Mayday, mayday! Look out, folks, it’s already Memorial Day weekend with summer time fun just around the corner, over the hill and down the block, with a stop off at Aunt Martha’s house to see Cousin Fred first. However you slice or dice it, cut or shut it, it’s here so here we go.
From Thursday through Sunday, the Springfield Park District and the Thomas Rees Memorial Carillon host the 64th International Carillon Festival on the grounds of our west side bucolic jewel, Washington Park. As it’s so easy to take this spectacular event for granted, allow me to remind you that there are less than 200 carillons in North America and very few approach the caliber of ours that sits on the hill in the park. The festival itself is also quite renowned and respected, bringing together carillonists (or carillonneurs, if you prefer) from across the world to perform nightly, plus a fireworks show happens at dusk on Friday. So if you’re driving by and hear “them” bells ringing incessantly and melodically, now you know what the heck is happening and why.
While we’re discussing spectacular things happening, let’s take a moment to observe the recent acknowledgement from the Illinois House of Representatives congratulating the Harris Family Band on their 60th anniversary as the longest running sibling band with original members in the good ol’ U.S.A. The kiddos – Allan, Gwen, Max, Shawn, Chris and John who always played a mixture of country, classic rock and soul with many, many updates through the years – did their first gig on July 4,1966, and haven’t stopped since. Known as the Little Big Shots back then and now locally as Bustin’ Loose, mark your calendar for the official anniversary show at Firefighters Lake Club on July 26. In the meantime, you can go see half the group as the Harris Trio this Thursday night at Mother Road Diner, plus I wholly expect the other half to be there, too. Congratulations to the Harris family on this extraordinary accomplishment. Here’s to many more years of playing music together while bringing joy and happiness to so many people in so many ways and places.
As we roll into the weekend proper (that’s Memorial Day weekend, ya know) the listings are piling up with nearly 40 each on Friday and Saturday, plus a very respectable almost 30 on Sunday, with Monday tripling its usual three with a solid nine on the books. As you may have noticed, especially online, our intrepid calendar person, Daron, continues to stretch our reach with bookings shown in nearby familiar municipalities such as Decatur, Champaign, Illiopolis, Pawnee, Petersburg, Lincoln and Jacksonville, as well as some lesser-known and farther away towns, burgs, villages and hamlets such as Mackinaw, Cuba, Browning, Gibson City, Grafton, Chandlerville, Hooterville (maybe not) and Arenzville. Once again, we extend our thanks and gratitude to Mr. Walker and other Illinois Times folks for continuing to aid the spread of live music and its makers all across central Illinois.
After all that we, of course, don’t have a lot of space to get specific but perhaps, you, our faithful reader, will now take the time and initiative to wander through the listings and click on the photos, leading you to new exciting adventures somewhere, somehow, sometime, possibly with someone or simply something at the very least. With that, let’s take a pause for the cause to recall and remember the reasons for and origins of Memorial Day, or as my grandma always called it, Decoration Day.
Enjoy the holiday and see y’all in the unofficial summer time next week.
Oh my gosh, what a scandal! Great job blowing the lid off of this one. This story will be told for decades to come.