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) 

Shows on our Radar: Empty Bottle 5-23 Hes My Brother Shes My Sister-The Damn Choir-Paper Thick Walls

 

Empty Bottle 

Wed May 23 2012 9:30 PM

• He's My Brother She's My Sister
  • Official Website
  • Facebook
  • MySpace
  • Bandcamp
• The Damn Choir
  • Official Website
  • Facebook
  • MySpace
• Paper Thick Walls
  • Official Website
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Bandcamp

$8.00

BuyInfo



Empty Bottle says:

HE’S
MY BROTHER SHE’S MY SISTER is an outfit with a pretty self-explanatory
name.  Led by brother and sister ROB and RACHEL KOHLAR, the lineup also
includes a tap dancer/full-body percussionist and an emotively
unconventional cellist.  The bands’ EP has been called “flamboyant
folk,” “psych-acoustic,” and “vaudeville-y” and NPR has
praised their live performances for being full of “dancing, humor and
nostalgia…spreading great vibes across the country.”  The band has
played over 200 shows in the past year and they return to the Bottle
amidst a tour as main support for EDWARD SHARPE AND THE MAGNETIC ZEROS
and we’re to welcome back their alleyway rhythms and earthly swagger to our stage.

**ChiIL Live Shows has shot The Damn Choir and Paper Thick Walls in action a number of times.   Click on the links above, for our photo filled features on the bands, and check out our archive of show shots at ChiIL Live Shows, ChiIL Mama, our FB pages and Twitter feeds.   Come early and check all 3 sweet bands!

Here are our Paper Thick Walls shots from Chicago Bluegrass and Blues Fest

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

 

Paper Thick Walls Live at Schubas 1-16-12 (photos)

Here's our original Paper Thick Walls show shots from Schubas last Monday.

They put on a pretty hot live show, that'll warm your frozen toes and have you back to dancing in no time.  You can see them live at Chicago Bluegrass and Blues Fest at 6pm on January 28th, along with 30+ rockin' bands at The Congress.   We are giving away a pair of passed to one lucky reader and there's still time to enter.   *(all ages/kids under 12 admitted free with paying adult to The Congress Theater Shows!)

You can also still win a pair of tickets to the next two Monday nights at Schubas. (18+).   So what are you waiting for?!   

 

Click here for the entry form.

Free Tickets to 2 Clip Art Mondays at Schubas & Bluegrass and Blues Fest! (photos from 1-16-12)

Clip Art on Monday 1/16
Check out ChiIL Mama & ChiIL Live Shows for our photos of their openers, Paper Thick Walls, playing at 6pm on the 28th at Chicago Bluegrass & Blues Fest!

We have a special, ongoing treat to thaw your January urge to hibernate.   We have 2 free tickets to Clip Art's month of Mondays, residency at Schubas. 

All shows are 8PM/$6/18+

1/23 - w/ Briar Rabbit + The Sometimes Family
1/30 - w/ Baby Teeth + Jennifer Hall

*Wait for Rafflecopter to load up right here (if you've gone through RSS feed or are scrolling down the blog and don't see it, click on the actual page title and it should pop right up).

Grace Potter & The Nocturnals--Chicago Bluegrass and Blues Fest 2010

Grace was versatile--playing piano, guitar and even jamming on the drums with her whole band.   But her vocals really brought down the house.

Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros-Chicago Bluegrass and Blues Fest 2010

Barefoot in December....at "a summer festival brought indoors for the Chicago winter".









Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros had the Congress Theatre smokin' hot as headliners at the 3rd annual Chicago Bluegrass and Blues Fest last Saturday night.  It truly felt like an outdoor festival atmosphere, complete with hula hoops and hippie vendors.  I was blown away by the excellent caliber of the musicians and the playful, enthusiastic audience.   

It was funny that the last show I saw at The Congress last month was Clutch, Children of Boden, and Black Label Society.  The burly bouncers had their hands full with all the bodies crowd surfing over the barricades and into the photo pit.


This time, the only things coming toward the stage were daisies and a gifted tambourine that were peacefully offered up to the musicians, not thrown.   The bouncers still got a work out, though, as Edward Sharpe repeatedly waded out into the audience.   At one point, he was the one jumping out to crowd surf.  He even talked everyone into sitting down on the floor for the show closer, then he walked out and joined them!

Check out some past footage of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros and Grace Potter and the Nocturnals performing live!   Edward Sharpe was shirtless and barefoot, and his piano player and Grace Potter, the lead singer who opened for him, kicked off their shoes to play barefoot, as well.

Check out the CBB Website for recaps of the shows and follow them on FB for updates.

    We'd also like to introduce a new ChiIL Mama spin off for 2011--ChiIL Live Shows.    We'll still run recaps here on ChiIL Mama, but all the live music, band interviews and live theatre we shoot will be cross posted on ChiIL LIve Shows, archived and easy to search.   We'll get things started off with CBB and work our way backwards all the way to Summer Camp 2 years ago with a live Jay Goldberg video interview and photos of Les Claypool, Buckethead and more.

Chicago Bluegrass and Blues Fest 2010-Side Stages and Audience Characters

We were amused to see Matt (AKA:   Shreddy Shirt Boy) once again.   He makes his own unique wardrobe and is a fixture in the Chicago concert world.   Word is, he spoke with Grace Potter's guitar player about possibly designing some shred wear for her to perform in.   Grace was recently featured on VH1 Divas:  Salute the Troops.   If you see a shreddy shirt diva out there in the future, remember you heard it from ChiIL Mama first!


Back in September of 2009 we started a thread with a contest:   Spot Shreddy Shirt Boy and Locate Lee (somewhat like an urban Where's Waldo?).   Check it out HERE. 

We've spotted (and photographed) Shreddy Shirt Boy in recent months at The Chicago Bluegrass and Blues Fest, Clutch, The Blackhawks Training Camp Festival and Northcoast Music Fest and Lollapalooza.    It may be time in early 2011 for another shreddy shirt boy photo filled feature!   In the mean time, drop us a comment and/or photo if you spot shreddy shirt boy or Lee Groban.   Chicago has character........and characters.