This week's panel: REO bandmates Bruce Hall and Dave Amato, Heart's Nancy Wilson, Alison Krauss' mom, George Thorogood, Derek Trucks, UI President Tim Killeen and local guitar heroes Carrie Chandler, Holly Rushakoff, Gloria Roubal, Brandon Washington, Kenna Mae Reiss, Mike Ingram and Ricky Bright.
The Champaign-Urbana Symphony is back, after 554 days since its last pre-COVID-19 concert. That number was mentioned by conductor Stephen Alltop, and I am sure he had been counting, much like the orchestral players and the audience been watching the calendar and waiting for concert life to resume.
Grammy-winning singer and guitar player Ben Harper will show a different side of himself when he premieres a 29-minute instrumental piece on lap steel guitar on Friday night at ELLNORA: The Guitar Festival in Krannert Center's Great Hall.
There was a buzz inside the Virginia Theatre on Thursday as work continued ahead of “Opening Night” on Sept. 25.
“It’s so clear to me that the artists want to perform for audiences again in-person in our theaters. It’s so clear to me that we have a lot of audience members that are very eager to be together again in our theaters."
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The Sousa Archives and Center for American Music’s new online trivia game, Music Frivia, has been created to test people’s knowledge, both serious and frivolous, of local, national and world music using the Sousa Archives’ historical collections.
Dave Parsons remembers the early days of the Mahomet Music Festival, when “it was basically a tent and bales of hay.”
Minutes after bellowing out some of their first I-L-Ls and I-N-Is, students bobbed along to 'Illini Anthem,' a hip-hop collab with the live Marching Illini and the song’s creative duo: UI Professor Lamont Holden and local rapper Jarrel Young.
Acts were booked with the help of local hairstylist and music promoter Rod Sickler, who started lining them up in May.
In Sunday's News-Gazette: The story of former Illini Lamont Holden and Champaign rapper Jerrel Young, who've teamed up on the slickly produced "Illini Anthem," with plans to perform it during this month's football season opener at Memorial Stadium.
Wayne Jenkins was hooked. Born in Danville and growing up in Chicago, he made his living playing music across the country. He met and influenced a lot of people, his brother said.
We rounded up a super-sized panel of theme song composers, Rock and Roll Hall of Famers and other music makers and special guests and asked: What’s the TV theme song you can’t get enough of?
The Beach Boys will take the stage Friday at the Champaign County Fair.
We’re still a week away from The Beach Boys taking the stage in Urbana, but there’s plenty of fun, fun, fun to be had in the meantime. Here are a few headliners on the area’s out-and-about weekend calendar, courtesy Editor
Meet John Patterson: an Army veteran and postal service supervisor with a sideline that could help jazz up your home cooking.
“We are so thrilled to bring the energy and vibrancy back to downtown,” Kelly White, 40 North executive director, said of the season's first Friday Night Live in downtown Champaign.
Starting at noon Sunday, the three local stations will air their "Parade of C-U Stars" programming. It's a compilation of hits from the many iconic bands in the area.
Arts in the Park is back on Danville's schedule.
The first live music at a campus venue since the pandemic began will be the Ellnora Guitar Festival from Sept. 17-18 at Krannert Center.
The Virginia Theatre’s 100th year of entertainment will feature a new sound system, new air conditioning and two golden oldies — Gordon Lightfoot on Aug. 16, Boz Scaggs on Oct. 7.
Allie Hartlein has moved her Shamrock Academy of Irish Dance from Mahomet to Champaign, and is now making classes available to a broader age range.
For anyone living within earshot of the University of Illinois campus after 1958, the sound of the Altgeld chimes will always be a fond memory.
Pre-recorded music of all local bands will be played for six hours July 4 on three radio stations, and listeners will be given a number to text and a website for online donations to help defray the cost of the cost of the fireworks, said Freedom Celebration Committee Treasurer Margaret Givens.
In Part 2 of a Sunday miniseries, best-selling biographers share stories about Kamala Harris, Johnny Cash. Satchel Paige, Barbara Bush, Jimi Hendrix, Mike Royko, Richard Pryor, Frank Sinatra, Ronald Reagan, Harper Lee, Hugh Hefner, Elvis Presley, Johnny Carson, Ernest Hemingway, Alex Trebek and Alan Shepard.
As Illinois gets ready to lift all coronavirus-related restrictions — beginning Friday, per the governor’s orders — we took a look at a handful of events making their triumphant return.
The parade last year held a two-fold purpose. Because of the pandemic, the club was not able to hold its annual beer tent fundraiser at Mahomet Music Fest. Members wanted to honor those who served and get creative to hold a fundraiser, so the honors parade was born. Parade participants paid a fee to enter.
“We'll still have a little bit of Irish, we're going to do some Cajun creole music, some funk music, some blues, some folk music," Allerton Event Manager Ashley Sims says.
By the time Jeff Brown stepped outside to take part in “Taps Across America,” Sidell Fire and Rescue personnel had joined the ceremony with a rig that included an American flag hanging from its extended ladder.
Summer Sounds are back in Danville — all the way until Labor Day weekend.
“His legacy … is a commitment to supporting jazz. It was a bona fide jazz club.”
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