On the cusp of the release of their third LP, Stories Don’t End, southern California band Dawes is criss-crossing the country on a promotional tour playing primarily radio shows and record stores.  The Chicago stop, on April Fool’s Day, was part of WXRTs “Free Sample” concert series, which afforded them the luxury of playing in [...]

This feature has been updated (February 2012) since its original publication in April of 2010.  I swapped out the ninth band and added some honorable mentions.  The remainder of the text remains largely untouched. We can crank up the amplifiers and layer on the production, but the acoustic guitar — natural and authentic — just [...]

Chicago Bluegrass & Blues Festival delivered two solid weekends packed with highlights. Fortunately, the good times don’t have to end at the festival, as some of the strongest sets of the festival have been recorded, and we’re happy to share them with you. Three keys sets from 1/21 at the Auditorium are available here in [...]

The Barn’s 2010 Holiday Mixtape was subtitled A Very Jamband Christmas and justifiably so — it’s intent was to collect a CD length holiday playlist that showcased the style of improv-leaning bands on Christmas classics.  Though at the time I thought I had cultivated the cream of jamband holiday fare, it became obvious that more [...]

I’d never even heard of Fanfound until recently, but based on deals they are currently offering, there appear to be many reasons to check back with them frequently. At the top of the list are discounted tickets (43% off face value) to both upcoming weekends of the Chicago Bluegrass & Blues Festival.  If you missed [...]

1. One of my favorite local blogs, The Are The Imitators, is featuring a sweet photo set from the Dawes / Blitzen Trapper show at the Metro last Thursday 2. Chicagoist Drinkifies several Chicago Bands.  For fun here’s the link to some of our jambands, Chicago based and otherwise:  Umphrey’s McGee (cold Bud Light), Cornmeal [...]

We love this fairly scholarly article from NPR on how musicians get paid.  Morale of the story: go see live music (especially in clubs).

We took a week off from Linkafication last week, but that just means that this week’s is just that much linkier. The Barn’s favorite music industry crank Bob Lefsetz tears into Jon Bon Jovi, who has some misdirected hate for Steve Jobs.  And the world keeps on turning. Robbie Robertson finds a new backing band:  [...]