With the disappointing news that the River Music Experience will not be bringing any nationally known musical acts to the Quad Cities as previously advertised, jazz fans will seldom have a chance to catch creative jazz musicians and bands from out of this area.
• Birds do it. Bees do it. And like humans, they often make strange "music" in the process. Next month The Residents are back with a new album on Mute Records that makes new music from the chippings and rhythmic mating sounds of coitus (non-interruptus).
Lon Bozarth, the River Music Experience's new director, has worked in just about every aspect of the music business - outside of a museum. In the 1970s and '80s, he was vice president of operations for Sound Warehouse, overseeing 150 large record stores.
I enjoy music in several different ways. There’s the intellectual satisfaction of learning, being engaged by a piece, and using my imagination to make the music come alive. There are the quirky nuances of the piece, performance, and musicians that spark my interest and make me smile.
• Have the Wiggles lost their wag with your preschooler? Is Sesame Street too old for your old-skoolerz? Please welcome John Linnell and John Flansburgh of They Might Be Giants to the rescue, ready to get rid of those minivan blues.
When a promising roots-music musician leaves his home environs for Nashville, it's not difficult to guess the reasons: fame and fortune. But Iowa native Kelly Pardekooper left Iowa City for the country-music capital of the world with an entirely different motivation.
• This Tuesday the Lost Highway Records imprint is releasing the soundtrack to HBO's Deadwood with a unique twist. Featuring the show's theme by David Schwartz and music from Jelly Roll Morton, Mississippi John Hurt, June Carter Cash, Lyle Lovett, and Sonny Terry & Brownie McGee, two CD versions will be available: one with just the music and the other sprinkled with dialogue gems between the tracks from the potty-mouthed cast of characters, including Calamity Jane, Wild Bill Hickock, and the appropriately named Al Swearengen (as in: swearing again and again and again).
After a hot, delectable meal, what would be better than to relax, listen to live music, and enjoy the company of friends? Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart would have agreed. During his lifetime, he wrote hundreds of pieces that were classified as house music, meant to be performed for friends and guests in the home.
• While the film won't open until February 18, fans of Dave Matthews should look forward to his acting role in Because of Winn Dixie, playing Otis, a pet-store clerk who sings to animals and sets them free. The Nettwerk Records soundtrack comes out this week and features music from the Be Good Tanyas, Emmylou Harris, Leigh Nash of Sixpence None the Richer, and a duet from Adam Schlesinger of Fountains of Wayne and James Iha of the Smashing Pumpkins.
Amy Martin, a folk musician now living in Montana, is returning to her native Iowa to perform in Davenport this Saturday, January 22, at the River City Music Experience. Martin, who grew up on a farm near Preston, headed west from Chicago with guitar in hand in 1999.

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