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| Music Like it Used To Was® | |||||||||
| Howdy friends and neighbors!!! The Sangamon Valley Roots Revival is a group of central Illinois folks who are fans of Hillbilly/Rockabilly/Western Swing/Honky Tonk music and want to hear more of it in the Springfield area. We're just simple folks with a simple mission! Catch us worldwide every Sunday evening at 5 pm CST for The Sangamon Valley Roots Revival Radio Hour on WUIS 91.9! | |||||||||
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| Here are just some of the fabulous artists we've hosted: | |||||||||
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Robbie Fulks · The Cigar Store Indians · Johnny Dilks & the Visitacion Valley Boys · Ray Condo & the Ricochets · BR549 · Rosie Flores · Wayne Hancock · Candye Kane · Big Sandy & the Fly-Rite Boys · Dave Stuckey & the Rhythm Gang · The Paladins · Ryan Adams · The Blazers · The Del McCoury Band · Hank Williams III · Deke Dickerson & the Eccofonics · Dallas Wayne · Jason Ringenberg · Cave Catt Sammy · Josie Kruzer · Charlie Robison · The Blue Moon Boys · Jimmy Sutton's Four Charms · The Ranch Girls · Teddy Morgan · Chris Knight · Nick Curran & the Nitelifes · The Domino Kings · Red Red Meat · The Tarbox Ramblers · Trent Sumner & the New Row Mob · Mandy Barnett · Tom Armstrong · Dale Watson · The Bellfuries · The 45's · Los Straitjackets · Duane Jarvis · Slobberbone · Gin Palace Jesters · Roger Wallace · Hot Club of Cowtown |
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| Matt Dietrich of the State Journal Register writes: | |||||||||
| You drive 200 miles to see one of your favorite bands, pay for a hotel room, eat in restaurants and drive back to Springfield. Add it all up, and you might as well have paid for the band to come to Springfield instead. | |||||||||
| If your favorite kind of music is alternative country or neo-cowboy twang, the above scenario is no exaggeration. For Sean and Jamie Burns of Springfield, it's a true story that has made Springfield a stopping point for some of the country's best rockabilly and alternative country bands. | |||||||||
| It started about three years ago when Sean Burns, a 37-year-old history teacher and tennis coach at Glenwood High School, first began hearing music by bands like BR5-49, Big Sandy and his Fly-Rite Boys, Wayne Hancock and others who based their sounds in vintage rockabilly and Western swing. | |||||||||
| Burns, a longtime punk rock fan, found that the honesty of the underground country performers made a more direct connection with him than the punk of his youth. His wife, Jamie, also 37, was bitten by the alt.country bug as well. | |||||||||
| "Rock doesn't apply to me anymore. The lyrics of this music seem to apply to me more," says Jamie Burns, HIV counseling and testing coordinator for the Illinois Department of Public Health. "The musicianship is just amazing, and I'm a big fan of the minor key." | |||||||||
| The couple was planning a trip to Indianapolis early this year to hear neo-cowboy singer Johnny Dilks and the Visitacion Valley Boys when an idea struck. If Dilks' fee wasn't high, why not bring him to Springfield instead of making the trek to Indianapolis? | |||||||||
| "The worst thing that could happen is, we'd lose a little money and sleep in our own bed," says Sean Burns. | |||||||||
| As it turned out, 110 people showed up for Dilks' March 1 show at The Alley, and the Burnses came out slightly ahead. | |||||||||
| "We made enough to pay the babysitter," says Jamie. | |||||||||
| They are hoping that the success of that show will get more people interested in the many different styles of roots and alternative country music, and they've already arranged to bring two other well known acts to The Alley next month. Western swing band Ray Condo and His Ricochets stop at The Alley on May 12. Wayne "The Train" Hancock, who performed on the House of Blues stage at the Illinois State Fair last year, comes to The Alley on May 17. On July 3, Dilks will return to The Alley. | |||||||||
| To generate interest in their favorite styles of music, and to bring together others who are into rockabilly, swing and numerous other styles covered by the "roots rock" umbrella, the Burnses have established a quarterly newsletter called Sangamon Valley Roots Revival, whose spring issue came out last week. | |||||||||
| "It's almost trying to create some kind of scene for this kind of music," says Sean. | |||||||||
| The debut issue of Roots Revival features stories about Hancock and Ray Condo, photos and a story from the Johnny Dilks show and record reviews of CDs by Hancock, Roger Wallace and Dave Stuckey and His Rhythm Gang. | |||||||||
| "We're countin' on you to spread the word, ladies and gentlemen! Honky tonk music is back in Springfield!" the Burnses write in their inaugural column. | |||||||||
| Those interested in receiving the Roots Revival newsletter can write to the Burnses as 709 S. State St., Springfield, IL 62704. | |||||||||
