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I hope that by now you’ve heard about the
Jacksonville world premiere of David: You and I, a locally written and produced musical based on the life
of King David from the Bible’s Old Testament. The show runs this
weekend and next with all the details on page 18. Area playwright Ken Bradbury wrote the script, but
perhaps of greater interest to readers of this column is Roger Wainwright,
who wrote the lyrics and composed the music. An extremely talented and
respected keyboardist and vocalist, Wainwright has played in several area
bands — among them Winky and the Love Buddhas, Eldorado, and Elvis
Himselvis — over the years. Wainright first conceived of David: You and I back in
2000; by 2001 he had produced a full-length recording of songs using all
local musicians, including Hank Helton, Jeff Helton, Allan Harris, and
Chris Noonan. In 2004, Bradbury became involved in developing the words
around the music and in 2006 he and Wainwright booked a place for the debut
of the play. Now, a mere seven years after its conception,
Wainwright’s idea appears live on the big stage. A 2007 reworking of
the original CD with additional songs and musicians (including New Orleans
transplant saxophonist Roger Kimball) will be made available for purchase
at the show, with proceeds going to a program geared to “feeding the
working poor,” Wainwright says. • Wow, a real rock
show tonight in Springfield? Yessiree, folks, the platinum-selling band
Seven Mary Three performs Thursday, Aug. 2, at Chrome (3075 Normandy Rd.,
217-638-9217). Other groups performing in the 8 p.m.-1 a.m. show are Modern
Day Zero, Low as I, and Mind Set Evolution. I may not be as familiar with
the music of these bands as I should be (I’m getting old, you know),
but my rock-music sources say that this will be a damn good old-fashioned
hard-hitting-but-not-mind-splitting, guitar-crunching, anthem-filled,
solid-rocking show. Sounds good to me. • Be sure to tune
your radio to WUIS (91.9 FM) at 8 p.m. each Friday for Sound Opinions, hosted by music
critics Jim DeRogatis and Greg Kot of the Chicago
Sun-Times and Chicago
Tribune, respectively, discussing pop and rock
music. The show, which debuted a few weeks ago on WUIS, is broadcast
between This American Life and Beale Street Caravan. At 8 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 4, University of Illinois at
Springfield graduate student Justin Law debuts The
Harmony Brothers: A Spoken History, featuring
interviews with the Harmony Brothers, Springfield’s first rock band,
plus Frank Trompeter, Bill Laymon, and me. Law has compiled tons of war
stories, and he intersperses the tales with tunes by the various artists.
It’s just a small part of the big picture but still some pretty cool
stuff. Check it out just to hear about such long-defunct venues as the
Midway Pub, Crow’s Mill School, Bruce’s Tavern, Union Station,
and the Second Street Pub. The tale of the Harmony Brothers is nothing
short of amazing.
Contact Tom Irwin at tirwin@illinoistimes.com.
This article appears in Jul 26 – Aug 1, 2007.
