Jazz & Blues Lounge

I would love to have a picture of Cassie pointing straight out like the old Uncle Sam recruitment poster. Got a message from Cassie and I am putting out a call to all of you, my wonderful and faithful readers. You are the folks who helped me get the band the Sad Salamanders onto the playlist of WDCB by your sheer numbers and by reading here as often as you do. I could not do this without you. You leave great comments and you have taught me as much as I hope I have helped teach …read more

Comments Off

There is this very cool outdoor music theater and venue in north-suburban Chicago and it is known as Ravinia. For a long, long time it was a music venue strictly for classical music. The entire atmosphere is kind of geared for it. The lawn is actually flat, like a park, with trees and things in the middle of it. There is a pavilion, but it’s small. Basically, you are encouraged to bring a blanket, some of your own food and a bottle of wine, stretch out with you and loved one under the stars and …read more

Comments Off

Continuing the theme of festival week (or month or whatever) I thought you might want to know about the Illinois Blues Festival which is right downtown in beautiful (ahem) Peoria Illinois. Yes, the same Peoria people used to use when they would say, “Yeah, but will it play in Peoria?” The home of Catepillar tractors and construction equipment.
These days Peoria is experiencing a bit of a comeback. They have a casino now and they have begun to build up their riverfront which goes right through the heart of the downtown area. I hear it’s …read more

Comments Off

Yes, I know, this is supposed to be my time to tell you about the jazz and blues festivals all over the Midwest. I will stil get around to that, but thankfully there is plenty of exciting news to go around and keep you entertained. It is now Tuesday and that means it is new releases and reissus day.
These are jazz albums, of course. I have yet to find a nice comprehensive list like this for the blues fans. Thanks to AllAboutJazz.com for the information that you find below. Again, a great website …read more

Comments Off

Well, I spent time on Friday looking up jazz and blues festival within the 100 mile radius of Chicago. Of course, there are blues and jazz festivals all over the country. I am only one man, however, so I am sticking close to home. I often get to places like St. Louis and Milwaukee, so I included those in my search.
I had originally planned to go through this list and then try to present them to you in order of their dates. Yeah, well, that seems like it will take a lot of time, so I …read more

Comments Off

OK, sorry about this one being so late. Heck, if you are in Chicago, you are probably already out and about doing things and seeing shows on a Saturday night. I do apologize. Between Father’s Day and it being my birthday, I just got caught up doing family things.
I also did some research on Friday looking for jazz and blues festivals within easy driving distance from Chicago. I found a ton. The thing is, I now have to try and put them in order and tell you about them. This may take longer than …read more

Comments Off

OK, ok, ok, I admit, this is my most recent obsession. I raved about Cassie Taylor last week along with my raves about her father and his band. The fact is, all of that is true. I simply cannot stress enough how much you should run out and see Otis Taylor performing live and do it soon.
Of course, at this point, I might be drifting into stalker territory. I can’t help it. I would love to tell you that I contacted Cassie via her MySpace page and she has agreed to be interviewed …read more

Comments Off

Well, the big event this weekend in Chicago is the TOTALLY FREE Blues on the Fox blues festival located in nearby Aurora Illinois. It is right on the Fox River and the big headliner is Kenny Wayne Shepherd. Sadly, I will not be able to attend as this weekend is also my birthday and my family went and made plans for Saturday night that did not include seeing Kenny Wayne Shepherd. From that website linked above, here, again, is the schedule for this awesome event:
Friday, June 13
Time …read more

1 Comment

Sorry blues fans that I am a little late on this one. Another sad day and another sad report because another light has been snuffed out and snuffed out way too soon. A very popular and talented blues guitarist, out of Atlanta, named Sean Costello, was found dead on Tuesday.
Not much in the way of details seems to be available at this time. Wednesday would have been his 29th birthday. There was a musical tribute given by his friends and family at The Howell Mill Road Blues Bar where Costello practically set up a second home …read more

Comments Off

I have a brother. That’s not all I came here to tell you about today, but he and his lovely family live in Milwaukee. Milwaukee is a great town despite being in Wisconsin (relax Wisconsiners, I am in Illinois, we cannot resist picking on you). It is just close enough to Chicago to almost be a suburb, but the people up there vehmently deny having any proximity to Chicago. It’s kind of funny.
They have some great music festivals up there too. They have SummerFest every year and lots of great music acts play there …read more

Comments Off