Oh yeah, it’s true that Thanksgiving is coming up soon and the holiday season is upon us. With that comes lots and lots of extra live music-making in all kinds of ways. Remember that it’s out there, but you have to make the effort to go experience the events. As obvious as that sounds, it can be a challenge, but one we can accomplish together.
Next week Thanksgiving will be slow of course, but we make up for it on the night before the holiday. In the meantime, be thankful that Thursdays keep on giving for now. In our big event for this week, Eva Hunter gets the band back together to celebrate her 50th birthday in style at the Curve Inn. From her several CD releases from years back to her lifelong commitment to making music that matters, Eva brings her emotive singing, evocative songwriting and energetic stage show to every performance. We, the audience, are the fortunate recipients of her talent and dedication. Then to complete our Thursday romp, Mother Road Diner hosts Robert Sampson for a night of righteous music while Kortney Leatherwood keeps up the open jams at The Blue Grouch.
Friday comes a-knocking with many usual suspects in familiar places including Travis Ried at The Alamo, John Drake at Boone’s, Not Petty at Butternut Hut and Hipbone and the Joints at DH Browns, to name just a few.
In the special edition category, UIS hosts its Get Free Music Series (7 p.m.) in the UIS Field Station 9 Club Area location featuring the Torches duet of Gerald Cox on piano and Richard Gilman-Opalsky on drums. Then the duo becomes a quartet with the addition of Frank Trompeter on saxophones and Adam Larison on guitar to finish out the eventful night of experimental, improvisational jazz performance.
The Ex-Bombers, a cool and catchy rockin’ duo from “Illinois USA” cruise in for a 15th Band Anniversary Bash at Buzz Bomb on Saturday from 7 to 10 p.m. The two vocals, eight-string bass and drums combo plans to perform their second album, Five Star Night, in its entirety and deliver a bunch of neato merch such as a new cassingle and shot glasses along with a contest to design the group’s next sticker, plus lots of great music and fun times.
At George Rank’s on Saturday catch The DownHomies, a tribute to the late singer-songwriter John Brillhart from his backing band. We lost John several years ago, but his music and muse live on through performances of his songs by friends along with a variety of other artists’ tunes as well.
More Saturday excitement continues with some 35 acts in our listings including a benefit for Lori Kretzinger at Mother Road Diner with music by the 66 Ramblers plus Dreamers and Doers (tickets at Eventbrite), Niko Boeker singing up a storm at Harvest Market, Blue Sky Revival and Birds of a Feather doing Allman Brothers and Phish at Danenberger Family Vineyards and Ruf Edgz power trio-ing it up at Pier 55.
Sunday clocks in at a cool 14 shows such as a benefit to raise money for cancer research and prevention presented by Springfield Plastics with live music by Deja Voodoo (1-3 p.m.) and Lick Creek (4-6 p.m.) at Motorheads. Then there’s Al Kitchen and Friends at Trails End in Curran and Matt Combs at It’s All About Wine to conclude our run for this week.
Remember next week Illinois Times hits the streets on Wednesday with a big Thanksgiving time music lineup coming for you to gobble up, so stay tuned.
This article appears in November 20-26, 2025.
