As the winter weather hangs on, and those warm rays elude your paling skin, you might want to try the next best thing to sunshine–artificial lighting in a smoky bar. You can watch the weather on TV and down a libation while waiting for the live music to crank up. If that doesn’t work–well, you can keep downing until it does.
What’s in a name? Sometimes it’s hard to tell, especially when you can’t figure out what the name is to begin with. Jaigh Lowder, Springfield’s triple-threat–a recording, writing, and playing guitarist–has renamed his trio Str8 Skiny. Now that’s a “straight skinny” pronunciation and an interesting take on spelling, as Lowder and company reach the prestigious ranks of bands with both numbers and improper spellings in their names. If you have any questions regarding the origination of the designation, visit the perpetrators this Friday at Floyd’s Thirst Parlor on Fifth and Saturday at the Lime Street Cafe on Durkin Drive. Both gigs go from 9 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. Oh yeah, and whatever you call the group, the music is terrific. With wife Peggy and daughter Josie adding delightful vocals on top of a top-notch bass-and-drum team, Lowder is free to spice up the songs with his vast knowledge of guitar styles and sounds. And that’s the “str8 skiny” on that subject.
It’s one, two, three this weekend at the Underground City Tavern in the Springfield Hilton, Seventh and Adams. Cowboy poet, storyteller, and musician Andy Weisenhofer herds his Band of Jolly Cowboys into the hotel bar on Friday for fun and frolic the Old West way. On Saturday Magnolia Summer–one of those hauntingly beautiful, alt-country, country-folk, folk-rock bands–drift in from St. Louis for a show with Springfield’s rising stars of the same genre, TheMugshots. Over the past ten years or so, Chris Grabau has knocked around old St. Louie with various bands and projects, most recently with Waterloo, who just finished their second release with producer Eli Shaw. Grabau recorded a selection of songs over the last two years with Waterloo leader Mark Ray as producer on the project. The result is Levers and Pulleys by Magnolia Summer, which will be released April 8 on Undertow Records. Come back on Sunday night to the Underground City Tavern for an evening with blues-based singer-songwriter Frank Moreyof Lowell, Massachusetts. The dark and dreary landscapes painted by Morey’s words and music seem to come from someone else, more–well, dark and dreary than the ebullient Morey. He specializes in gutter stories, the tales of down-and-out people residing in the bars and on the streets that mainstream America would just as soon forget about–unless there’s a happy ending. Frank and the Van Goes will escort you safely to a world of seedy characters in tough situations while you sit comfortably on your barstool nursing a Manhattan, thinking, “Man, I’ve got it good.”
Why not keep it rolling right on into Monday? Celebrate the birthday of late bluesman Eddie Snow with the Illinois Central Blues Club at the Alamo, 115 N. Fifth. Bill Evans will host the night, and as always there will be a who’s who of Springfield blues players to honor the memory of the Sun Records artist and longtime city resident and performer. The show runs from 8:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. and will cost you one American dollar.
Now about that tan . . .
This article appears in May 8-14, 2003.
