JULY
WEDNESDAY 8.......COLIN GILMORE and MUSIKANTO $5
COLIN GILMORE was born and raised in the musically rich town of Lubbock, where he was influenced by family friends Joe Ely and Butch Hancock, as well as Terry Allen and the late Jesse Taylor. (Allen’s son, Bukka, played on Gilmore’s debut album, The Day the World Stopped and Spun the Other Way.) But it was his mother, singer Debbie Fields, who really encouraged his early musical development. His step-dad, fiddler Richard Bowden, also had an influence. And so, of course, did Buddy Holly, the Lubbock legend whose rockabilly spirit has infused Gilmore’s sound. You can hear Holly’s impact (and that of other Texas troubadours – and Tornadoes) in Gilmore’s “Laughing Hard or Crying?” and “Time to Fly Away Again.”
MUSIKANTO is the spinoff of the series, Sleeper Car. After performing with the Chicago quintet for 3 + years, Musikanto has established himself as a prolific singer/songwriter. Born Mike Musikanto on Chicago's northside in 1983, he grew up listening to his fathers obscure folk and roots rock records like Fraser and Debolt and Jerry Hahn. With a propensity towards heartbreaking ballads and melodic melodrama, Musikanto's songs have the bite of a Chicago winter. Celebrating elements of orchestral music, country and jazz, Musikanto manages to maintain the continuity of the American Folk tradition with undoubting ease. With his beautiful band (Russ Mallord, JJ Evans, Scott Schaafsma and sometimes violinist, Eugene Choi) Musikanto offers a more mature perspective on arrangements and composition then ever before. With the lyrical weight of artists like Tom Waits and Elliott Smith, Musikanto's narratives rattle the core of the human spirit. Musikanto released his debut record called Ghost Pain in january 2009.
FRIDAY 10.......BEAKER BROTHERS $5
We cut our teeth on the music of Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Santana, the Allman Brothers and the Grateful Dead, and we're still gnawing on it. Now, we're going back to where the jam bands came from, to the time when rock, blues, jazz and Latin music met and grew into our inspiration. Call it what you want — post-psychedelic, proto-alternative, protest music (we like that one), retro, southern-progressive-hippie rock, whatever — you can bet that great bands like Phish and Moe and Umphrey's McGee would still be punching the clock at their day jobs without the contributions of Jimi, Eric, Carlos, Duane, Jerry... and Clyde. The Beaker Brothers Band isn't a nostalgia act or a tribute show. We're playing music that has been in our heads and our hearts since we first heard it. It's music of the night from Back in the Day, played by guys who are as awed by it now as when we were driving home from a gig in 1969 and suddenly pulled off the road on a hilltop 'cause Clyde was blowing our minds again, and we couldn't get the signal down in the valley. This is not your father's rock band. No, wait, maybe it is. Anyway, we're sure you're gonna dig it.
SATURDAY 11......DAVINA AND THE VAGABONDS
"At first glance, the very idea of a blues band without a guitar player strikes the mind as a daring if not totally outrageous concept. But, Davina & the Vagabonds, a Minneapolis-based quintet driven by New Orleans horns and the campy purr of vocalist/pianist Davina Sowers, carry it off with such aplomb that you won’t miss the usual six-string histrionics one bit.Listening to Davina & the Vagabonds is like stepping into a wondrous musical time machine. They have the panache and superlative musicianship to recreate the retro sound and ageless appeal of golden age Americana in high-definition reality on stage for your immense pleasure and enjoyment." -Ken Wright, Thunderbay Blues Festivalrolls, and staccato piano lines, but nothing deserves the complementing position to her voice. She’s in a league of her own." -Erin Roof - City Pages 2009
"......two things remain consistent at all her shows.....her throaty but cushiony voice, which has a sort of hard-mattress comfort to it that's part Bonnie Raitt, Etta James and a little Amy Winehouse, and her band's rollicking New Orleans flavor, driven home by dueling horn players and a bayou-thick standup bass” -CHRIS RIEMENSCHNEIDER, Star Tribune
"At first listen to Davina and the Vagabonds, you imagine the tones escaping from a 300-pound blues musician. It seems unlikely that much power is coming from the slight frame of one Ms. Davina. It sounds like an unnatural force, pulled from some secret spot in the belly no other singer has yet discovered. It's a low bellow, most closely aligned with Amy Winehouse's walloping alto. But Davina takes "retro" back further than Winehouse and her Phil Spector reminiscing. She beckons an age when bad girls wore red lipstick and pin curls. Her music may be adorned with exceptional groaning trumpets, rat-a-tatting drum, and staccato piano lines, but nothing deserves the complementing position to her voice. She’s in a league of her own." -Erin Roof - City Pages 2009
SATURDAY 17, SHANNON CURFMAN $15 advance $18 Door, 9PM Show
After miraculously recovering from a near-terminal case of "Bruce", blues artist turned rock and roller, Shannon Curfman has finally released the follow-uprecord to her critically acclaimed debut album, "Loud Guitars, Big Suspicions". Originally signed to Arista Records at the age of 14, "Loud Guitars" rose to the number 3 spot on the Billboard Blues Chart. She has shared the stage with legends B.B. King, Buddy Guy John Mellencamp and Santana and has recorded with John Mayall, Billy Preston, Meshell N'degeocello and Keb' Mo. Her songs have appeared on the soundtracks of "Where the Heart Is" and "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants", as well as HBO's "The Sopranos", "G String Divas" and the WB's "Gilmore Girls". At 14, Shannon was praised for her blues-driven songwriting, gritty, soulful voice and her scorching guitar. Now 20, Shannon 's back on the road honing a new set of songs featured on her new release, "Take It Like A Man". With age and experience, the music has evolved and the genre has moved slightly away from funky-blues towards rock & roll.
WEDNESDAY 29......MIKE & AMY FINDERS with AARON & ERIN YOUNGBERG
Just like the start of all good relationships, they met in a bar. It was 1997, and Amy needed a guitar player to back her up for a gig at an art festival in Dubuque, IA. After agreeing to some rehearsals, the two found their voices matching, their styles gelling, and their fates intertwining. It took about six months before the romantic defenses fell, but before that, it was instantly what it has always been: musical synergy. Their voices and sensibilities were in immediate alignment. Within two years, the couple had put out two independent CD's of original acoustic folk music, had two daughters, and collected a fanbase stretching up and down the upper Mississippi River and its valley. In 2001 the couple moved to Iowa City, IA, and got serious. Simmering in the stew of bluegrass veterans Bob Black and Al Murphy and songwriters such as Greg Brown and Dave Moore, the couple defined their own brand of "frontier prairie blues." Their 2004 release, "Where You Are" was heralded as "a gem" by Bluegrass Unlimited, and "an Americana tour de force" by No Depression. A cut from this album, "Adeline," won first place in the prestigious Chris Austin Songwriting Contest at Merlefest in Wilkesboro, North Carolina. Mike won again in 2005 with a newly penned gospel song, "That First Stone." Upon the backbone of Mike's songs, Ms. Amy provides the adornment: “blessed with a spunky, charming personality and a powerful, soulful voice that can go from the effervescent, clearwater high-country sound of, say, Dolly Parton, to the sultry, sassy, swinging blues of a young Maria Muldaur, Amy Finders grabs a lot of attention.” --Iowa City Press-Citizen October, 2007.
The Finders (from Iowa at the time) met The Youngbergs (from Colorado) in Chicago, 2005 while playing with other bands and sharing the billing. Their subsequent musical relationship has grown from random shows in the half-way ground of Nebraska to a Finders' Family relocation, a "knock-your-socks-off" recording project (*see below*), and some outstanding live performances. Though this alliance is newly solidified, the experience of the individuals is boldly evident in the award-winning songwriting and the spaces between the seasoned vocal and instrumental performances. To be sure, the synergy of this quartet sparkles brighter than the stage lights.
AUGUST
SATURDAY 1........DAVID LINDLEY 8PM, $15 advance, $17 door, with opening set by TONY BROWN with special guest PATRICK HAZELL on harmonica
David Lindley has been smashing musical barriers and fusing idioms from his earliest days. There’s a wonderful tale about the tie-breaking round in a mid-’60s Topanga Banjo Contest, with Taj Mahal and Lindley as the finalists. To determine the winner, the judges required them each to play a version of "John Henry." Taj Mahal threw down the gauntlet with a calypso-tinged rendition of the old banjo favorite. Lindley met the challenge head-on with an impassioned flamenco-on-the-five-string rave-up, replete with clawhammer rasgueados and old-timey falsetas.
That kind of playful, pan-cultural approach has informed Lindley’s music in all its incarnations, from his early bluegrass-meets-Paganini endeavors with the Dry City Scat Band through the psychedelic Middle Eastern experiments of Kaleidoscope, the incendiary reggae grooves of El Rayo-X, and his acoustic duets with Jordanian dumbek wizard Hani Naser and percussionist Wally Ingram. Along the way, Lindley has collaborated on albums and film scores with Ry Cooder, provided stratospheric slide solos on Jackson Browne hits, and laid down hundreds of tracks as hired axman on records by everyone from Rod Stewart to Dolly Parton to contemplative new age shakuhachi master Kazu Matsui. Lindley also made musical pilgrimages to Madagascar and Norway with guitarist Henry Kaiser, trips that resulted in the wildly popular World Out of Time and Sweet Sunny North recordings.
Lindley’s encyclopedic knowledge of music, his indomitable arsenal of stringed instruments, and his deft touch in every style put him on the top of everyone’s list of most able sidemen. When Jackson Browne, Shawn Colvin, Bruce Hornsby, and Bonnie Raitt teamed up for a concert tour last fall, they chose Lindley to lead the band. ---Paul Kotapish--ACOUSTIC GUITAR June 2000.
TONY BROWN'S roots go back half a century to Waterloo, Iowa. Blues, Jazz, Folk, R&B, Soul, Gospel, Field Hollers, Calypso all these styles of music permeated his early life. Later in his career he became known as one of the United States based pioneers of Reggae music in the Midwest. He has recorded with numerous national, international, regional and local musicians and songwriters. He has toured extensively in the United States, Canada, Europe, central America and The Caribbean. He has more than a dozen recording products of his music. He has been honored with awards from several states of the United States. Tony, at present, is preparing to release a new CD product entitled, "Freedom Beyond Recognition." In 2008 Tony, along with the band I.B.T.C, were inducted into the Iowa Rock N Roll Hall of Fame. Check out Tony's Myspace site for MP3s and more of his bio.
THURSDAY 20......RANDY WEEKS
"Randy Weeks writes amazingly crafted, beautifully melodic songs and delivers them with his own brand of laid back vocals and surfboard cool." - LUCINDA WILLIAMS
If critical raves drove the record charts, RANDY WEEKS would rightfully be top of the pops. After all, consider just some of the evidence: “An amazing songwriter” (Salon.com). “Smart songwriting and a broad palette of pop music influences” (CD Now). “Amazing musician” (Billboard). “Cooler than an Eskimo beer box” (Houston Press).
And Weeks’ admirers are hardly limited to the music press. “Randy Weeks writes amazingly well crafted, beautifully melodic songs and delivers them with his own brand of laid back vocals and surfboard cool, very hip approach” says Lucinda Williams, who included his song “Can’t Let Go” as the sole cover on her Grammy winning album, Car Wheels on a Gravel Road.
FRIDAY 21.............JUSTIN DILLARD ORGAN TRIO
Howard Reich (Chicago Tribune arts critic) writes: “A new generation of jazz improvisers has emerged in Chicago in recent years, but few are more promising than pianist/organist Justin Dillard. Musically, Dillard tends to be all over the keyboard, drawing upon the examples of virtuosos such as Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Oscar Peterson and McCoy Tyner. But there's something more to Dillard's work as well -- a quest for new ideas in music, in the manner of his AACM mentors”. Performing countless jazz festivals nationally and abroad, Justin has performed on national television (ABC) with his organ expose’ The D-O-3-0; and in a documentary produced by George Lucas Studios. Justin has played in every musical environment possible. His ventures in various genres span from Avant Garde to a Dave Matthews tribute band. Justin continues to advance his ambitions and transform his career by leading, orchestrating and creatively composing for his vast array of ensembles; all while accompanying great musicians in and around Chicago and the world.
SATURDAY 29........MILES NIELSEN
A Rockford, IL born singer/songwriter came into this world knowing that life would be a journey filled with musical adventure and tall tales. A bloodline of music stemming back to his great grandfather, grandfather, and father, left Miles no choice but to follow in the same musical footsteps that had been stamped out before him. Miles stated, “ Most of my childhood was spent on a tour bus traveling across the country with Cheap Trick.” That is where his songwriting began to develop. The songs that began to pour out were obvious childhood wonders “ No New Skin Ever Again “ a tale that is a constant about a child’s wonder if his first serious wound would ever heal. “ Don’t Wanna Be a Bricked UP Window “ looked at life through an old windows’ mind as to the loss of never seeing or dreaming again. These were just a few of the songs that sparked Miles into believing that there was a better way to daydream. “Songwriting has always been a way for me to meld the world of dreams and real life together.” The songwriting process that Miles has developed is a testament to a life dedicated to music. Miles Nielsen live is an emotional intimate experience that will leave you wanting to laugh, cry, dance, and dream……. “ Music is the only language that can speak to everyone’s soul.”
SEPTEMBER
FRIDAY 25.......DEKE DICKERSON
Deke Dickerson is one of America's musical treasures. As an entertainer and musician, he has toured the world and established himself as one of the foremost purveyors of roots music, headlining festivals from Las Vegas to Finland. As a writer and music historian, he is well known for his regular column in Guitar Player magazine and recently authored two enormous essay projects for Bear Family's 2007 Merle Haggard box sets. As an entrepreneur, Deke has partnered with Hallmark Guitars to produce the Deke Dickerson model guitar, as unique in its design as its namesake. As a behind-the-scenes mover and shaker, Deke has recorded songs that have been featured in a variety of movies, TV shows, and radio programs, from the Oscar-winning movie Sideways to HBO's documentary Dirty Driving: Thundercars of Indiana and the hugely popular XM satellite radio show Theme Time Radio Hour with Bob Dylan. For this last, Deke not only contributed background guitar music but was also interviewed and quoted by Bob Dylan.......Playing an average of 225 shows every year throughout the United States, Europe, Japan, and Australia, Deke spends his rare moments at home with recording projects (he owns his own label, Ecco-Fonic Records) and writing articles and liner notes for music magazines and CD box set reissues.
OCTOBER
SATURDAY 3.......HARPER 9 PM, $10 ADVANCE, $12 DOOR
PART HARMONICA WIZARD AND PART rhythmic explorer, Harper is a fiery artist who blurs the lines between rock, blues, soul and world music. His latest Blind Pig release, "Day By Day", displays his trademark virtuoso harp performances, distinctive instrumentation, deeply soulful grooves and instantly memorable songs and provides another prime example of why his unique roots music style occupies a category of its own. Harper has been described as "a singer with the deep soul of Motown, a harmonica player who can graft Sonny Boy II and Little Walter with John Popper, a songwriter who tells his own compelling stories in an unhurried, J.J. Cale-like manner, and a musical visionary who is unafraid to mix the didgeridoo, an important part of his Australian indigenous culture, with infectious modern percussive rhythms". His skill lies in the fact that he is able to tap into the kindred spirits running through his traditional and modern influences, borrowing from western and world music to develop a highly original take on the roots genre. He also takes the harmonica beyond its assigned place. Harper’s innovative use of electronic enhancement and feedback breaks the traditional boundaries of the harmonica, giving his music its distinctive harmonics and effects.