Would it be worthwhile compiling a list of known Illinois sessions/festivals and their genres? If so, feel free to Illinois sessions y'all know of. The list could include sessions that are outside the state within close proximity to the state line. To begin with, here's my input. Dot's Pots, 2822 16th St, IL - once a month session on the 2nd Thursday from 7 to 9 p.m. Genre - open. Mac's Tavern 316 W 3rd St Davenport, IA, from 1 - 4 or 5 p.m. on the 1st Saturday of the month. Genre - Irish Trad session. 'Round the Bend Music, 217 W 2nd St., Muscatine, IA 52761, PH: (563)288-4122 - Thursdays, 7:00-10:00 p.m. Genre: Old Timey (?) I just heard today (June 13, 2009) that the 'Round the Bend Music old-time music jam has moved to the Pizza Palace or Castle, not sure which it is now, I can't find it listed on the net. Must be new. Anyway, I know it's on Monday evenings and the Pizza Palace is on the North end of town on Hiway 61. Annual Fiddler's Picnic, Johnson County Fairgrounds, Iowa City, IA, workshops, jams, and stage performances. Website: http://www.fiddlerspicnic.org/ Barnes Family Bluegrass Music Festival, Inc. Labor Day Weekend, Aledo, IL. website: http://www.barnesbluegrass.com/ The Quad City Bluegrass Association (QCBA) has started their sessions at Singing Bird Nature Center in Black Hawk State Historic Site since Governor Quinn has re-opened them. They take place from 1 - 5 p.m. on the first and last Sundays of the month. (Labor Day weekend session does not take place because that's the same weekend as the Barnes Family Bluegrass Fest in Aledo, IL.) More info available by emailing Mike Beard at bluefox@mchsi.com. The QCBA has a session at Friend's Church, 216-3rd Street, Buffalo, IA (just south of I-280 on the Mississippi River) on the 2nd Saturday of every month from 5 - 10 p.m. More info available by emailing Mike Beard at bluefox@mchsi.com. The Willow Folk Festival in Stockton, IL takes place on the second weekend in August.
The University of Chicago Folklore Society sponsors an annual Fiddler Convention (it's today) and annual folk festival in February. Link to the University of Chicago's Folklore Society -> http://www.uofcfolk.org/ Lot's of folks like to attend the Indiana Fiddler's Gathering at Tippecanoe Battlefield Battle Ground, Indiana June 26-28, 2009. - Web site -> http://dcwi.com/fiddlers/Welcome.html I'll add others as I think of them.
A good source for finding jam sessions, announcing a Jam session, or trying to start a jam session is http://www.folkjam.org/ I noticed that there were no jam sessions listed for the QCs!
Obviously, the QCs are on another planet!
I know there's a thriving music scene around the QCs in Western Illinois and Eastern Iowa! A couple more items to add to the list are the Mississippi Valley Blues Festival which has on occasion had Blues and Stringband Mandolin musicians like Rich Delgrosso and Howard Armstrong as part of the fest lineup. And there's Iowa Friends of Old-Time Music that host an annual fiddler's convention near Iowa City (the Athens of the midwest) -> http://www.fiddlerspicnic.org/index.html The IFOTM site also lists a few jams in and around Iowa City.
I can't believe I forgot about one of the QCs most important sons, Bix Beiderbercke. The Bix Society hosts the Bix festival every in Davenport -> http://www.bixsociety.org/festival.htm The number of tenor banjo players in QCs jumps tenfold during the Bix Fest. And you know the tenor banjo and mandolin are cousins.
Of course there is the annual Naperville Bluegrass festival each year.... Amazingly enough, being that I live in Naperville, I have yet to attend !!! Seems like every year, I am traveling at exactlly the wrong moment.... JohnD
Jan & Terry Lease run Bluegrass Midwest Festivals and are the promoters for the Naperville Bluegrass festival -> http://www.bluegrassmidwest.com/index.php Chip Covington is the promoter for the Bluegrass Legends series in Evanston, IL -> http://chicagobluegrass.com/
Y'know I've been to the Naperville Bluegrass Festival a number of years ago on the way home from a Civil War Living History event at, hmmm, must've been a suburb middle school I've forgotten the name of. They had it at a Holiday Inn or some similar hotel. Saw Jim & Jesse McReynolds.
Hi Everyone...newb to the site but thought you might like to know that we have an open BluGrass/Old time jam in Urbana every Tuesday evening from 7 to 9:30 or so at the Lincoln Square Mall in downtown Urbana. We usually have 8-12 show up. Y'all come...
Cool! Thanks for the info, chazba!
We missed you there Tuesday night, Chazba. I'll second the invitation, though. It's a nice little circle, and there's a chair for anyone who drops by.
I saw mention of the Naperville Bluegrass Fest and it reminded me of the Univ of Chicago Folk Fest (http://www.uofcfolk.org/) which is comin' up Feb. 12 - 14, 2010. Only one group that I see listed with a mandolin in it and that's The James King Band out of southwestern Virginia. The site is still in the construction stage. I've always heard it's a great time with all night jams and dancin' and general carryin' on as to be expected at such an event.
I see that the Naperville Bluegrass festival is slated for 18-20 March, 2011... think that is right... Special Consensus, Monroe Crossing, among others, at the Holiday Inn... Maybe I might get there this year.... don't know if I can stand the 10 min drive though. JohnD
I also see that Rhonda Vincent will be there as well... just jogged my memory when I checked the Mandolin News, and she was listed with a new Mandolin CD... Could be some good listening in the spring. JohnD
