Here we are at the end of the first month of 2015. I don’t know whether to celebrate, contemplate, circumnavigate, perpetrate, deflate or inflate, so let’s just investigate further.
Start your week off with a crash, boom and bang by visiting the Black Sheep Cafe on Thursday. Yes, you know the place. It’s near the corner of Eleventh and South Grand where the all ages shows happen. Generally “all ages” means no drinking and underage events. But why, pray tell, would that stop you from coming to see a great music night featuring those glorious, punk pranksters King Worm, the fun, fantastic and fabulous Timmys and “all the way from Carbondale, Ill.,” those wily wags known as The Copyrights. Brace yourself for a good time (and a possible culture shock for some of you) and try out music that makes you think while you shimmy and shake. Visit the well-maintained Black Sheep website for all kinds of good stuff on this vital venue.
We could call this the “House Concert Weekend” as two of our favorite places (look them up online for details) to see a concert in a house host, what else, but house concerts. Our friends in Williamsville at the Paris-Belle concert series feature the fine talents of gifted folk musician and singer-songwriter Chris Vallillo on Friday night. Check out Chris’s website for a ride through decades of music perseverance and performance in central Illinois, then check him out live in concert. On Sunday, the Sangamon Valley Youth Symphony entertains as student musicians perform chamber groups of two string quartets, an oboe trio and a violin quartet in the friendly confines of this lovely home. On Saturday, in between those two shows, the Radon Lounge hosts a Bruce Springsteen tribute night where local musicians perform songs by “The Boss” in the basement concert venue. Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash were “tributed to” last year, and that’s some mighty fine company, I would say.
News on the blues front from Memphis and the International Blues Challenge is all good, though it may be somewhat disappointing to our local competitors. Robert Sampson, the brilliant Jacksonville musician who placed in the finals before and always did well during his several visits to the IBC, for some inexplicable reason, didn’t even make the semi-finals this year. Monica Morris and Josie Lowder as a duo act along with Blue Expressions as a band qualified for the semi-finals, but went no further. Let’s all send our area contestants a hearty congratulations. Wherever, however and whenever you make your music, we’ll be listening and appreciating.
The DSI (Downtown Springfield, Inc.) awards dinner last Wednesday offered music news galore. We went from Mayor Houston still being okay with downtown music festivals going past his bedtime to Eric Welch garnering an award for his work in organizing the SOHO Music Fest, the event that hizzoner once was willing to squash with time constraints. After last year’s weather related issues, the popular Old Capitol Blues & BBQ event is now on the first weekend of October and the former Taste of Downtown becomes something else. It appears live music survives and prospers once again.
Bar None kicks off a series called Illinois Blue Revue on Friday with Lou Shields, the one-man blues band from Chicago and local bluesmeisters Pork Pie and the Northend Allstars. On Feb. 13, look for the inaugural Sirens of Springfield show featuring the talents of CJ Stucki and Tenika Beard, Sarah Schneider and Lorin Devine. The downtown bar also hosts Torch Tuesdays hip-hop happenings and the Wide Open Mic on Wednesdays.
Now, let’s formulate then instigate a way to relegate music to elevate.
Contact Tom Irwin at tirwin@illinoistimes.com.
This article appears in Jan 29 – Feb 4, 2015.
