Hot Rod Walt & the Psycho-DeVilles rockabilly-rock-out at Bar None on May 1, with The Suicide Shifters and Los Injectors.
Hot Rod Walt & the Psycho-DeVilles rockabilly-rock-out at Bar None on May 1, with The Suicide Shifters and Los Injectors.
Let’s start this week off with a howdy-do to the Curve Inn. Located out off of South Sixth on what was once the famed Mother Road, Route 66, the longtime bar has a colorful history. Once a seedy and rough place, the Curve has certainly blossomed in the last several years under the current ownership of Ray and Ami Merchant and Don Thompson. A consistent winner in several Illinois Times Best of Springfield categories, the venue is known for good music, good food, good darts, good drinks and all kinds of good stuff, but most especially for the beer garden space.
This year Ric Major, our area sound guru guy (and also a consistent winner of the BoS sound technician category), took over running the sound and stage part of the indoor-like, officially outdoor venue. Live music happens at least every Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 6 to 10, and often on other days, especially Sundays, when the owners graciously offer the space for benefits and fundraisers. This week is no exception, and is actually about par for the course with five days of live music. Mary Jo Curry & Tombstone Bullet do the rockin’ blues on Thursday (6:30-9:30), and New City Road rocks the country on Friday. Saturday celebrates Ray’s birthday (a wee bit early) with darts, ribs and giveaways starting at noon and Mr. Flay playing classic rock tunes in the evening. Sunday brings a benefit for cancer victim Stan Painter, brother of Steve Painter, and goes from noon to 7 with Zack Fedor, Alter Ego, Big Guy & the Mob and Harmony Deep. Then in celebration of Cinco de Mayo on Tuesday, Captain Geech and the Shrimp Shack Shooters (more BoS winners) take the always-hopping stage. Keep checking the schedule as the cool Curve keeps music happening all summer long.
Bar None knocks the rockabilly music out of the park this weekend with two nights of extraordinary sounds. On Friday night experience a “Throttle Throwdown” with a trio of crazy-good, wild and wooly rockabilly bands, including Hot Rod Walt and the Psycho-DeVilles, The Suicide Shifters and Los Injectors. Then Sunday night at 8 p.m., the world-renowned Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys take the corner stage for an evening of danceable Western swing and old time boogie-woogie music.
On Saturday, Jeff “Smeg” Williams celebrates 60 years on earth with a bash at Frankie’s on the Boulevard. If you know the man, you know this will be a party, including music from China Ryder (his latest Grateful Dead interpretation), Chris Sorenson Project, me, Bad Bill Robinson & Devin Williams and the Mojo Cats, plus full-scale jamming from musicians after bands. Happy birthday, my friend; you earned it.
All weekend long, Springfield celebrates the 150th anniversary of Lincoln’s burial with reenactments, mostly concentrated on the downtown area and heading out to Oak Ridge Cemetery. Period music and performances abound with complete information and schedules available at http://lincolnfuneraltrain.org. My favorite tribute is a song written by Norman Blake called “Lincoln’s Funeral Train”. Our friends from Sparta, Ill., The Gordons, do a wonderful version, as does Macomb singer-songwriter-guitarist Chris Vallillo. You can hear the song performed on YouTube by Norman Blake and Tony Rice in 1994.
For a really, really, good folk time, check out Wil Maring and Robert Bowlin at an Ahh Yoga Living Room concert on Saturday night at 7 p.m. Find out more details by looking up the event on Facebook.
Welcome to a month of May-be, baby.
Contact Tom Irwin at [email protected].
