Calendar

Honky Tonk Sundays! Join us for an afternoon with The Hoyle Brothers. They play every Sunday at 3pm.

Honky Tonk Sundays! Join us for an afternoon with The Hoyle Brothers. They play every Sunday at 3pm.

Welcome to the Block Party! We’re hosting a concert and dance party for Common Pantry, the oldest operating food pantry in Chicago and our new neighbor on Lincoln Ave. Heidi and Karen met when their girls were in preschool together. They started guitar classes at the Old Town School and met for “play-play” dates–the daughters would run around and the moms would strum. In 2011, a nearby food pantry invited them to perform at their inaugural fundraiser. Around that time, Heidi overheard her daughter giggling about “rainbows, unicorns, and Things That Fly!” The band was born.Heidi SerwerHeidi is the brave one. Raised on tofu and roller disco, she fearlessly mines her emotional depths when songwriting. Heidi has released three solo albums: Stranger (2014), Let’s Talk Awhile (2018), and Palm Tree on the Drywall (2022).Karen SalmonKaren is the intense one. She loves cowboy coffee, 10-hour hikes, and writes lyrics in the bathroom (no interruptions). Karen released a solo EP in 2016 and her second one is due out Fall 2023.Christopher ElamChristopher is the other one. He plays five instruments and never stops composing. He is also a singer-songwriter, sound engineer, producer, and owner of Number Thirteen Studio. Christopher has self-produced three solo records.

Honky Tonk Sundays! Join us for an afternoon with The Hoyle Brothers. They play every Sunday at 3pm.

Honky Tonk Sundays! Join us for an afternoon with The Hoyle Brothers. They play every Sunday at 3pm.

Dead Letter Office has dedicated themselves to faithfully reproducing the music and energy of a live R.E.M. show. Since 2014, they've been thrilling audiences throughout the U.S. & Canada, providing a show that's been sorely missed since R.E.M called it quits. Performing R.E.M.'s major hits, but also diving deep into their catalog to please the die-hard fans! The only R.E.M. tribute band to have members of R.E.M. perform with them (Mike Mills joining them on stage in Buffalo NY....and Peter Buck joining them on stage at Clusterfest in San Francisco!!).

Honky Tonk Sundays! Join us for an afternoon with The Hoyle Brothers. They play every Sunday at 3pm.

CHIRP Radio’s Live Lit and Music series, ‘The First Time’, is unlike any storytelling show in Chicago. It pairs our six unique readers' personal stories about a first-time experience with a song performance. This unique structure allows the story to resonate with audience members as they experience the accompanying song covered by our house band, The First Time Three, featuring Liam Davis, Gerald Dowd and Steve Frisbie. The band has played with musicians including Robbie Fulks, Nora O'Connor, Justin Roberts, Tributosaurus, Frisbie and more, and takes special care to perform unexpected song arrangements of said covers. It is hard to tell what the audience enjoys more: each story or each song. The show is a benefit for CHIRPRadio.org and is hosted by The Moth champion, Jenn Sodini. Featured readers include Andre Vasquez, Alderperson; Parker Molloy, Writer/Journalist; Adam Schulmerich, Comedian; Carrie Shemanski of Wolfman; Jitesh Jaggi, Storyteller and Kristi Turnbaugh, CHIRP DJ

Honky Tonk Sundays! Join us for an afternoon with The Hoyle Brothers. They play every Sunday at 3pm.

Honky Tonk Sundays! Join us for an afternoon with The Hoyle Brothers. They play every Sunday at 3pm.

Giacomo Turra is an Italian musician born in 1997.Intrigued by the vinyls of his father, Giacomo started playing guitar at the age of 13, learning by jamming on his favorite artists like Stevie Wonder, George Benson and Herbie Hancock. In 2018, he started his solo musical project, exploring R&B, Funk and Jazz and releasing his first singles under the name JMT between 2019 and 2020. In March 2020, during the pandemic lockdown, Giacomo started posting video performances on his Instagram account, soon becoming an Artist for D'Angelico Guitars and gaining hundreds of thousands of followers. In July 2021, Giacomo released "The Groove Sessions", a compilation of Funk and R&B covers recorded with renowned musicians and singers from all over the world like Brandon "TAZ" Niederauer, Phoebe Katis, Jessica Burdeaux, George Collins and Augie Bello. On November 12th, 2021, Giacomo played his first international show at the Paradiso in Amsterdam for the Soul Live in front of 2500 people. In December 2021, Matteo Dallape on drums, Francesco Dallago on bass and Anna Pollinari on vocals and keys joined the project as part of the band for Giacomo Turra. On August 26th, Giacomo released his first original single “Get Into The Groove” with Vokall Records. The following day, Giacomo and his band played their debut show, opening for Joss Stone, Candy Dulfer and many more artists at the summer edition of the Soul Live Festival in the Netherlands, in front of 5000 people. On October 21st, Giacomo released his second original single "Sweet Life", in collaboration with Italian R&B singer Filippo Perbellini. In November 2022, Giacomo and his band went on their first headliner tour in Italy, with sold out shows in Milan, Bologna and Rome. In January 2023, Giacomo released his signature guitar pickup model with Italian company Mama Pickups. In February 2023, Giacomo announced the release of his signature Envelope Filter pedal in collaboration with Canadian brand SolidgoldFX. Later that month, Giacomo and his band played two sold out shows at The Zone in Tel Aviv, Israel. In March 2023, Giacomo opened for French artist Mezerg in front of 1000 people at Fabrique in Milan. Later that month, Giacomo Turra and his band announced a tour in May in the United States, with shows in New York, Los Angeles, Dallas, Austin, Houston, Philadelphia and Nashville.

It‘s an exciting time to listen to Cam Cole and follow his journey. From the streets of Camden inLondon his songs, his guitars, his Farmer footdrums and most importantly his followers have takenhim across the world.Shows in Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands, an Irish tour,two UKtoursand a Europe tour, a standoutperformance at Festival Vaiven in Mexico which gained him thousands of new fans at the other endof the world and most importantly his first 3-month USA tour where Cam sold out venues in cities hehad never been to before are all part of an incredible journey that only two years ago seemedimpossible.And now Cam is ready to unleash hiscoming3rdalbum as well as classic songs from his first tworecords on his biggest tour yet! Over35 dates all acrossthe USAand Canada this fallwill bringCamback to theregion in the world that has influenced his music like no other.Cam Cole–UnleashTour–USA& Canada 2023from September to December. Get your tickets nowatcamcole.com

Honky Tonk Sundays! Join us for an afternoon with The Hoyle Brothers. They play every Sunday at 3pm.

The Expendables have proven anything but in their nearly 25-year career since starting out as a spirited party band in high school performing surf-rock covers for birthdays and family gatherings. A quarter-century later, elementary school buddies Raul Bianchi, Adam Peterson andGeoff Weers, along with bassist Ryan DeMars, who joined in 2000, have forged a unique sound born in the laid-back beach life in their hometown of Santa Cruz, CA. The Expendables’ infectious hybrid of ska, surf-rock, punk, reggae and metal can be heard in their latest streaming track, “Surfman Cometh,” a spaghetti-western meets “Pipeline” twang that could easily form the soundtrack to the latest Quentin Tarantino film. The song is the first release from the group’s new and improved Band Room, their longtime rehearsal space in a 1,100 square foot warehouse and former wine cellar on Coral Street, where Adam Patterson took charge of the final mix to great effect. The band’s previous studio album of original material, 2015’s Sand in the Sky, was followed by The Expendables’ second release featuring acoustic reworking of past material,Gone Raw, 2019’s follow-up to 2012’s Gone Soft. The Expendables continue woodshedding until they can get back out on the road. Their 2017 Moment EP, which debuted at #1 on theBillboard Reggae chart, showed the band starting to move into different musical directions, a set featuring collaborations with reggae crooner HIRIE, rapper Tech N9ne, Eric Rachmany, andMicah Peuschel Bumpin Uglies knows all about hustle. The Maryland reggae rock band had spent more than adecade on the road, starting with local open mics and backyard parties and growing into roadwarriors, building an everexpanding audience with soldout shows in clubs and prime spots at festivals from coast to coast, on one national tour after another. Then the pandemic hit, andtouring shut down.After being in motion for so long, singer and lead guitarist Brandon Hardesty wasn’t about to sitstill, even if he couldn’t be out on tour. In fact, Bumpin Uglies never really stopped workingthey adapted. The group returned to playing backyard parties around Annapolis, where they’rebased, and added socially distanced concerts and fullband livestreams. In the fall of 2020, theyalso started releasing a new song every month as part of a project called the Never Ending Drop. “We felt like prospectors going out and trying to find gold it was just uncharted territory,” Hardesty says. “We had to figure out a way to make a living. That’s kind of what being a musician during Covid has felt like to me. You can do it, but you have to be bold.”Hardesty has been bold from the start. He was waiting tables when he started the band in hisearly 20s. With an ear for melodies and the determination to succeed, he poured his time andenergy into making Bumpin Uglies a success. For years, the band did just about everythingthemselves, from booking shows to releasing their own albums, building a sense of momentumalong the way that eventually became selfsustaining, and then Hardesty wasn’t waiting tablesanymore.No surprise, then, that a musician with his strong work ethic found a way to take maximumadvantage of the sudden surplus of time at home. For one thing, he got to hang out with histoddler son, and he and his wife welcomed a new baby. He also wrote a ton of songs. For thefirst time, Hardesty approached songwriting as a discipline, dedicating time to working on newmusic rather than waiting for inspiration to strike and then jotting down ideas in the back of theBumpin Uglies van on his way from one gig to the next.“I just woke up every morning and I made a pot of coffee, and I had this running list of ideas inmy phone for hooks and riffs and progressions,” he says. “I satdown every day and mademyself write a song, and 85 percent of them were pretty good. And it was awesome. I really,really enjoyed the process.”The result is the band’s eighth studio album, MidAtlantic Dub, which they recorded in 2021and plan to release this fall. After showing the breadth of Bumpin Uglies’ influences on theNever Ending Drop, from folk to classic country to hiphop,MidAtlantic Dubbrings the groupalso featuring Dave Wolf on bass and vocals, Ethan Lichtenberger on keyboards and TJHaslett on drumsback to the core of what they do.“It’s very groovefocused,” Hardesty says. “It’s very hooky, very vibey. It’s very accessible, butthere was no compromise on the storytelling or the lyricism.”In fact, Hardesty had a lot on his mindwhile working songs forMidAtlantic Dub. He hadrecently lost his own father while he was stepping into being a dad himself and letting go of thevestiges of childhood, all during the uncertainty of a global pandemic. It’s all there on “SlowBurn,” featuring Jacob Hemphill from SOJA. “Before the oak you got the sapling and the seed. Before you triumph you will swallow a defeat,” Hardesty sings over unhurried upstroke guitarsand a beat laid back into a deep pocket.“I was doing a lot of growing up during Covid,” he says. “It was very much like a survival thing,and when you’re in that kind of mode, it forces you to cut a lot of bullshit out of your life.”What’s left, in Hardesty’s songwriting as in his daily life, is what’s real, and what’s real standsasolid chance of connecting with an audience that appreciates openhearted lyrics paired with atight reggaerock vibe.“For me, it’s just all about honesty,” Hardesty says. “That’s what I listen for when I’m listeningto music. I want to feel like whatever the author’s saying is honest.”

Honky Tonk Sundays! Join us for an afternoon with The Hoyle Brothers. They play every Sunday at 3pm.

Honky Tonk Sundays! Join us for an afternoon with The Hoyle Brothers. They play every Sunday at 3pm.

Honky Tonk Sundays! Join us for an afternoon with The Hoyle Brothers. They play every Sunday at 3pm.