As we dawdle, dabble and dart our way through March, it's a double-duty St. Patrick's Day celebration for 2023, along with many other doings to make your week an entertainment extravaganza experience. Let us sally forth to see what occurs.
First off, with great sadness we report another tragic and too soon loss in our music community with the passing of Camron Yates, known for engineering and producing local music while running his Waterfront Recording Studios. Yates recently finished a project for Fireside Relics and worked on the Lick Creek song productions, plus was currently producing UNCHAiNED along other local music artists. A member of the band Springpatch Serenade, he was known as a steady and solid force in making music happen in many forms, leaving a legacy of recorded music for the ages, as well as unseen, behind-the-scenes connections that will continue to affect our music community for years to come.
This Friday, Fireside Relics play live at George Ranks (8-11 p.m.) and will also release Drive, the first song from their upcoming eight-song EP, recorded by the late Camron Yates at Waterfront. A couple years in the making, the entire project was just completed a few months ago, and the band has an official CD/EP release party scheduled for April 2 at Danenbergers. More details and news on that show are coming as we get closer to the date.
With the St. Patrick's Day Marching Band Parade scheduled for downtown Springfield this Saturday and St. Pat's Day proper on Friday, March 17, this year we get a two-weekend celebration for the popular holiday. Music always played a big part in Celtic culture, so there's no surprise our local celebration of Irish heritage provides a good deal of tunes. From the pipes and drums of the St. Andrew's Society of Central Illinois leading off the parade, to the school marching bands participating, all the way to more pipes and drums playing all over town (and the area) Saturday and next Friday, as well as local Celtic music-flavored acts in bars, we have your green covered.
Things start with Skibbereen, the Hank Helton-led Irish, Celtic and world music group, taking on the Friday Night Jazz spot at Boone's (5:30-7:30 p.m.). Next up we have McKinney & Hennessey (that's Rick Dunham and myself) doing Clancy Brothers pub songs at George Ranks (2-5 p.m.) after the parade on Saturday. Then, The Emerald Underground lands at Lime Street (7-10 p.m.) Saturday playing their set style of Celtic-fusion (and welcome back, Nat!).
For a heads up, next week TEU will be at Motorheads on Thursday, Amy's Place (formerly Third Base) on Friday and Danenbergers on Sunday, while McKinney & Hennessey pop into Harvest Market on Friday night. Enjoy the double doings of St. Pat's this year and try not to see double while you're doing it.
Please check out all the other non-Irish-influenced music going on after the parade. There's certainly a good deal of it and that's no blarney.
On Saturday, Dumb Records presents an album release show for the Telephone Junkies with support from Emily How and Tilt Warning, plus Phil Yates & The Affiliates, a four-piece, power pop band that dropped the recording, A Thin Thread, last July on Detroit's Futureman Records. The record store that transforms into a venue is located downtown on Monroe Street, so it's possible remnants of the parade may be lingering around, but by the time this show starts at 7 p.m., things should be back to as normal as they can be.
Don't forget to dust off your kilt and clean your green for the upcoming hooley.
