Railroad Earth dropped by Chicago last weekend on their winter tour.  They’ve sort of settled into the House Of Blues as a home venue and did not disappoint, offering a two setter that covered only a few of the tunes from last year’s visit, and even offered a few surprises (covers included George Harrison’s “Any [...]

We’ve creeped past the solstice marker and are entering the heart of festival season in the Midwest.  The oddest trend for 2012 seems to be festivals moving locations, which no less than five of the fests that we are tracking declaring a new home this year.  Here’s our roundup of the most intriguing camping and [...]

Stonehouse Park came under quite a bit of fire regarding noise and crowds in the festival off-season.  While the Dekalb county park will see the addition of Camp Terrapin come, Barefoot Fred Productions think they’ve found an even better location for their mid-July Whippersnap Music and Arts Festival. For 2012, Whippersnap moves to Lyran Park [...]

UPDATE (5/22/12):  The location of Whippersnap Music and Arts Festival 2012 has changed to Lyran Park, 4781 S. Bend Rd. in Rockford, IL The Whippersnap Festival is back this year with some quality headliners, an action-packed undercard and a few more surprises in store. This year’s festival will be held July 19th, 20th & 21st [...]

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 [...]

Hooray for Chicago.  The day after Greensky Bluegrass wowed the Park West crowd with their rock/bluegrass hybrid, and at the same time that Chicago Bluegrass and Blues showcased a range of Americana at the Congress across town, Railroad Earth was at the House Of Blues, serving up another fusiony take on roots music as well.  [...]