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It’s Sangamon County Fair time, so pack up the
crew and make the annual pilgrimage to New Berlin, because this
year’s entertainment is fabulous. In the beer tents, otherwise known as the Miller Lite
Roc House and the Budweiser Pavilion, you’ll find our best local
bands, including F5, the Mudbugs, Hot Property, and City Limits. (If you
miss F5 and City Limits in the beer tents, check out their grandstand
shows.)
The grandstand lineup is diverse, but let’s
concentrate on the big Saturday-night show. I won’t call this a
recommendation, for most of what I know about Phil Vassar I learned from
his dashing promotional pictures, but I received this charmingly
descriptive sentence from Mr. Vassar’s publicist: “He takes
advantage of his grand piano by using it as a platform jumping to and fro,
on and off it’s [sic] lid, all the while playing his growing list of
hits.” I could try for a thousand years and never describe Vassar so
eloquently and succinctly, let alone ungrammatically.
On Saturday, June 16, at the Springfield Ski and Boat
Club, the Parrot Heads in Lincolnland host their annual Island Fever Party,
a celebration of all things Jimmy Buffet. A Parrot Head DJ gets things
rolling around 4 p.m., and the Boat Drunks, a renowned Buffett cover band,
take over at 6:30 p.m. and play on into the beautiful Lake Springfield
night. All proceeds benefit the Children’s Miracle Network and
various local charities.
A great daylong concert, the Hickory Ridge Roots
Music Festival, is scheduled for 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday, June 17, on the
grounds of the Dickson Mounds Museum, in Lewistown. Now in its second year,
the event — produced and hosted by singer/songwriter Chris Vallillo
— will feature performances by the Special Consensus Bluegrass Band,
Creole Stomp, Eric Noden and Joe Filisko, Dennis Stromought, and the
Gordons. The members of each act will discuss their particular style of
American roots music with the audience. Admission is $5 a head, and
everyone is cordially invited to pack a picnic and stay all day. For those who want to hang around town and have some
outdoor musical fun, Moroccan Soul and the Don Smith Band make for a nifty
combination. They’re playing a special Father’s Day Music in
the Park show at Lincoln Park, 4-7 p.m.
Contact Tom Irwin at tirwin@illinoistimes.com.
This article appears in Jun 7-13, 2007.
