Meagan McNeal is a powerhouse singer/songwriter and recording artist from Chicago, Illinois, versed in the genres of Soul, Jazz, and R&B. Known for her diverse range and soulful voice, she attracted great fandom on the local circuit and received international acclaim with the release of her debut album entitled “Mindset” in 2014. Gracing the stage of NBC’s “The Voice” in 2017, Meagan’s radiating vocals landed her on the team of Grammy Award Winning artist Jennifer Hudson. Using the tools and experiences, she attained from the mentorship and artist development on “The Voice” she furthered her music career. Since embarking on her solo journey in 2007, Meagan went on to perform throughout the USA and across the globe. With a fervent drive and dedication, she was a backing vocalist for world-famous artists like Eminem, Common, and The O’Jays. Compelling audiences with her sultry but graceful harmonies, her energetic stage presence was embraced as she opened for various artists, including The Velvelettes of the Legendary Motown Records, Dwele, and Avery Sunshine. Influenced by groundbreaking artists such as Patti LaBelle, Anita Baker, Ella Fitzgerald, Chaka Kahn, and Aretha Franklin, Meagan refined her talents throughout the years and shaped her signature style. Her music effortlessly transcends boundaries and spreads messages of love and universal truth. Seated at the core of her artistry are her unwavering determination, open-mindedness, and innovative mindset.
Hello world allow me 2 introduce myself. My name is Fabian R James Sr. a.k.a the son of soul and i hail from chicago the city of legends music is my life my passion i am married 2 this and i take music very seriously i am currently working on my e.p. “my heart,my soul, mysong due in stores on valentine’s day 2008 i have a lot of musical influences with whom i would not do this music without from donny hathaway to uncle charlie wilson to the king of pop micheal jackson to prince himself i also find inspiration from artists such as the great elton john so that’s just a lil bout me i hope you enjoy yourself as you listen 2 my music and remember the name son of soul one love!!!
BIG ANT’S JAM SESSION
Bring your BASS or HORN or GUITAR or STICKS or WHATEVER you play, and come sit in with some of Chicago’s best. Big Ants Jam session is an open improv session playing jazz, soul , punk , rock or whatever style of music is appropriate for the time at the time they play it. The ever changing band is curated by drummer, Anthony Capers.
Back then, growing up in the New York City suburb of Ramsey, New Jersey, Wesley spent his days drawing. Today, as bandleader of The Lumineers, Wesley’s replaced his pencil with a guitar and his drawings with songs. He still practices a lot, and it still turns out good.
In the spring of 2005, childhood friends Wesley and Jeremiah began to collaborate, writing together and playing gigs around New York. After battling the city’s cutthroat music scene and impossibly high cost of living, the two decided to expand their horizons. They packed everything they owned—nothing more than a couple suitcases of clothes and a trailer full of musical instruments—and headed for Denver, Colorado. It was less a pilgrimage than act of stubborn hopefulness.
The first thing they did in Denver was place a Craigslist ad for a cellist, and the first person to respond was Neyla Pekarek, a classically trained Denver native. As a trio, they began playing at the Meadowlark, a gritty basement club where the city’s most talented songwriters gathered every Tuesday for an open mic and dollar PBRs. Neyla softened Wes and Jer’s rough edges while expanding her skills to mandolin and piano. And so The Lumineers sound took shape; an amalgam of heart-swelling stomp-and-clap acoustic rock, classic pop, and front-porch folk.
In 2011, an eponymous, self-recorded EP led to a self-booked tour, and before long The Lumineers started attracting devout fans, first across the Western US, then back in their old East Coast stamping grounds. Young, old and in-between, they’re drawn by songs like “Ho Hey” and “Stubborn Love,” Americana-inflected barnburners in the vein of the Avett Brothers and Mumford & Sons. They’re drawn by songs like “Slow it Down” and “Dead Sea,” slow, sultry ballads that suggest the raw revelations of Jeff Buckley and Ryan Adams. They’re drawn by the live Lumineers experience—a coming-together in musical solidarity against isolation, adversity, and despair.
The roots revival of the last few years has primed listeners for a new generation of rustic, heart-on-the-sleeve music—the kind that nods to tradition while setting off into uncharted territory. The Lumineers walk that line with an unerring gift for timeless melodies and soul-stirring lyrics
Powered by passion, ripened by hard work, The Lumineers have found their sound when the world needs it most.
Begin with a solid bluegrass instrumentation, then add a layer of Wurlitzer piano, stark electric guitar, and haunting female vocals and you have the gypsy-chamber sound of The Poor Nobodys. Easily typified as music from a film score, their original compositions weave unconventional melodies through rustic roots, all the while refining a carefully chaotic meter.
The Alder Kings are a three piece, high octane, high gain, instrumental psycho surfabilly band from Chicago. Since forming in 2011, The Alder Kings have gained exposure on the national and international level. Rooted in the classics, but definitely not your Daddy’s surf.
Ammunition is co-founder of the performance troupe SS-Triple X. She has been gracing Chicago’s stages as an independent performer since 2006. She specializes in neo variety burlesque, feather, parasol, silk fan and LED isis wing dances, fire-eating and breathing, palm torch, angle grinder acts and body modification rituals. Merging visual percussion with power tools, Ammunition leaves the audience hot in their seats!
Ammunition holds residency at Chicago’s most notorious party, Porn and Chicken Dance Party! She is a resident performer at Debonair Social Club’s No Tell Motel produced by Sammy Tramp! She is an active participant in Chicago’s Burning Man Community and in Black Rock City. She also was featured grinding sparks for Steve Aoki, Skism, Derrick Carter, Figure, Buku, Felix Da Housecat, Tommie Sunshine and Ghastly! You may have even spotted her onstage grinding for 2011- 2014’s Northcoast Music Festival, Wavefront Music Festival, Spring Awakening Music Festival in 2012-2016, Life in Color and Reaction NYE at Rosemont! She has returned to the stage in Madison for the Fire Ball Masquerade for 4 years in a row and will be returning 2017! She made her Show Me Burlesque debut in St. Louis and Snake Oil Festival in NOLA in 2016!
She was nominated, competed and won the Performing Artist of the Year award from Chicago Raw Artists in 2011. She also won Best Gogo Dancer of 2015 for Chicago Nightlife Awards!
Ammunition is fire and grinder insured through Specialty Insurance Company.
Ladies and gentleman! Boy’s and girl’s! Step right up and feast your eyes upon this truly amazing spectacle!!! His name, the main attraction of any midway, stage or stand fortunate enough to attain and showcase this modern day marvel! What’s in a name you may ask? Come here, and I will share with you the most phantasmal of all legends, unbeliever’s, come forth and I shall reveal to you the strange and mystical truth about the man, and the myth. He is called, “SANJULA VAMANA”! A name earned by years of dissertatious isolation, and the most unparalleled of all human suffering. Watch as he seamlessly binds the edges of almost certain death and human wonderment into a quilt of perplexing paraphilias guaranteed too warm you to the very core. He is the one, the only SANJULA VAMANA! Often imitated, never duplicated! No gaffs, no gimmicks, no doubt! BEHOLD! BELIEVE! BEWARE!
Red Rum is a multidisciplinary artist whose formal background is in painting and video art. Burlesque brought together the perfect combination of her love for makeup, prop building and horror film with the catharsis of a live audience. Drawing from a variety of influences she brings to the stage a unique combination of burlesque and performance art, choosing narratives that combine elements of sex, death and humor – the great social levelers. Known for her unusual costumes and skilled improvisation she strives to give audiences something they have never seen before and may never see again.
Red Rum is a core member of Hot and Heavy Burlesque in Chicago, IL and a frequent guest performer of the Dead Man’s Carnival in Milwaukee, WI. She also performs around Chicago with SS-Triple-X, Vaudezilla, Angela Eve and Eve’s Parlor Burlesque, Cirque De La Femme, the 1901 Gallery Theater, Ties and Tassels and the Festival of Flesh. When not performing she works full time at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and collaborates with her husband, sideshow artist, Sanjula Vamana. Together with their son Dexter they continue to build their house of oddities.
ROBBIE B HAS BEEN WRITING AND RECORDING MUSIC FOR SEVEN YEARS. HE GREW UP IN LAKE COUNTY ILLINOIS AND HAS ALWAYS HAD A PASSION FOR MUSIC AND BASEBALL. ROBBIE IS AN AMAZING SON, BROTHER, UNCLE AND FRIEND. HE IS CONSTANTLY LOOKING OUT FOR OTHERS AND SPEAKS FROM THE HEART. LIFE HAS THROWN ROBBIE A FEW CURVE BALLS, AND AT THE AGE OF 10 YEARS OLD, ROBBIE WITNESSED THE ONLY HOME HE HAS EVER KNOWN COME TO AN END DURING A BITTER FORECLOSURE. HE HAS OVERCOME TRAGIC SITUATIONS BY LOOKING FOR LIFES INSPIRATIONS. MUSIC WAS AN OUTLET THAT TURNED INTO A SPOKEN PASSION. ROBBIE IS SUCH A TALENTED INDIVIDUAL AND THERE IS SOMETHING VERY UNIQUE ABOUT HIS MUSIC THAT SEPARATES HIM FROM THE REST.
Rivals layer lush harmonies and foot stomping energy with a head for lyrics and a nod to their outlaw country heroes. Walking the line between unabashedly old school and eclectic, Rivals of the Peacemaker are all about their roots, loving Emmylou Harris and Motorhead in the same breath and playing shows that take you from the dance floor to the heart, and back again.
Rivals show their love for a wide range of music with influences from country, rock, blues, Americana – The band drifts between genres weaving stories of rebels and sweethearts, heartbreaks and revenge.
Fronted by Alex Watson and Billy Watson, the two personify rowdy and romantic. Taking turns on lead vocals, The Watsons play off each other and take you for a ride. Rivals usually play as a six piece, with a tight knit band behind them – veteran players of the Chicago music scene on guitar, lap steel, and rhythm, and bringing in friends on mandolin, violin, harmonica, banjo and more. They play as an acoustic duo in select venues with Billy Watson on guitar and Alex Watson dividing time between guitar and washboard.
Rivals of the peacemaker has built a solid foundation on original music, a few choice covers and a rip roarin’ live show. Rivals have been featured artists on the Shure Give it Voice Tour, Do312, Rukus Radio, Taste of Madison, Q106 Country Showdown, and WLUW, and are currently completing their debut album to be released in the Winter 2011
All good ideas start by about the fourth drink. In this case, it’s four pints of a strong stout. The local beer variety store, Smiley’s, carried growlers of it, so we figured what the hell, lets try it on draft. After all, we are brewers and musicians – arms manufacturers in the war against prohibition; The front line soldiers in the war against boredom. Therein lies the problem: we were completely fucking bored. The battle was not going well. We were in a band together. It was a good band, a damn fine one, but slow moving. A show once or twice a month, and no chance to tour outside of the occasional weekend out of town. Playing shows at the same five or so clubs. My own tension was rising, between a dead end job, a girl that just left me, and the frustration of a part time band, I was starting to genuinely go insane. I’ve got travelers blood, really. I’d spend whatever time I could burning gasoline and midnight oil, going as far as I could while making it back in time for work the next day. All the while, I was writing all of my jukebox and beatnik dreams down on any random scrap of paper I could find – A proper madman, completely in love with the world and completely in hate with the fact that I hadn’t figured out a way to go see more of it.
Four Chicagoan friends playing rock music for your third ear. We will rock your socks off. We draw from a wide variety of influences, but most people classify us as some type of hard math rock. There’s a definite psychedelic vibe going on that continues to develop, but we are not a jam band in the stereotypical sense of the genre. ETP includes members of the now defunct bands, Tough Get Going, Devlin Progress, Halos Astray, and Maus as well as the active artists Monsoon, Asa Nisi Masa, and Masochistic Values.
Well, it’s been a while. After playing 150 shows last year and making appearances on CBS and various radio stations across the country, I needed a break. It wasn’t necessarily a choice. If I had it my way I’d still be touring everyday, but fate and my pocket book said I might need to take some time to regroup. …… They were right. After multiple car break downs and band members changing out, a regroup was in order. I’ve spent the past 8 months in Chicago just living and enjoying music and people. I spent a lot of time playing with different musicians and writing new music and lot of time (oddly enough) surrounded by recovering alcoholics and drug addicts. Yep, that’s right. It started as something to do with my music to encourage people on my time off (I’ve played a few places like that while on tour). Well, I ended up completely loving it. There I was every friday night surrounded by people who’ve been through it all being completely honest with who they were and their healing process. It brought out change in me…in a non fight club kind of way. I’m taking what I’ve learned and now gearing up to tour again this fall with music from my self -titled album engineered by the awesome Ryan McConnaughay of Moody Radio……. With some new band members and a newly inspired purpose, we’re taking this music to the next level. We’ve already got to play with some pretty amazing groups (groups like Relient K, Switchfoot, Phil Wickham, Keri Noble, Kutless, and John Reuben to name a few) and are pretty thrilled to play with some even more amazing ones coming up (preferably Beyonce, but I’ll let you know.) Honestly, though, if it’s just us at a coffee shop playing for a few people, we’ll be excited still. I can’t wait to see everyone and for you to hear these songs live.
“Pree’s unique brand of lyrically driven, experimental pop throws a shock of light on a rare nexus of style and substance within an irresistible sonic realm.
Pree’s latest album, Rima, will be released on Paper Garden Records this fall.”
THE Legend of “John Burrows” Two hours after Elvis’s death was announced publicly, a man who reportedly looked remarkably like Elvis purchased a ticket for Buenos Aeries, paid in cash, and used the name John Burrows: the same name Elvis had used as an alias several times before.
THE JESTERS
Local Chicago band, The Jesters, have been playing the Chicago scene for nearly 20 years. With a heavy dose of showmanship, The Jesters mix funk rock, ska, swing and a bit of insanity into a high-energy, action packed show. Don’t bother pulling up a chair…you’ll be too busy dancing!
Psychedelic rock is in the midst of a resurgence with groups like the Flaming Lips releasing their most experimental music in years and new acts such as Tame Impala gaining major international attention. KAVA does what comes natural to three Chicago music veterans when writing, rehearsing and performing together. Ryan Behling (bass/vox), Wilson (guitar) and Marshall Greenhouse (percussion/electronics) first met while forming AfroZep, a national touring act that fuses African influences into Led Zeppelin covers. The trio clicked from the start. It quickly became obvious that it was time to move away from strictly arranging together and start writing original music. So they packed their cars with as many instruments as they could fit and headed far out of the city where they locked themselves up in a cabin for the weekend and experimented. The result was about 20 hours of recordings that included tightly composed odd time grooves in the vein of The Mars Volta, to 15+ minute minimalist jams which featured drones supplied by the Juno and Kaossilators. KAVA has since continued to hold retreats, toured the country, performed local shows (often fully improvised), recorded 2 studio EPs plus an experimental improvised EP and in the summer of 2013 released their first full length album entitled Shikaakwa.
A confused and shy individual, Charlie Parr plays original and traditional folk and rural-style blues, accompanying himself on National resonator guitars, 12-string guitar and a fretless banjo. Parr has failed at most things in his life. Music seems to have rendered him unemployable and is the only thing he’s ever done with any confidence. A lot of folks have been saying nice things about Charlie, despite the lingering odors and indecipherable comments he makes. It says a lot about folks; they’re hanging in there with him, in spite of himself.
