, 217-789-1530), opening
on Friday, March 24, and headlining on Saturday, March 25. They
promise no costumes from outer space, but their music sounds as it
could be rather alien to some ears in a jazz-improv sort of way.
The group hails from Amsterdam, with one member, formerly of
Springfield (well, where would you rather live?), bringing the rest of the band
to his former place of residence for a midtour stopover. Now try to get out of
this world with the band Frog Holler (you think there really is a
place called Frog Holler?), playing at the Underground City Tavern
(700 E. Adams, 217-789-1530) on Tuesday, March 28. The name
conjures images of hollering frogs, and that seems a bit alien, but
the music is all down to earth and based on bluegrass and
roots-rock music. Instrumentation consists of Dobro, banjo,
accordion, mandolin, electric guitar, bass, percussion, and drums.
Led by the pride of Reading, Pa., songwriter Darren Schlappich and
multi-instrumentalist Mike Lavdanski, Frog Holler has been at it
since 1996 with only a few personnel changes and has become quite
acclaimed on the Americana circuit. You should really go see them
and be the first on your block to have heard and heard of Frog
Holler. While you’re there, heckle the players by asking just
what in the hell a frog holler is and why they would name their
band such a thing.
This article appears in Mar 23-29, 2006.
