Live Music

Get out and hear some live music - soon, whether jazz, blues, country, rock, folk, or any other genre.  This is the season of festivals, so often you can enjoy several acts for one admission - and often admission is free.  Go see performers you're familiar with, and / or discover others just as good - added bonus is to enjoy them in the great outdoors.  (If that's not your cup of tea - or mug of beer - and even if it is - there are still plenty of shows in restaurants, bars and night clubs, and concert halls.

I missed two of my favorite out of the area concerts this year, at the end of May - the Scott Joplin Ragtime Fest in Sedalia, Missouri, and the Kerrville Folk Music Festival (Kerrville TX).  You might still catch plenty of festivals featuring your favorite flavors of music, in your town or reasonable driving distance.  (OR, while on vacation or a business trip - for instance, following a business conference in Seattle some years back, we took a short vacation in the area, including a trip to Victoria Island - just in time for a music festival.)

More recently, I drove out to Topeka June 1st and 2nd for the Coleman Hawkins Legacy Jazz Festival, catching Son Venezuela and the Poncho Sanchez Latin Jazz Band Friday night and Ken Lovern's Organ Jazz Trio, Dan Doran and Marcia Ball on Saturday.  Sunday, went a bit more highbrow with the Northland Symphony, but a pops concert outdoors featuring movie themes.  This past weekend it was up to Parkville, Missouri for their annual Blues, Jazz and Fine Arts River Jam. Many others were on the line up, but Trampled Under Foot, Angela Hagenbach and Saskia Laroo were three acts I caught Friday night.  This coming weekend, Jazz in the Woods is on my schedule, where Arturo Sandoval, with opening acts Nils, and Eldar, play Saturday (there's a Friday show too, and Sunday for the first time, Country in the Woods, with headliner Tracy Byrd.  June 19 I'll be at Alison Krauss' performance in Kansas City.

Later this summer I'll be seeing the Spinners and the Manhattans; Art Garfunkel; Linda Ronstadt with the Kansas City Symphony Pops, and later in the year, Neil Sedaka with the Pops... and numerous local, regional and national acts individually or as part of festivals - blues, jazz, country, rock, pop, oldies acts, reggae, folk - almost every week.

You can too!

... nah, there's no music in my town, I've heard... well, I've heard that from some here too, or, "how do you find all this (often free or cheap) entertainment?"  Check your area's daily newspaper - usually in Sunday's entertainment section, but sometimes others like "Living,"  "Local,"  "FYI," etc., or some other day (for example in Kansas City there's a "Preview" tabloid section on Thursday to help plan your weekend and the next week.)   Check your weekly paper - the section might be called "Entertainment" or "Community" - but it likely has listings of places to go, things to do.  Or area "alternative" papers - and the websites of each of these, as well as sites of your favorite radio stations or area TV stations, OR of your town and neighboring towns.

or, try a search... music, or festival, or music festival, or live music, and the name of your town or a nearby larger city; or of area performers you might want to see.  Trust me, there are shows out there for you.