Our 2016 summer is nearly over as the Labor Day weekend comes to pass, bringing plenty of live music and more to come into the fall.

Many of you may have heard by now that the venerable Crow’s Mill building, home to food, drink and live music for some four decades, caught fire Monday. As of my deadline, I’ve heard no word on the extent of the damage, but we do know no one was physically injured. On Monday, while the building still smoldered, Nat Radwine, owner with his brother, David, of “Crow’s Mill School” in the early 80s, reported the building seemed salvageable, but we don’t really know the end result. Our condolences to the current owners and our best to them for getting the hip joint back to the business of entertainment and merrymaking.

Imagine my surprise when Sheila Walk of the Springfield Area Arts Council forwarded to me an email about an acoustic duo playing the Lincoln (public) Library this Thursday evening from 7 to 9 and I discovered them to be friends of mine from the folk music world. Friction Farm, the talented and creative team of Aidan Quinn (guitar, vocals) and Christine Stay (bass, vocals) are set to do a set of songs relating to the inspiration gained from books. The concert concerns are not necessarily based on the book plots, but the “catalyst for creative thought” provided by connecting, either directly or by a more roundabout direction, to the author’s words. It all sounds wonderfully mysterious and quite worthy of a listen and look. Great to see you guys in town!

I won’t be able to be there as I am at work playing at Dr. Ugs that evening. The little coffeehouse cafe on the Virginia square was kind enough to host me and my worldtraveling son, John Irwin, home for a few days in between tours of Japan and the United Kingdom with The Young Americans.

We will have some kind of fun for a few hours debuting his newly composed tunes and knocking out some of our favorites. Welcome home, John, if only for a bit.

Friday night the Third Base Sports Bar continues a fine job of hosting the Blues at the Base series with a show by Memphisbased harmonica man, Brandon Santini and his A-team touring band. Included as drummer in the spot-on group is Springfield’s own Reid Muchow, who spent a good deal of time drumming in New Orleans before joining up with Brandon. The guys are headed to Buddy Guy’s Legends on Saturday out in support of Santini’s latest CD, Live and Extended, featuring 12 songs recorded in concert in July of 2014 in Quebec City and released in 2015. Nominated for several Blues Music awards, including Male Blues Artist the last two years, Santini continues to burn up the road making a name in the blues world. Here’s your chance to check the guys out for free, up close and personal.

The Fabulous Hoedads are a great group of true music professionals with long pedigrees, including outstanding awards and performances that put them up with the highest caliber musicians. You owe it to yourself to take a look-see this Friday at Walnut Street Winery.

Here’s your last chance to catch Rockin’ Johnny Burgin before he moves to the Bay Area in California when our good buddy Tom Ruble hosts a Labor Day Patio Jam at TailGaters in Le Roy, Illinois, east of Bloomington, on Monday. I start things off at 3, then Squidd, a very cool, original blues and rock band plays, with RJB closing the concert. Take care, Johnny.

Don’t forget to vote for your favs in our Best of Springfield poll.

Contact Tom Irwin at [email protected].