Welcome to my world. Hey, it's your world, too. Here are some musical happenings in "our world" of Springfield nightlife.
On Thursday, Keith Harden, one of central Illinois' most vibrant and prolific musicians, returns from his adopted home in upstate New York for a show at the Trading Post Saloon. Harden, a long-time Champaign-Urbana full-time musician, has released several CDs, most recently Mostly Mississippi, a collection of old, updated Delta blues with a few originals mixed in for good measure. He's a consummate musician, stubborn enough to keep playing when everyone else quit to make a decent living, smart enough to figure out how to make music work, and good enough to earn the respect and attention of a finicky audience. There's no cover charge, so take a listen, buy a CD or two, and do yourself a favor by rewarding a musician for a lifetime of work.
Another area musician returns to the scene of the crime on Friday when Dave "Smoky" Billman, stops by Norb Andy's to tickle the ivories (on a DX-7?) with Black Magic Johnson. Smoky tore up the keyboard with Raoul and Company, Elvis HimSelvis, and an early '90s incarnation of the Tom Irwin Band. I have a particularly wonderful memory of him at the grand piano in the Union Station bar (soon to become the visitor center for the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum). He pulled off a cliff-hanging solo during a teetering version of Stormy Monday that shut the bar up (from talking, that is), which as any musician knows is no small feat. Welcome back, Smoky. Wondering how he got the nickname? Well, that's another story...
Friday, the Underground City Tavern is in for an action-packed evening. Wanda Jackson (yes, that Wanda Jackson) rocks the house at 8 p.m., then comes Jeff & Vida of New Orleans with their astounding acoustic folk-blues-roots singing and playing. Top it off with the cataclysmic folk reckonings of the Woodbox Gang, and my friends you have a regular festival of melodic wonder. I'm worn out just thinking about it.
I'm not trying to confuse you, but Kentucky-born Nashville songwriter Chris Knight is at the Talk of the Town in Elkhart on Friday for a night of brutally picturesque songs of love and deception, death and redemption. Opening for Knight is local favorite Lyman Ellerman back for a visit from his new digs in Nashville where he is stirring the pot, cooking up new songs, and setting the table for success in Music City, U.S.A.
If you want still another exciting Friday night event, saunter into the Lime Street Café for Johnny Slu and the Too Few. Mr. Sluzalis leads Dick Garretson, Becky Watts, and Perry Rask through the trails of classic jazz and big band swing and you can follow along.
Come on down to the No Name Bar in the Quality Inn-State House on First and Adams Saturday and help us celebrate their first anniversary with a big bash. The Gloriously Notorious Hired Hands and I have been asked to perform for this momentous occasion. Yeeehah!
What a wonderful world.
