River Cities' Reader: I'm surprised you're at home. You have a reputation for going on the road and staying there. Dave Holland: I was in England this weekend performing a bass concerto composed by a very fine British composer.
The story of Mary Cutrufello is not exactly a rarity in the music business. It's the tale of an artist who draws a lot of attention from major labels, comes this close to achieving her dream of superstardom, and then watches in disbelief as the bottom falls out.
Local hard-rock quartet Circle 7 has been testing itself over the past year. The band has been playing to small-town crowds unfamiliar with its sound and its work, played an acoustic set for the first time (at the Blackthorn Pub on New Year's Eve), and has spent time in the well-regarded Catamount studio in Cedar Falls, Iowa, recording a new record.
You know the big stories of 2002: Eminem is the King of Most Media. The White Stripes, The Strokes, The Vines, and The Hives are cool (or at least music magazines think so). Springsteen can still matter (or at least newsmagazines think so).
What a season under the cult of celebrity! Moby takes a beating, Lisa Marie Presley is single again, David Lee Roth is suing Van Halen, and Kid Rock is firing guns with Carson Daly on TV. Any assorted boyhood home of Eminem sets off a multi-million-dollar bidding war on eBay's real-estate site! Future Slim Shady Gracelands are popping up all over gritty Michigan hamlets.
The big attraction at Saturday's show at RIBCO will be the Grammy-winning acid-jazz outfit Liquid Soul, but the opening act is a fresh breeze that should appeal to fans of both jazz and hip hop. The J.
After hearing Kurt Elling in person and listening to his CDs, I have to agree with the Downbeat magazine critics polls - something I normally do not do - that named him the number-one jazz male vocalist in 2000, 2001, and 2002.
The Quad City Symphony Orchestra (QCSO) performance on Saturday, December 7, demonstrated the sharp contrasts within classical music. From rugged romanticism to stark minimalism, the concert led by Conductor and Musical Director Donald Schleicher was balanced, and the performance was well formed, as the orchestra played pieces by Kearnis, Mozart, Respighi, and the Paganini of the piano, Franz Liszt.
For this journey to Ohio in mid-November, we have the enviable role of designated witnesses to the canonization of our friend and master life teacher Edmond (Ed) Thigpen by his peers and fellow professionals. I say "peers" to be PC, but in our opinion and in many ways Ed is in a class all by himself.
A handful of local bands have new releases, and they carry the distinct flavor of the past. One might say that time has stood still here in this part of the Midwest, but the current sad state of popular music – from the pop princesses and boy bands to nü-metal – makes each of these releases sound fresher than they might have in a different time.

Pages