Happy blues birthday

NOW PLAYING | Tom Irwin

Let’s switch colors this week from green to blue as we move from the Irish into blues territory. Lots of other things are going on as usual, but we should take a moment to comment upon the blues scene in our fair city.

The Illinois Central Blues Club started some 29 years ago when a group of blues aficionados joined forces to create one of the first area societies aimed at appreciating, supporting, enjoying and empowering blues music. The name made a clever play on the popular title of our geographic area by taking the moniker of the famed railroad that ran straight through the state, connecting the path of the blues from the rural Deep South to urban, electric scenes in Northern cities, most notably Chicago.

The club progressed, staying stable through yearly elections and membership fluctuations, while working out ways of keeping a group of strong-willed, sameminded, opinionated and dedicated folks working together. The Blue Monday weekly show (first held on March 17, 1986) as well as regularly scheduled meetings kept the community of blues travelers on the same stage and the music in the forefront.

For the 2015 birthday bash celebration Saturday at the Knights of Columbus Hall on Meadowbrook Road, ICBC proudly presents Ronnie Baker Brooks, an integral part of the Brooks blues dynasty as son of the great Lonnie Brooks. Warming up the crowd are The Blues Expressions, a Decatur-based group that represented the ICBC at Memphis this year during the International Blues Challenge, making the semi-final round one more time. Attending the celebration is like old home week for local blues fans. It’s also a great time to renew your club membership or to join for the first time in helping support this fine music organization. Plus, you get a couple bucks off the ticket price as part of the deal. Happy birthday to the Illinois Central Blues Club. Here’s to many more down the tracks.

In other blues news, this Thursday features two great acts in early evening shows. James Armstrong, our now local, internationally acclaimed blues artist, comes off the road with his touring band for a gig at his namesake, bi-monthly show, “James Armstrong Presents” held at the Alamo. Known in the vast and vital blues world as “Ambassador of the Blues,” James spent last weekend in Tennessee and District of Columbia and continues his lifelong tradition of playing the blues live with a full schedule throughout the year. A longtime resident of Springfield and frequent performer in New Orleans and other blues-jazz hotspots, Frank Parker is an ambassador of music as well. Frank, with his well-worn and well-played horn, hosts the Jambalaya Jam at Homespun Republic. Joined by the area’s best and brightest jazz and blues musicians, the “JJ” continues a long held tradition of musician get-togethers, where the players have a blast making music, while the audience reaps the benefit of these impromptu jams. Also, Juke House, a wonderful jump blues band from right here in town, plays at Lime Street Cafe this weekend for even more blues moves.

Let’s finish off this column with a reminder that every Monday at the Alamo, the ICBC hosts world class traveling blues bands and the best of regional groups. This coming week, hear Jeff Jensen then check the club’s web site at http://icbluesclub.org for the amazing list of upcoming bands. If you are in need a final Irish fix, The Emerald Underground plays Robbie’s on Friday evening to finish out the doings of the green with a flourish.

Please do yourself a favor and check our Pub Crawl for more listings of the downright astonishing variety of acts playing around town in the next week.

Contact Tom Irwin at [email protected].