End of May music
NOW PLAYING | Tom Irwin
Now that the Memorial Day weekend festivities and commemorations are past, let’s turn our attention to the summer ahead as the outdoor activities heat up.
Last week I mentioned the recent passing of Tony Sicilia, a Springfield rock-blues guitarist. Tony played from the 70s on with everyone in town, always on the verge of breaking through to the big time. He was a master of Hendrix and played electric blues in a way all his own. We gather to honor his life, Friday, May 29, from 4 to 10 p.m., at the VFW Hall on Stockyard Road. Everyone is invited to attend and musicians are encouraged to come jam in memoriam. Please help us fund Tony’s internment. As sad as it all is, he was a musician through and through, playing his heart out while not paying much attention to the financial side of things. Blessed are the music makers.
Here we go into the great outdoors with live music. The Walnut Street Winery in Rochester features Down State Unplugged doing an original reggae-rock thing on Friday and Steely James on Saturday. The Curve Inn continues bringing the best to their “Best of Springfield” beer garden (they’ve won the popular Illinois Times readers poll several times) with Young Luck on Thursday, Off the Wall on Friday and Big Daddy Jasper on Saturday. BDJ also plays Weebles on Peoria Road this Friday as the North-end establishment gets its outside game on.
The Blue Grouch on Maple Street officially opened the “band” garden (I like the sound of that) last weekend, and the fun continues with Captain Geech and the Shrimp Shack Shooters on Friday and Second Chance Band on Saturday. Bands play on Friday evenings in a beautiful, rural setting at the Long Bridge Golf Course Clubhouse on Route 29 past the airport, with Lick Creek bringing their modern rock-country to the birds and the bees and the grass and the trees this week.
On Saturday, Hipbone Sam gets down at the Creek in Chatham, Hat Trick trips up at Crow’s Mill Pub on Toronto Road, and Alter Ego holds steady at the new Forty- Niner on Bruns Lane near Jefferson. (One of the best kept band secrets in town, Deep Lunar Blue, plays with JJ & the Jet Planes, Friday at The Forty-Niner). The longtime steakhouse on Sixth, Charlie R’s, has upped the entertainment ante in recent weeks with various small groups on weekends, but this is your chance to see Piano Man Stan in action at an original piano bar. Go Stan, go.
Sunday afternoon looks to be prime golf course clubhouse time with groups playing the bars and staying the course. Brookhills, out on Old Jack just past Bradfordton Road, hosts the Hard Road Blues Band for Susan’s birthday celebration, the lucky bride of Bad Bill Robinson. A little birdie told me their daughter Emma may be tooting the flute in her debut performance. Long Bridge brings more music to the woods with Mary Jo Curry and Lori Kretzinger from Radio Twist. Near Chatham, the Piper Glen Golf Club gives you Mike Burnett and Jeff Kornfeld, the duo that does it.
I’d like to thank everyone that came to the Brewhaus for our Bob Dylan tribute night last Sunday, including performers Marty Ryan, Bill Kline, Tom Beverly, Joe Dawkins, John Brillhart and Brad Benecke, plus our band of Geoff, Tim and Ben. It was quite impromptu and quite wonderful. Bob would’ve appreciated that, I’m sure.
Monday at the Alamo, check out Kilborn Alley, one of the best blues bands anywhere that just happen to be based in Champaign- Urbana.
See you in June, when the SOHO music fest comes to town.
Contact Tom Irwin at tirwin@illinoistimes.com.
