Want!Want! Want! Want!Luckily, I'll in a position to grab one of these Saturday night for opening weekend 2014 at the Bell's Beer Garden in Kalamazoo with hometown heroes Greensky Bluegrass.Legendary rock poster artist Jim Pollock has created this design in a limited edition run (100 available each night). I just love how it incorporates...

Conor Oberst is leaning in a folk-rock direction for his latest release,Upside Down Mountain under the guidance of producer/musician Jonathan Wilson.To recreate the laid-back Laurel Canyon sound on the road, Southern Califnornia's finest, and Barn favorites, Dawes have been backing him on tour. The musicians found themselves in the Upper Midwest during...

Jackie Greene and his band of stormed Chicago's Lincoln Hall on Saturday night (but not before celebrating their drummer's birthday at nearby Fiesta Americana).Highlights included Greene's originals "So Hard To Find My Way" and "Prayer For Spanish Harlem". But the true show stopper was the set closing sequence of covers, segueing from the Beatles ("...

I should admit upfront that Im a big Handsome Family fan and an even bigger Andrew Bird fan.Bird announcing Things Are Really Great Here, Sort Of, a Handsome Family covers album with his current touring band, The Hands Of Glory, was only good news to me, but for more reason than my fandom.Bird...

The notorious FirstMerit Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island opened its season under clear skies last weekend with a pairing of Jack Johnson and Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes.The acts shared the stage for a pair of covers of The Beatles and The Band and Johnson and his band reeled off additional takes on...

Words: Justin & Alex WoodPhotos: Justin WoodThough typically known for his affiliation with Stax Records and the M.G.s, Booker T Jones show at City Winery covered the artists entire career.Focusing as much on collaborations and influences as on original songs, the set was full of surprises.Backed by a three-piece band, Booker...

I'm pleased to have so many incredible photography contributors to the site, but I'm going to be frank for a second... With the majority of our coverage leaning towards frumpy, static jambands, geriatric classic rockers and shoe gazing, lo-fi indie bands, every now and then we could use some images to spice things up.Enter...

Byrds founder, and Chicago native, Roger McGuinn returned to the area last Saturday, performing a long set of solo and acoustic tunes at the Beverly Arts Center.The material leaned heavily on tracks recorded during his solo career, but not surprisingly featured a handful of Byrds tunes (as well as the Dylan and Pete Seeger...

Pioneering indie band Yo La Tengo took the stage as a part of CIMM (Chicago International Music and Movies) Fest on Thursday at Concord Music Hall. Billed with guest Phil Cohran, an original trumpeter of the Sun Ra Arkestra, the band played a few Ra covers.They also welcomed Chicago musician Mark Greenberg for a...

Backyard Tire Fires music felt like everything a rock band should be, the songs sounding like they were written through collaboration, its three members working through the songs together with guitars cranked up to 11.At the center of the Tire Fire universe stood Edward David Anderson, the always-productive singer-songwriter lending melodies and lyrics that came...