Hello and welcome to another edition of Now Playing, your weekly Illinois Times excursion into the music scene surrounding us. The month of May is definitely not a “maybe” this year, as we warm up in a big way to the summer season. Let’s take a walk in the garden and see what’s popping this week for our listening pleasure.
Thursday night spots with different performers weekly include Casey’s Pub at the K of C Hall on Meadowbrook presenting Curt Smith on the patio, Illinois Product Farmers Market at The Shed on the state fairgrounds hosting Jason McKenzie, Mother Road Diner serving up Hippies of the Heartland and Vine & Rind sprucing up their space with me and Amy Battles.
Motorheads again has the monthly showcase of Thursday Night Live featuring the talents of Weakly-Atwood, Ricarda Rosalina and the 66 South Band (featuring Ricarda Rosalina, Roger Carr, Brad Blankenship, Lee Steitz and Preston Gary) and the Glenwood High School Jazz Ensemble, plus Chris Noonan, Roger Wainwright, Eric Tinsley and Bill Richards. Top that off with the monthly Art of Jazz show at the downtown Pharmacy Gallery delivering the fabulous Mark Tonelli Trio and we are blooming, baby.
With Friday popping out nearly 40 shows and Saturday not stopping at all with more than 50 on the books, I’m just stepping out of the way and letting you folks have at it on that decision-making process. Just to make things more interesting, exciting, challenging and enticing, we have the big deal downtown twin events of the Old Capitol Art Fair with entertainment on Saturday and Sunday afternoons near Fifth and Jefferson streets in combo with PrideFest going strong on the Y-block space (why not?) with the annual parade, drag shows, bands, vendors and more all day long on Saturday.
Also included in this wild and wooly weekend, the Hoogland Center for the Arts presents the final weekend of Jesus Christ Superstar (bonus: the cast will perform at 3 p.m. as part of PrideFest fun) in the LRS theater on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
With me bailing on you for the Friday and Saturday overflow of entertainment, let’s give some love to Sunday, the very busy Funday we’ve neglected lately. At the small towns around the city I see solo shows by Kortney Leatherwood at Whiskey Ridge in Breckenridge, then he’s at the Buckhart Tavern, Keith Dunlap at Town Hall in Loami, Brandon Elliott at Vixen Hill Winery in Palmyra and Eric Vaughn Hagen at Hill Prairie Winery near Oakford, while inside the city limits action gives us Devin C. Williams at Butternut Hut and Thomas J. Beverly at It’s All About Wine. Then come the duos of After School Special at Dockside Grill on Lake Springfield (the waterside venue’s kickoff gig) and Angel Brown’s Smooth ‘N Blue Duo at Pease’s at BUNN Gourmet, as Hipbone and Hawkeye man their posts at the Stockyards VFW, while Chad and Russell land at the Thirsty Barrel in Mason City.
Bands on the run include Deep Lunar Blue jamming at Trails End in Curran, John Corabi and friends bringing it to Danenberger Family Vineyards, Okaw Valley Ramblers rolling into Bargenta in Argenta and White Lightnin’ country-fy-ing Brookhills Golf Club, while Barbed Rose hits the country at The Tipsy Toad and B Douglas with The Travelers for Peace host an open blues jam at Sky Lounge and the Harris Family Band gathers at Mother Road Diner.
Wow. It sure is wonderful to be part of a community so full of talent and venues, along with all the fine folks that make it happen. Until our next busy weekend, have fun and be safe.
This article appears in May 14-20, 2026.
