TONIGHT: CHICAGO BLUEGRASS & BLUES FESTIVAL 2014 Kicks Off 3 Weeks of ChiIL Live Shows

CBB Returns: 5th Chicago Bluegrass & Blues Fest to call Concord Music Hall & City Winery home over three weeks

Chicago Bluegrass & Blues Festival (CBB) is ready to celebrate its 5th birthday! The wintertime roots fest returns with 17 shows format spanning three weeks in January and February!

CBB V is anchored in eight shows over three weeks at the newly-minted Concord Music Hall, the West Loop’s City Winery, and Evanston’s SPACE.  Rusted Root and Justin Townes Earle make their first CBB appearance, while David Grisman returns for his 3rd, this time with two nights as the David Grisman JazzFolk Trio.  The fest kicks off January 10th with Leagues and The Autumn Defense (feat. John Stirratt & Pat Sanson of Chicago's own WILCO) at Concord Music Hall.  Jonathan Batiste brings a dose of New Orleans, Greensky brings the Bluegrass, and Eddy “The Chief” Clearwater channels 60 years of Chicago blues experience.  Local showcases at Tonic Room adorn nights throughout.  

Aiming to showcase the musical styles that have evolved from bluegrass and blues culture, CBB was born in 2008 of a collaboration between Mike Raspatello, React Presents, and Silver Wrapper.   Since then, the fest has hosted acts like The Avett Brothers, Bela Fleck, Grace Potter, Del McCoury, Edward Sharpe, David Grisman, Drive-By Truckers, Dr. Dog, Dawes, Honeyboy Edwards, Joe Pug, Joe Purdy, Corey Chisel, and The Skatalites, making stops at the Auditorium Theater, Lincoln Hall, House of Blues, Congress Theater, and Double Door.  
For complete details, please head to https://www.facebook.com/cbbfestival.

Check out the full lineup below:

Jan 10 - Leagues & The Autumn Defense w/ The Giving Tree Band and Dick Prall @ Concord Music Hall

Jan 10 – Eddy “The Chief” Clearwater @ SPACE (Evanston)

Jan 11 – Acoustics Anonymous w/ Clusterpluck @ Tonic Room

Jan 13 - Jonathan Batiste @ City Winery

Jan 14 - Tiny Miles & The Big Kids @Tonic Room

Jan 15 - David Grisman JazzFolk Trio @ City Winery 

Jan 15 - Great Divide w/ Nick And The Ovorols @ Tonic Room

Jan 16 - David Grisman JazzFolk Trio @ City Winery 

Jan 16 – Evergreen Grass Band w/ guests @ Tonic Room

Jan 17 - Justin Townes Earle & The Felice Brothers w/ guests @ Concord Music Hall 

Jan 17 – Shamekia Copeland @ SPACE (Evanston)

Jan 18 - Greensky Bluegrass w/ Escondido @ Concord Music Hall 

Jan 18 - Shamekia Copeland @ SPACE (Evanston)

Jan 18 – American Babies w/ guests @ Tonic Room

Jan 23 - Huckleberry Green @ Tonic Room

Jan 25 - Rusted Root w/ Donna The Buffalo @ Concord Music Hall

Feb 2 – Swear and Shake @ SPACE (Evanston) 

Scamp Count Down-Giving Tree Band #SCAMP12

Check out the new music video for the first album track "Cold Cold Rain"   The Giving Tree 



Summer Camp Music Festival is COMING!    In the last days before summer music fest season kicks off, ChiIL Live Shows will be featuring a number of artists you can see at this year's SCamp.    We've got original pit photos, live show footage and interviews with headliners and small side stage acts.    All who wander are not lost and sometimes you wander into some of the sweetest jams in the smallest spaces.  

ChiIL Live Shows/ ChiIL Mama will be going dark for 5 days, from May 24-28th, as we'll be in the wifi free woods, but it'll be a working vacation.   We'll be back the first week of June with loads of colorful, photo filled features on Summer Camp Music Fest 2012!   So remember, check in with ChiIL Live Shows/ ChiIL Mama like we vote in Chi, IL...early and often.

Today we're featuring Chi-Town's favs, The Giving Tree Band.
PLAYING SCAMP ON FRIDAY 3-4PM AT STARSHINE


We just got a Giving Tree Band update from Chicago Bluegrass & Bluesfest.   ChiIL Live Shows gave away free tixs to CBB Fest and shot loads of sweet acts there the last 2 years including Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros,  Grace Potter and The Nocturnals, David Grisman and many more.   Click the links above for our original photo filled coverage.  

The Giving Tree is excited to announce that they have finished recording their fourth studio album, VACILADOR.

The Giving Tree Band will tour the eastern US and Canada this June with celebrated songwriter Joe Purdy, who they met and spontaneously jammed with at CBB Fest earlier this year at the Auditorium Theatre. Each concert will include a full set from The Giving Tree Band followed by a full set of Joe Purdy backed by GTB. The final show of the tour will be at DOUBLE DOOR in Chicago on Friday June 29.
Tickets for this show are on sale now here. It will sell out so please get your tix in advance soon if you plan to attend. Pre-release copies of Vacilador will be available at all the shows on this tour!

Please visit The Giving Tree Band's sites for tour dates and new album info:
www.facebook.com/thegivingtreeband
www.thegivingtreeband.com


WWW.CBBFESTIVAL.COM


Here's the scoop from SCamp:

For brothers Todd and Eric Fink of The Giving Tree Band, there is no distinction between playing music and just plain living. Their bodies and instruments become a singularity that is just trying to get in tune, stay in tune, and add a little harmony to the grand symphony of life.Descending from legendary folk hero Mike Fink and Spanish conquistador Hernando de Soto on their mother’s side, the Finks have extended their brotherhood into an epic collective known as The Giving Tree Band. A band’s band, the Brothers Fink and company live, work, and tour the country together – keeping tune with nature, sleeping under the stars, bathing in rivers, and treating time as the only real currency.

Though the story of The Giving Tree Band is still being written, it can already be said that these musical frontiersmen are redefining “virtuosity,” which is traditionally understood as dizzying displays of technical wizardry. But what is missing from this definition is the root word – Virtue.

And it is upon this foundation of Virtue that The Giving Tree Band weaves their musical tapestry – by playing every note with integrity, every part with humility, every song with honesty, and every show with gratitude.

The Giving Tree Band



Summer Camp Music Fest Tickets are still available and include camping on site

You could BE THERE instead of just reading about all the fun, after the fact.   Click their main site here for all the delicious details. 

They've got an amazing, eclectic line up that crosses musical genres and is sure to be a rockin' good time.   Three Sisters Park in Chillicothe, IL is just 3 hours south west of Chicago.

• PLUS

• Pretty Lights
• Primus

• Weir, Robinson, Greene Acoustic Trio

• Common
• Gov’t Mule
• Tedeschi Trucks Band

• Gogol Bordello
• G. Love & Special Sauce
• Lotus

• Zeds Dead
• Michael Franti and Spearhead

• Gigantic Underground Conspiracy

• Yonder Mountain String Band

• Shpongle presents The Masquerade
• EOTO

• Keller Williams
• Rebelution
• Leftover Salmon

• Galactic
• Cornmeal
• 12th Planet

• Ozomatli
• Victor Wooten
• Sierra Leone Refugee Allstars

• ALO
• New Orleans Suspects
• FIGURE
• Preservation Hall Jazz Band

• BoomBox
• Gaelic Storm
• Devil Makes Three
• Dirty Dozen Brass Band

• Future Rock
• Greensky Bluegrass
• Break Science
• Minnesota

• Wyllys and the New York Hustler Ensemble
• Lance Herbstrong

• Kids These Days
• The Infamous Stringdusters
• Gramatik

• VibeSquaD
• Anders Osborne
• Orgone
• Hot Buttered Rum

• The Dead Kenny G’s
• Family Groove Company
• The Ragbirds

• Sister Sparrow and The Dirty Birds
• araabMUZIK
• The Lumineers

• Rubblebucket
• Wick-It The Instigator
• The Werks
• Van Ghost
• DJ SOLO

• JC Brooks & The Uptown Sound
• Red Wanting Blue
• Banyan
• Quixotic

• Brother Joscephus & The Love Revival Revolution Orchestra

• Elephant Revival
• Positive Vibr8ions
• Midnight Conspiracy

• Fareed Haque & MathGames
• Jimkata
• Flinch
• Twin Cats

• The Coop
• Stratus
• LoBounce
• Kinetix
• Chicago Farmer
• Spankalicious

• The Giving Tree Band
• Strange Arrangement
• Chester Brown

• Ponderosa
• Brainchild
• The Car Thief
• This Must Be The Band

• DJ Thibault
• Tauk
• David Gans
• Caravan of Thieves

• Tribal Seeds
• Elsinore
• Henhouse Prowlers

• The Steepwater Band
• Zoogma
• Team Bayside High
• Afternoon Moon

• Ultraviolet Hippopotamus
• Zmick
• Milk N Cookies

• Old Shoe
• Jaik Willis
• Sun Stereo
• Mathien
• Dani Jean

• DJ Tim Williams
• The Divide
• Kaboom Fantastik
• White Rabbit

• Miss Amphetamine
• Cirrus Minor
• IndigoSun

• Elemental Groove Theory
• Wook
• Midwest Hype

• Sonic Sutra
• Dead Larry

Also featuring a special Make a Difference performance by Everyone Orchestra

• Thursday Pre-Party Lineup

• Cornmeal
• Digital Tape Machine
• Family Groove Company

• The Infamous Stringdusters
• Floodwood
• The Werks
• Future Rock

• Elephant Revival
• Van Ghost
• Quixotic
• DJ SOLO

• Zmick
• The Appleseed Collective
• The Coop
• Sonny Stubble

• Spare Parts
• Infant Tree
• Caravan of Thieves
• Elephant Quiz

• Zeta June
• Lake Shore Vibe
• James & The Devil

• Trichome
• Spread
• Prototype Raptor
• Team Bayside High

• LoBounce
• Stratus

 

Shows On Our Radar-Empty Bottle Monday & Tuesday

Shows On Our Radar-Empty Bottle Monday & Tuesday

Hit The Empty Bottle this Monday &/or Tuesday.

Monday
Free Show
We haven't seen The Mutt's live but we've been loving their tunes on line!   Check out their main site here and give them a listen.   Some of the best things in life are free........and you can use all that cash you saved for beer and generous tips.   

MON. 1/23/12 (9:00pm, Free)
Wally Dogger
Pinto & The Bean
Mutts
Otter Petter

Here's our prior coverage of Wally Dogger's CD release party last year at Beat Kitchen.   In that signature synchronicity way things have of cropping up, they played out with The Noses, renowned LA play write, Brett Neveu's band.  That week we had just reviewed opening night of Bretts amazing show, Odradeck, at The House Theatre.   And we were just about to check out another of Brett's works, The Earl, at A Red Orchid Theatre.   A year has past and guess what we just saw at A Red Orchid Theatre Friday?!   You guessed it, another Brett Neveu play, Megacosm. 

Pinto & The Bean were part of our Ginormous Holiday Gift Guide & Give Aways.   One of our lucky readers won their CD along with 5 more.   We still have a couple more to give away so check back in like we vote in Chi, IL...early and often.


6 CDs:    Soul-R&B-Blues-Rock including,  Fitz and The Tantrums,  How Far To Austin,  The Shams Band, Zach Heckendorf, Pinto & The Bean & The Future Laureates (over $70)

*We have loads of live videos, pit photos, band video interviews and CD reviews.   Check out the archives at the bottom of the page or use the search bar to the right.   We post upcoming shows, introduce new music, and give you breaking music news for alt-rock-metal-punk-funk-blues/bluegrass-and more, including bands for adults & kids.   All are posted at ChiIL Mama.com and archived at our sister site, ChiIL Live Shows.com.

• Fitz and The Tantrums--2 video interviews/live footage)
• How Far to Austin-video interview & live show stills from HOB & Mayne Stage
• The Shams Band-live show stills from Lincoln Hall, The Whistler & Do Division Fest.

In fact, you can check out two more of these bands at weekend 2 of The Chicago Blue Grass & Blues Festival this Saturday at The Congress Theater.    In fact, we just saw Donnie Biggins of The Shams Band back stage at CBB Fest at The Auditorium Theatre last night!   We'll have some sweet photos up very soon.    


Tuesday
This one'll cost ya, but only $15, and they're world renowned musicians and well worth it.  We're hoping to set up a video interview soon with Jeff Parker and his partner who have a baby boy.   She's a filmmaker and college professor out in California.   Jeff also has an older, elementary age daughter we've known since Sagezilla was in a playgroup with her at age 2!   

The son of the drummer for Tortoise was also in playgroup with our girls, along with a virtual whose who of chicago theatre and music peeps progeny.   We'd love to interview Jeff and Johnny Herndon and their partners, for our ongoing series on how creatives parent and how parents create.   Check out our Pinterest Board of that name, How Do Creatives Parent and How Do Parents Create, to find most of the interviews together.   We have the rest of the interviews in our Vimeo links in the sidebar at ChiIL Mama.   Pinterest doesn't see Vimeo for some odd reason.   The interviews include Brett Neveu and various Noses, mentioned above, as well as touring musicians from metal band Red Fang, Fitz & The Tantrums, Keller Williams, Danbert Nobacon (Chumbawamba), various CEOs, and a number of theatre personalities.

TUE. 1/24/12 (9:30pm, $15 buy)
Tortoise
Dent-de-Lion
DJ Ryan Weinstein

For loads of music news, free downloads, upcoming Chi-town shows, and original stills, videos, reviews, and video interviews, check out our brand new Facebook Page for ChiIL Live Shows.  You can "like" us and/or follow the feed.