Here's a conversation that may be happening again in the Great Beyond -- an unlikely pairing of one of the world's most colorful musicians and one of its most vanilla television personalities, the recently deceased Alan Thicke.Thicke Of The Night was a syndicated talk show that was produced during the 1983-84 season. &...

Ryley Walker is a top contender for Tomorrow's Verse artist of the year in 2016.  Local, versatile, improvisation-loving and extremely prolific, we are so happy to see that he's still creating.In fact, he explains in interview bits between songs in this World Cafe performance, that he prefers to keep wriring to "keep his brain...

Words: Alex WoodPhoto: senecameridthNever was the powerful mass appeal of recent Nathaniel Rateliff single S.O.B. more apparent than his Chicago Theatre performance on Wednesday evening.Hosted as the annual WXRT Big Holiday Concert, Rateliff and his band, The Nightsweats, were joined by soul legend Mavis Staples for what turned out to be a...

The best venues are a combination of their physical space, the music they book, the service they provide and the crowd that they draw.In Chicago's labyrinthe of invididual neighborhoods, finding a sweet spot of these things just once is remarkable, but being able to replicate it -- and take a similar concept to bars,...

Words: Alex Wood | Photo: @coreyskatzJim James performed at The Vic Theater on a tour promoting his excellent new solo album, Eternally Even. Not surprisingly, the show heavily featured the songwriters new material, with all but two songs from the new album performed.But unlike My Morning Jackets guitar-forward classic rock style, James material leaned...

By: Alex WoodJim James- Eternally Even [11/4]Even outside of My Morning Jacket, frontman Jim James remains endlessly prolific, always exploring new avenues to take his art. His sophomore solo album, Eternally Even, finds the singer experimenting with new sounds and lyrical concepts while keeping one foot deeply planted in classic rock. Musically, the songs stick...

Most people I know have settled down after Election Day, or at the very least, their threats of moving to Canada have been dialed back.But one group is actually taking steps to make the move, and surprisingly it involves countless hours of recordings by Grateful Dead, Greensky Bluegrass, and literally hundreds of other...

Photo: Kristine Condon (Greensky Bluegrass Facebook)Greensky Bluegrass have made a Thanksgiving run in their Kalamazoo hometown a tradition since the very beginning.  Coming at the end of intense touring years, these shows typically represent the culmination of everything the band has been up to, and whether in the Bell's back room, or in...

Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi have probably done more to bring the music of Leon Russell to larger audience than any other artists, at least over the the last few years.Russell's influence has never been very far from the TTB -- from their Mad Dogs & Englishmen tribute (Russell was the musical director on...

Chicago has often described as a city of neighborhoods -- a metropolis whose bustling financial center and larger-than-life cultural landmarks are humbled by the people who come together in smaller communities that surround its core.And though a robust music scene flourishes here, it is driven less by big power brokers like in LA,...