Roddie Romero & The Hub City Allstars (Tent, 5:00-6:15pm Friday 7/1 and 8:15-9:30pm Saturday 7/2)
When you’re raised on the Zydeco and Cajun sounds of Southwest Louisiana and the groove of New Orleans, you can’t go wrong. Roddie Romero & the Hub City All Stars are sure to pack the dance floor with their unmatched blend of South Louisiana rhythm and soul. Roddie’s passionate vocals, pumping accordian and mastery of the slide guitar leads the funkified groove of his talented band, the Hub City All Stars. You will not only experience great, original music at a Hub City All Stars’ concert, but you’ll witness the tightest band from the swamps of Louisiana put on an electrifying show. It all happens behind one of the most soulful frontmen in the business. American music is Roddie Romero & the Hub City All Stars – born out of the Delta dirt, rising high off the levee of traditionalism, and into the future of Louisiana Music.
www.myspace.com/roddieromero

The Preservation Hall Jazz Band (Club, 6:30-7:30 and 8-9pm Friday 7/1; and Tent, 6:15-7:45pm Saturday 7/2)
The Preservation Hall Jazz Band derives its name from Preservation Hall, the venerable music venue located in the heart of New Orleans’ French Quarter, founded in 1961 by Allan and Sandra Jaffe. The band has traveled worldwide spreading their mission to nurture and perpetuate the art form of New Orleans Jazz. Whether performing at Carnegie Hall or Lincoln Center, for British Royalty or the King of Thailand, this music embodies a joyful, timeless spirit. Under the auspices of current director, Ben Jaffe, the son of founders Allan and Sandra, Preservation Hall continues with a deep reverence and consciousness of its greatest attributes in the modern day as a venue, band, and record label.

The PHJB began touring in 1963 and for many years there were several bands successfully touring under the name Preservation Hall. Many of the band's charter members performed with the pioneers who invented jazz in the early twentieth century including Buddy Bolden, Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong, and Bunk Johnson. Band leaders over the band's history include the brothers Willie and Percy Humphrey, husband and wife Billie and De De Pierce, famed pianist Sweet Emma Barrett, and in the modern day Wendall and John Brunious. These founding artists and dozens of others passed on the lessons of their music to a younger generation who now follow in their footsteps like the current lineup.
www.preservationhall.com

Jeff & Vida (Tent, 6:45-8:00pm Friday 7/1)
Jeff and Vida’s nine years of performing and songwriting, have seen them delve into many different genres of music; country, honky-tonk, rockabilly, even a little rock and roll. But throughout their career, which has included four critically acclaimed albums, literally thousands of live shows in the U.S. and Europe, and a move from New Orleans to Nashville, bluegrass has remained a key influence in their style and sound. Nowhere is this more evident than on their new CD, Selma Chalk.

The new record features thirteen original songs, a stellar band, and an enigmatic name. Inside the CD jacket, selma chalk is defined as “an impurity in the most fertile soil of the South”. Intentional or not, the title seems an apt metaphor for the music contained within- an outsiders’ take on fertile traditions of Southern and Appalachian string band music. Indeed, a number of tracks do fit neatly into what might be called a ‘traditional bluegrass’ sound. More often than not however, the record bends bluegrass instrumentation around material that's a little edgier, a little bluesier and a little rougher than your typical bluegrass album.
www.jeffandvida.com

Tracy Nelson (Tent, 8:30-9:45pm Friday 7/1)
“Tracy Nelson isn’t so much a singer as she is a force field — a blues practitioner of tremendous vocal power and emotional range.” - Alanna Nash, Entertainment Weekly

“ . . . a bad white girl . . .” —Etta James, from her autobiography, “Rage To Live”

She has one of the signature voices of her generation. That natural gift has always guided Tracy Nelson’s soul; indeed allowed her to both write and seek out the deeper songs regardless of niche or genre. A fierce singer of truth, a fountain of the deepest heartache, she is an ultimate communicator and has regularly destroyed audiences across decades of performing. She is one of the few female singers who has had hit records in both blues and country genres, performing with everyone from Muddy Waters to Willie Nelson to Marcia Ball and Irma Thomas, with Grammy® nominations for both her country and blues efforts. John Swenson, writing in Rolling Stone, asserted, “Tracy Nelson proves that the human voice is the most expressive instrument in creation.” With Victim of the Blues (Delta Groove), her 26th album in just over five decades, she has circled fully, back to the original music from South Side Chicago that mesmerized her teenaged mind in the mid-1960s.
www.tracynelson.com

Cathy Richardson & The Macrodots (Club, 9:45-11:15pm Friday 7/1)
Seeing Cathy Richardson sing is an experience that is difficult to explain. Critics have described the effect in ways such as: witnessing a space shuttle launch, a force of nature, kinetic, unleashing a tsunami from her iron-lungs, haunting, stunning, breath-taking power, unbelievably powerful, or simply stated, WOW. Some have even gone so far as to dub her the "best female voice in rock today." And it's no wonder, what other singer out there can you name who has the chops (or the balls, for that matter) to stand in for both Janis Joplin and Grace Slick in their iconic bands?

Just when you thought she couldn't possibly rock any harder, she hooks up with San Francisco guitarist/producer Zack Smith and unveils the Macrodots. Richardson and Smith have come together to give you the musical spanking you deserve- with a sound that, for as much as it pays homage to old school rock, still sounds fresh and new. In a sea swarming with reality show wannabes and auto-tuned fembots, the Macrodots offer something uniquely special to the current musical landscape: talent.
themacrodots.com

Marcia Ball Band (Tent, 10:15-12:00 midnight Friday 7/1)
Rolling Stone Magazine describes Marcia Ball as "Rollicking, playful, good time blues and intimate, reflective balladry...her songs ring with emotional depth." Marcia's New CD Roadside Attractions was released March 29, 2011. She is a four time Grammy® Nominee, including her last three albums: Peace, Love & BBQ (2008), Live! Down The Road (2005) and So Many Rivers (2003), plus an earlier nomination for Sing It! (1998) with Irma Thomas and Tracy Nelson. Marcia was also a Gulf Coast Music Hall Of Fame Inductee (2010). Winner of eight Blues Music Awards - four wins in the last five years for Best Piano Player of the Year, plus recent wins for Best Contemporary Blues - Female Artist of the Year (twice), and once each for Contemporary Blues Album of Year for So Many Rivers, and Blues Album of the Year for Presumed Innocent. In addition, Marcia is the w inner of two 2009 Living Blues Readers' Poll Awards for Blues Artist of the Year (Female) and Most Outstanding Musician (Keyboard), adding to her wins in the category in 2007 and 2008. Peace, Love & BBQ debuted at #1 in the Billboard Blues Charts (April 2008). She was featured in the film “Piano Blues,” directed by Clint Eastwood and has had numerous television appearances, including Austin City Limits, Late Show With David Letterman, Today Show, CNN, and Mountain Stage (PBS).
www.marciaball.com

Michelle Malone (Club, 11:45pm Friday 7/1)
Armed with a bottleneck slide, blues harmonica, and her signature soul-filled vocals, Michelle Malone was born in the Deep South and grew up listening to her mother sing in the church choir every Sunday. When it came time to craft her own sound, she took those religious roots, blended in enough rock, folk, and blues to satisfy. The result is Debris, a high-spirited stripped down blend of rootsy acoustic slide, gritty electric blues and explosive vocals that harkens back to the lost recordings of Bonnie Raitt, Lucinda Williams and The Rolling Stones.
www.myspace.com/michellemalonemusic

Go Long Mule (SideBar, 8 pm & 10 pm Friday 7/1)
Pieced together after a series of fateful barroom encounters, Go Long Mule has created a style that is as much cheers and laughter as it is a drunken brawl. This group of multi-instrumentalists renders tales of the beauty parlor and the junkyard alike with the stylings of rag-and-bones folk, vaudevillian roots-rock, and roadhouse blues. Accessible yet indefinable, this sonic collage stitched by this wayfaring bevy is perhaps best described as nothing more than a reflection of the band’s multifarious members. Ryan Anderson’s melodic rambling combines the shipwrecked lyricism of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and the wit and wisdom of Tom Waits. With the mercurial warmth of a pawnshop weasel, he simply takes off his hat and stories fly out. Stepping out from a Mathew Brady photograph, do not be deceived by Adam Mormolstein’s timeless sweatervests. He taps his bass and bobs his head in 3/4, 4/4, and 6/8 time. Mark “Barney” Zoller’s consummate percussive style recalls the rhythms of the L&N as it travels the long tracks beneath the Mississippi moon, coloring each song with rowdy wonder and inveterate realism. When Isaac “Snakes for Arms” Lyons first heard what would ultimately become his beloved accordion, he rightly believed it signified the coming of the apocalypse. He squeezes and heaves the box with due reverence. Each performance with this troupe of gadabouts is a carnival where song and story rendezvous, and an adventure that delights the ears, the ribs and the hips; that thrusts and grabs and tickles the senses.
www.myspace.com/golongmule

Harrison Street Ukulele Players (SideBar 6 pm, Club 7:30pm Friday 7/1)
Founded by GiGi Wong-Monaco, musician and co-founder of another popular Chicagoland music group, Sandalwood Sitar Music Ensemble. Sponsored by Wonderwall Music Shoppe & Emporium. GiGi's Hawaiian roots called her back to playing the ukulele a few years ago and wanted to play with others who shared the same passion. By the summer of 2008, she found some ukulele players and started practicing together in an effort to 'Set A Fest Record For Most Ukulele Players onstage at the Fest For Beatles Fans' - Battle Of The Bands! They did it with 28 players, half who just joined her core group onstage that weekend, including Fest guests...Rutles Neil Innes and guitarist Ken Thorton, renowned author and musician Jorie Gracen and Stu Shea, and Chicago musician Mario Novelli, renowned Chicago artist & teacher Lanialoha Lee, and a slew of Beatles fans from around the country! So successful was this, that local ukulele players continued to meet every Thursday night at Eastgate Cafe' in Oak Park. After officially forming in October 2008 as Oak Park Ukulele Meetup Group aka The Harrison Street Ukulele Players, more members joined, some from across the country. Local members enjoy playing together, anytime, anywhere. The 'performing' group, Harrison Street Ukulele Players evolved out of our Meetup members' dedication and determination for fun and gigging out. We're a fun, 'ohana' (family) of ukulele players which has even attracted one of the original members of The Buckinghams, Larry Nestor! Now how cool is that?
www.meetup.com/Oak-Park-Ukulele-Meetup-Group-Harrison-St-Ukulele-Players

Chicago Salty Dogs (Tent, 1:00-2:30pm Saturday 7/2)
In 1947, a group of Purdue University students formed the Salty Dogs Jazz Band. In the earliest days of jazz, Indiana was the place where the great bands played, recorded and set down their musical roots. The Salty Dogs Jazz Band was born from that tradition and they continue today as living testament that great hot jazz will live forever.

When the Salty Dogs left the Purdue campus in the early 1960s, a contingent continued at Purdue as the band performed and spread the joy of traditional jazz across the United States. Today, with the same personnel from the 1950s and with forty additional years of experience and polish, they are acclaimed as one of the foremost traditional jazz bands in the world.

The roots of the Salty Dogs dig deep to the early jazz musicians of the 1920s - Hoagy Carmichael, King Oliver, The New Orleans Rhythm Kings, Jelly Roll Morton, Bix Biederbecke, Hitch's Happy Harmonists, and Louis Armstrong. They all recorded in Richmond, Indiana and many of their sidemen settled in the Chicago area.

In the 1950s and 1960s, many of these players were still active and performed side-by-side with members of the Salty Dogs. The list includes some of the greatest names in jazz history: Georg Brunis, Lil Armstrong, Quinn Wilson, Darnell Howard, George Lewis, Lou Black, Jim Lannigan, "Little Brother" Montgomery, "Banjo" Ikey Robinson, Franz Jackson and a host of others who shared their music, knowledge and notes with the Salty Dogs.

Listen to the Salty Dogs Jazz Band. Their music turns a concert into a party. Audiences around the world applaud when they hear these echoes from the past. Be a part of history in the making as the Salty Dogs carry the torch lit by the flame from the original pioneers of American traditional jazz.
www.saltydogsjazzband.com

Dave Kay Band (Club, 2:00-3:15pm Saturday 7/2)
The Dave Kay band plays R&B-inflected pop originals. This is the band's first appearance at FitzGerald's American Music Festival. Keeping Dave out of trouble on this gig are Dan Leali, Jon Paul, and Chris Neville of Tributosaurus, and Jon Williams of the Knockdown Swing Band and Chandelier Swingers.

Les Bassettes (Tent, 2:45-4:00pm Saturday 7/2)
Jolie Blonde et Les Bassettes met through the vibrant music and dance scene of Lafayette, LA and play Cajun dance music from Southwest Louisiana. Drawn together by their appreciation for the older music styles and songs of Acadiana, they have revived a number of songs which have fallen out of the standard repertoire, while continuing to play traditional dancehall standards as well. With three female vocalists on guitar, accordion and double fiddles, their music is unique and varied while still being deeply rooted in the Cajun music tradition.

Megan, Kelli and Heather are all experienced and versatile musicians who have been playing for years and have performed throughout the United States and abroad. The name “Jolie Blonde et Les Bassettes” (pronounced zhole-ee blonde ay lay bah-set) derives from the iconic Cajun song “Jolie Blonde” (which means pretty blonde) as well as the Cajun French term “bassette” which refers to a short brunette.
www.lesbassettes.com

Whitey Morgan & The 78s (Club, 3:45-5:00pm Saturday 7/2)
Whitey Morgan and the 78’s are a Honky Tonk band from Flint, Michigan. They haven’t re-invented the wheel. They just picked it up and started it rolling all over again. Since the release of their first album Honky Tonks and Cheap Motels, Whitey and the band have revived a forgotten genre with a fierce dedication and determination. They’ve toured the country spreading their sound and real deal vibe everywhere they go. They play honky-tonk tunes in any club in any town without apology and with a purpose. Look out, this bad news sounds real good. Around 200 shows a year you can count on Whitey Morgan and the 78’s to deliver. Whitey’s whiskey tinged vocals, the 78’s foot stomping beats, all relentlessly stirring up dance floors everywhere they go. The bottle turns up, spirits elevate and in this world, there isn’t a person who couldn’t use Whitey Morgan and the 78’s.
whiteymorgan.com

The Special Consensus (Tent, 4:30-5:45pm Saturday 7/2)
Special Consensus is a superb bluegrass outfit in a classic vein but with more than enough modern sensibilities to attract every ear in this now pleasantly fractionating genre. The vocals are spotless, the playing as shiny as a newly minted penny, and music like this is the reason people come to love bluegrass… Special Consensus approaches this hallowed American musical form with boundless energy and an aesthetic reverence that tickles the ribs, tugs at the heart, and puts a restless two-step in boots and bare feet. The lead cut, Signs, is emblematic of the entire [new] CD, bursting with high spirits, energy refusing to sit still, precision so tight you can set your watch by it, and pure musicality so infectious that there lives nary a soul that will be able to turn its born and bred ears from tilting leeward to get a better listen.
www.specialc.com

Dave Gonzalez and The Stone River Boys (Club, 5:30-6:45pm Saturday 7/2)
Last summer, out of the ashes of the Hacienda Brothers, sprung the Stone River Boys featuring Dave Gonzalez and Mike Barfield. When the Hacienda Brothers released their third and final studio album titled Arizona Motel in June, guitarist Dave Gonzalez was left with the unfortunate task of promoting the new release without his partner Chris Gaffney. Gaffney, a founding member who was also the band’s lead vocalist and accordion player, died unexpectedly from liver cancer in April. So Gonzalez put together an Austin all-star band last summer to hit some of The Bros. favorite venues. Joining him was vocalist Mike Barfield, virtuoso Dave Biller on pedal steel, bassist Kevin Smith and veteran Tom Lewis on Drums. It was Gonzalez himself who took over the onstage vocal duties for all of Gaffney’s songs, nailing them with emotion and finesse night after night. Gonzalez’s outstanding performances are no surprise to those who followed The Paladins, where Gonzalez did the bulk of the singing for over 20 years.

The wild card in the summer band was Austin’s Mike Barfield. While some people might have mistakenly looked at Barfield as an attempt to replace Gaffney, the fact and the results couldn’t be further from that: Barfield proved to be just the breath of fresh air the shows needed to keep them fun-loving and spontaneous. Barfield is a singer that Gaffney respected and enjoyed. Barfield has fronted his own band, The Hollisters, and spent the last few years creating his own brand of country-soul, recently releasing two CDs of largely original material. The most recent, The Tyrant (Tater Tot Recordings) takes its name from Barfield’s nickname as “The Tyrant of Texas Funk.” The CD features a slew of fun, soulful, funky and sometimes irreverent songs like “Funky Cupcake” and “The Struggle.” When Barfield breaks into his screaming whoops and animated country-soul dance you’ll want to join the infectious good time. Gaffney would have loved this pairing. 2009 looks to be the break out year for The Stone River Boys. The group has already recorded five new songs and plans are in the works for having a new release out by later this year. Tour dates are coming in and they are looking forward to SXSW as a way to showcase their new sound. For every end there is a new beginning and in this case for Dave Gonzalez, it’s The Stone River Boys.
www.myspace.com/stoneriverboys

The Preservation Hall Jazz Band (Club, 6:30-7:30 and 8-9pm Friday 7/1; and Tent, 6:15-7:45pm Saturday 7/2) Please see above.

Uncle Lucius (Club, 7:15-8:45pm Saturday 7/2)
Uncle Lucius takes Rock and Roll from its deep roots and pushes it onward, putting their own honest interpretation on the essential elements of R & B, Blues, and Country. They pride their live show as a sacred and energetic experience, with a belief that this is still the truest form of communication with their fans. The band includes Kevin Galloway on lead vocals and rhythm guitar, Hal Vorpahl on bass, Mike Carpenter on lead guitar and vocals, Josh Greco on drums and percussion and Jon Grossman on keys and accordian. Uncle Lucius can usually be found on the highways and back streets of the U.S., playing renowned venues like B.B. King's in NYC, to the Maple Leaf in New Orleans, to back home in Austin, TX at Threadgill's World Headquarters, The Continental Club, and Antone's.
www.uncleluciusmusic.com

Roddie Romero & The Hub City Allstars (Tent, 5:00-6:15pm Friday 7/1 and 8:15-9:30pm Saturday 7/2)
Please see above.

Bottle Rockets (Club, 9:15-10:45pm Saturday 7/2)
In a country where interstates don’t take you to new places, but to the same places, where everywhere you go you’ve already been or you’ve just left, The Bottle Rockets’ new album absolutely nails a sound and a vibe with a palpable sense of place. Lean Forward is suffused with the determination and resilience of their distinctly midwestern roots; theirs is a celebration of pragmatism and tempered optimism, not the delusions and exhortations of glassy eyed zealots—they aren’t going to fall for that. Oh, it’s a flat out, smoking rock record, too.

Lean Forward continues the Rockets’ creative resurgence ignited by 2006’s Zoysia . Reunited with producer Eric “Roscoe” Ambel (who ran the knobs on the Bottle Rockets’ seminal albums The Brooklyn Side and 24 Hours A Day ), the Bottle Rockets do what no other band does better — look into the hearts and minds and faces of the dying small towns in America and crafts populist anthems with the sympathetic eye of Woody Guthrie and sonic stomp of Crazy Horse . They are songs that demand the windows be rolled down and the volume turned up. And with the hooks, you’ll wonder how they make such problems sound so good … Lean Forward is stacked with a sharp lyricism and gritty fatalism that looks off the front porch for inspiration, and has the locked down groove of a band on top of its game. “The Long Way” looks on the bright side of the path not intentionally taken and works into a joyous song-ending jam. Songs like “Done It All Before” and “Get on the Bus” shine with an irresistible buoyancy, as does “Shame on Me” which gets to the meat of the relationship matter that, despite our best intentions, we’re all gonna screw up. “Hard Times” whips up a ZZ Top-inflected boogie with effortless mastery and a dual guitar attack that’ll put some much-needed flare back in your jeans. With their 15th anniversary now in the rear view mirror, the Bottle Rockets show no signs of letting up.

Lean Forward is an album that celebrates the forces of erosion not earthquakes, of the marathon not the sprint. Honed in their towns and on their back roads, it is distinctly the Bottle Rockets. Rather than be confining, this identity broadens the appeal and strength of their music far from their backyards into our own. Their specificity speaks universally and the message is a simple one: Lean forward, man, because it beats falling back.
www.bottlerocketsmusic.com

Tributosaurus becomes The Nevilles/Meters (Tent, 10-12 midnight Saturday 7/2)
The Chicago Tribune: “I have seen the future of rock 'n' roll, and its' name is Tributosaurus.” Tributosaurus strives to do for rock and roll what a symphony orchestra does for classical; treat the music with the respect it deserves, and deliver it to a listener’s ear in glorious detail. They accomplish this goal by utilizing the finest musicians Chicagoland has to offer, and by cutting no corners. If a Stevie Wonder tune has 6 horns, 3 keyboards, and 4 strings, then that’s what you get on stage. If a Santana song needs 3 guitars and 4 percussionists, so be it. Every month, one band is given the treatment, now totaling more than 90 over the first 9 years of the project. The members of Tributosaurus are musical anthropologists, as songs are excavated, dissected, and reconstituted to replicate the original with proper reverence. They aren’t really a tribute band, but are every tribute band. There are no costumes and there is no make-up, because with Tributosaurus, the music is the star. The band is comprised of five core members (Dan Leali, Curt Morrison, Chris Neville, Jon Paul, and Matt Spiegel), who are joined by artists with credits too numerous to mention. Tributosaurus has sold out shows all over Chicago, and their gigs are an event. Fans commune with the musicians, paying homage to songs that made us all fall in love with music in the first place.
www.tributosaurus.com

Reckless Kelly (Club, 11:15pm Saturday 7/2)
Reckless Kelly's 2008 album, Bulletproof, proved its most mature and substantive offering to date, the local quintet brandishing its polished Red Dirt roots-rock with purpose. There was perhaps no better time, then, for the Braun brothers to pursue the long planned tribute to their former hometown hero, the "Idaho Cowboy" Pinto Bennett of the Famous Motel Cowboys. RK handles Bennett's tunes with familiarity and ease, adding their own flair while never losing the true honky-tonk heart of their origin. While lead-off "Little Blossom" blisters and the Joe Ely-aided "The Ballad of Elano DeLeon" kicks, neither stray far from the band's sound, but "I've Done Everything I Could Do Wrong" and "I Hold the Bottle, You Hold the Wheel" take decidedly un-Reckless turns around the dance hall. David Abeyta doubles his powerhouse guitar with saturating lap steel to match Cody Braun's fiddle, but it's Pinto Bennett's own take on "Thelma" that still proves the highlight.
www.recklesskelly.com

The Tillers - (SideBar, 4:00 and 7:45 pm Saturday 7/2)
The Tillers got their start in August 2007 when Cincinnati friends Mike Oberst, Sean Geil, and Jason Soudrette began thumping around with some banjos and guitars and a big wooden bass. Their earliest gigs were for coins and burritos on the city’s famous Ludlow Street in the district of Clifton. The songs they picked were mostly older than their grandparents. Some came from Woody Guthrie, some were southern blues laments, and many were anonymous relics of Appalachian woods, churches, riverboats, railroads, prairies, and coal mines.

Musically, the band wears many hats. Their sound has proven to be an appropriate fit with a wide range of musical styles- traditional folk, bluegrass, jazz, punk rock and anything else they might run into. They have shared the stage with a broad swath of national touring acts, ranging from renowned Americana legends such as Jerry Douglas and Iris Dement to rambunctious rock daredevils like the Legendary Shack Shakers.
www.the-tillers.com

Bunkertown (SideBar, 5:45 and 9:30pm Saturday 7/2)
Mark has been a part of the Chicago music scene for over a decade and is currently working on his second album. His music is a mutt of folk, rock, blues and ragtime country. Mark's inspirations may include his grandfather, his new hometown of Hammond, or the restaurant he ate in last week. His wife is his biggest fan and often critiques his songs through the floor boards at home. But, listening to Mark and his band Bunkertown live on stage is the best place to hear his songs. He surrounds himself with amazing musicians such as his Bunkertown bandmates Brian Anderson on keyboards, Michael Krayniak on bass, and Paul Bivans on drums.
www.myspace.com/bunkertown

Chicago Grandstand Big Band (Tent, 2:30-3:30pm Sunday 7/3)
Chicago Grandstand Big Band has a library in excess of 1000 tunes. They specialize in all big band styles ranging from the 1940's to the present, including many original compositions written and arranged for CGBB.
www.chicagograndstandbigband.com

Expo '76 (featuring Dag Juhlin) (Club, 2:00-3:15pm Sunday 7/3)
Expo’76, a WHITE HOT cover band that started in the summer of 2009 and features Dag Juhlin (The Slugs, Poi Dog Pondering), Ralph Baumel, John Carpendar (Phantom Helmsmen) and Kenn Goodman. Covering songs that few, if any, other cover bands do, such as: I’m Comin’ Home Baby - Mel Torme; Temptation Eyes - Grass Roots; You Didn’t Have To Be So Nice - The Lovin’ Spoonful; Rhinestone Cowboy - Glen Campbell; Photograph - Ringo Starr; Work Song - Oscar Brown Jr.; I Saw The Light - Todd Rundgren; Beginnings - Chicago; Close To You - The Carpenters; Daydream Believer - The Monkees; Please Please Me- The Beatles; Can’t Get It Out Of My Head - ELO; My Blue Heaven - Fats Domino; 12-Bar Blues - NRBQ; Cruel To Be Kind - Nick Lowe; Someday Someway - Marshall Crenshaw; My Love Is Alive - Gary Wright; Sunshine - Jonathan Edwards; O-oh Child - The Five Stairsteps; (Don’t Go Back To) Rockville - REM; Green, Green - Trini Lopez; Fire - Bruce Springsteen; Sweet Caroline - Neil Diamond; When You Walk In The Room - The Searchers; Oh Lonesome Me - Hank Williams; King of the Road - Roger Miller; Laughter in the Rain - Neil Sedaka; Batman Theme - Neil Hefti; Don’t You Just Know It - Huey “Piano” Smith and the Clowns; Heartbeat, It’s a Lovebeat - The DiFranco Family; Mendocino - Sir Douglas Quartet; Every Day - Buddy Holly; Dancing in the Moonlight - King Harvest; You Never Can Tell - Chuck Berry & more, more, more...
www.expo76.com

The Spampinato Brothers (Club, 3:45-5:00pm Sunday 7/3)
Two Members of the legendary band NRBQ (New Rhythm and Blues Quartet), Joey and Johnny Spampinato, now branch out, joined by Aaron Spade (guitar) and Jay Cournoyer,(drums), to form The Spampinato Brothers.

Joey Spampinato, is a founding member of NRBQ, the legendary rock’n’roll band for several decades where he served as bassist, vocalist, and songwriter. He played on several international artist’s releases including Keith Richards’ album “Talk Is Cheap”, Bonnie Raitt’s “Fundamental” , and was one of the bassists on Eric Clapton’s “24 Nights: Live From Albert Hall” in 1991. He appeared in the film “Hail, Hail Rock N’ Roll”, with the legendary Chuck Berry, Keith Richards and more.

Johnny Spampinato, the personable left-handed guitar slinger, continues to provide vocal & writing talents to the group as well as casting his contagious enthusiasm for his fishing excursions. Joined NRBQ in 1994 and now a major contributor to the Spampinato Brothers. Johnny was part of the NRBQ lineup when they appeared on ”The Simpsons” as animated characters, and was the first band to perform as themselves, LIVE on the show.
www.spampinatobrothers.com

Paul Cebar Tomorrow Sound (Tent, 4:15-5:45pm Sunday 7/3)
Tommorow Sound Now For Yes Music People, the newest addition to the Cebar catalog, boasts both the open-hearted spontaneous soulful- ness we’ve come to expect from this dedicated musician that feels like a bold contemporary invigoration of the inviting verities he has always explored. There’s the meaty Hey Hey Honey, a delightful a capella nod to Alan Lomax and his recording of Norfolk’s Bright Lights Quartet, a tender tribute to Sierra Leone’s King of Palmwine Music, S.E. Rogie in his Do Me Justice, and Paul’s glorious homage to guitarist Marv Tarplin, Smokey Robinson’s right hand man for the last 40 years, Marv’s Flut- tering Guitar. Add the classic New Orleans swagger of I Got Trouble (replete with Cebar’s Jessie Hill-inspired tambourine machinations) and the storming plea for tenderness The Gimp Sparrow (richly reflecting the influence of Paul’s travels in Cuba, Brazil and Trinidad), and it’s clear that this is a romp of colossal heart and scope. The years since the release of the last studio album have been spent touring continu- ally and intensifying the fervor with which Cebar has always infused his music. The guitar tones have taken on an edgier, more distinctive concision. Longtime cohort Bob Jennings comes to the fore on organ and horns in his sneakily apt and piquant less-is-more-ism. Tommorow Sound Now For Yes Music People is the best batch yet of of an endangered strain of fortified, intensi-fied, fully jacked-up, roaring and exceedingly personal music-making from a singular Midwestern master.
paulcebar.com

Hobart Bros (Club, 5:30-6:45pm Sunday 7/3)
Jon Dee Graham, Freedy Johnston and Susan Cowsill are “The Hobart Brothers featuring Lil’ Sis Hobart”. Their debut record “At Least We Have Each Other” features 10 songs co-written by the three singer-songwriters in the studio. Recorded in late 2010 by John and Mary Podio at Top Hat Recording in Austin, Texas. They like to describe it as a profound work of genius.
www.thehobartbrothers.com

Junior Brown (Tent, 6:15-7:45pm Sunday 7/3)
"A lot of people tell me they don't like country music, but they like what I am doing," says Junior Brown. "I hear that line more than anything else," which is ironic because a couple of licks is all it takes to erase any doubts concerning Junior's stylistic allegiance. His music combines the soul of country and the spirit of rock n' roll. In Junior's case, playing everywhere from the Grand Ole Opry to rock showcases on the West Coast and his hometown of Austin, Texas, *crossover* is not synonymous with watered-down or light-weight. He says of his ever-growing legion of converts:

"Just about the time they label me as some old time honkytonk singer, I throw something new in there that surprises them. And then they'll appreciate the traditional styles of country music too. Do something to wow them without ruining the roots of country and they end up accepting the music that they would have been prejudiced against."
www.juniorbrown.com

Joe Pug (Club, 7:15-8:45pm Sunday 7/3)
While working as a carpenter by day, Joe Pug spent nights playing the guitar he hadn’t picked up since his teenage years. Using ideas originally slated for a play he was writing called “Austin Fish,” Pug began creating the sublime lyrical arrangements that would become the Nation of Heat EP. The songs were recorded fast and fervently at a Chicago studio where a friend snuck him in to late night slots other musicians had canceled. He was short on money, but his bare-boned sincerity didn’t require much more than a microphone and it dripped off of each note he sang.

The early rumblings of critical praise for the EP were confirmed when his first headlining gig sold out Chicago’s storied Schubas Tavern in 2008. As word spread, Pug struck upon an idea that would later prove to be one of the most significant in his young career. He offered his existing fans unlimited copies of a free 2-song sampler CD to pass along to their friends. He sent the CDs out at his own expense, even covering the postage. Inside each package was a personal note thanking the fan for helping to spread the word. The response was overwhelming, and to date he has sent out over 15,000 CDs to 50 states and 14 different countries.
www.joepugmusic.com

Ronnie Baker Brooks (Tent, 8:15-10:00pm Sunday 7/3)
"I grew up among the best of the best," Brooks says. "Every time I play, I feel like I've got to do it with the authenticity and passion that I saw in guys like Buddy Guy, Muddy Waters, B.B. King and my father. But I also have to put my twist on it. None of those guys repeated what came before them."

Brooks' twist involves enlivening blues-rock with deep soul and modern hip-hop vocals and funk rhythms. Working with Minneapolis producer Jellybean Johnson, a veteran collaborator of Prince and Janet Jackson, Brooks takes roots sounds and transforms them into something that spans the ages.
www.ronniebakerbrooks.com

John Dee Graham (Club, 9:15-10:45pm Sunday 7/3)
Jon Dee Graham is a musician, guitarist and songwriter from Austin, Texas. He was named the Austin Musician of the Year during the South by Southwest (SXSW) music conference in 2006. He was inducted into the Austin Music Hall of Fame three times: as a solo artist in 2000, again in 2008 as a member of The Skunks, and again in 2009 as a member of the True Believers. Graham's current musical projects include the Hobart Brothers, a collaboration with Freedy Johnston and Susan Cowsill. Their album, "At Least We Have Each Other," is set for a 2011 release.

Graham's music generally explores the struggles adults face as they work to raise their children, maintain marriages and jobs, and grapple with the quick passage of time. Despite the heaviness of such themes, Graham's music is infused with a strong sense of the joys of life and the need to remain optimistic.
www.jondeegraham.com

Dave Alvin and the Guilty Ones (Tent, 10:15-12:00pm Sunday 7/3)
Since forming the highly influential roots rock/R+B band The Blasters, with his brother Phil in 1979, and throughout his long and critically acclaimed solo career, Dave Alvin has mixed his varied musical and literary influences into his own unique, updated version of traditional American music. Combining elements of blues, folk, R+B, rockabilly, Bakersfield country and garage rock and roll with lyrical inspiration from local writers and poets like Raymond Chandler, Gerald Locklin and Charles Bukowski, Alvin says that his songs are "just like California. A big, messy melting pot."

Dave Alvin's 30 years of recordings and live performances prove his statement. From the loud, aggressive rock and roll of The Blasters to the contemplative acoustic storytelling of his solo albums, King Of California and Blackjack David, and from the traditional folk of his Grammy winning CD, Public Domain, to the electric blues of his Ashgrove CD, Alvin has always managed to unite seemingly disparate genres into a cohesive vision of contemporary roots music. On his two most recent recordings, Dave Alvin And The Guilty Women and West Of The West (A Tribute To Native California Songwriters) Alvin continues to expand his musical range by adding doo wop, western swing, surf, norteno music and psychedelic jams to his already eclectic mix. “I have a pretty broad definition of folk music,” Alvin laughs. “To put it simply, there are two types of folk music. There's quiet folk music and there's loud folk music. I like to play both.”
www.davealvin.net

The Iguanas (Club, 11:15pm Sunday 7/3)
They're named after lizards, but lounge lizards they're not. What they are is tougher to nail — imagine a mix of conjunto, R&B, and old-time rock & roll, or Santana meets the Texas Tornados. The vocals on The Iguanas need Tabasco, but never have accordions and saxophones been so much in love.
www.iguanas.com

Susan Cowsill & Russ Broussard (SideBar, 3:15 and 8:00pm Sunday 7/3)
Their roster reads like a one-shot all-star combo: ex-dB Peter Holsapple, Susan Cowsill (of those Cowsills), and Vicki Peterson, the former Bangle. But the Continental Drifters are for real, an all-embracing, seemingly effortless marriage of rock, pop, and country unveiled in an awesome songwriting spectrum. Recorded near an isolated bayou in the band's Louisiana homeland, Vermilion has no MVP among the three heavy hitters. Each writes alone and paired with another: Peterson and Cowsill's stunning harmonies carry "The Rain Song"; Holsapple offers a Neil Young-styled romp in "Don't Do What I Did"; Peterson contributes the highway-blues rocker "Christopher Columbus Transcontinental Highway"; and "Drifters," by Holsapple and Cowsill, boasts this chorus: "We are all drifters / Singers and sisters / Brothers and lovers and mothers and confidantes." All those, yes, and a damn fine band, too.
susancowsill.com

Sarah & The Tall Boys (SideBar, 5:30 and 10:00pm Sunday 7/3)
"Had Johnny Cash and Bonnie Raitt shared DNA, the result would be Sarah Potenza."-Kansas City Blues Society

Specializing in original country/blues, Sarah & The Tall Boys is a Chicago-based Americana band that has been selling out venues across the country. Fronted by lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist, and lyricist, Sarah Potenza-Crossman, the band has been together for 4 years. It includes, base player, Ian Crossman, pedal steel player, Gabriel Stutz, lead guitarist, Dan Allen, and drummer, Bryan Samson. Dynamic guitarist Dan Allen has been with Sarah since 2006, with her original group, The Sarah Potenza Band. Previous to that, Potenza-Crossman was featured on "Acoustic Chicago", a compilation of the best singer/songwrittters in the windy city.
sarahandthetallboys.com