music

VidWest Music Video Festival

Columbia adds another form of film to its festival roster this year with the first annual VidWest Music Video Festival, a two-day celebration of the synthesis of music and film beginning on June 1 with a kickoff concert at Rose Music Hall. Venues scattered throughout the downtown area will feature unique and intimate screening installations […]

Art Onstage and Off

The November entertainment calendar in any college town is bound to be a little lopsided. There’s usually a flurry of shows and activities during the first few weeks before things quiet down following the Thanksgiving egress. Quietly, though, since nature abhors a vacuum, comes the influx of prodigal BoCoMo natives to gather with family and […]

October Outings

Sadly, the ever-fabulous Lupus Chili Festival will not be held this year. There is no shortage of October festivals in mid-Missouri (Fayette, Hartsburg and Fulton to name a few, not to mention Stephens College’s Citizen Jane Film Festival) but this decades old, still seemingly ad-hoc gathering in transpontine Moniteau County holds a special place in […]

flood

Endless Grooves

More than any of the blues fests I’ve attended over the years, this month’s Roots N Blues N BBQ Festival in Stephens Lake Park showcases local players front and center and in their best light. Any given year Chump Change, the Bel Airs, Fried Crawdaddies and their ilk have kept the tone fierce but mellow […]

roots

All The Right Moves

Photo courtesy of L.G. Patterson One of Columbia’s most eagerly anticipated festivals returns to Stephens Lake Park the weekend of Sept. 29–Oct. 1. A mass of music fans hungry for great listening, great eating and an all around great time will descend on the park for the 11th annual Roots N Blues N BBQ Festival. […]

cashless

Cutting Edge

They do it at Disneyworld. They do it in Colorado. And now you can do it in Columbia. While world-class talent entertains you from two stages at this year’s Roots N Blues N BBQ Festival, you’ll be wearing the latest digital fashion. Roots N Blues N BBQ is going cashless. Put away your wallet and […]

Columbia

Oh, The Many Things We Love About Columbia

Every town has a heartbeat. Its pulse is kept alive by the community that thrives there. Some keep Columbia’s heartbeat going during their time devoting years of hard work — and fun — to higher education. Many others stay, and have planted roots, built businesses, families and lives here. But those who call it home […]

Berry

Farewell Chuck Berry

“Poetry is my life’s blood,” Chuck Berry said, on meeting Columbia Public Schools’ Linda Harlan, circa 1991. The best way to end this tribute is to begin at the end: Chuck Berry’s appearance in Columbia in 2009, an outdoor performance on Ninth Street — his last local show of seven, since 1993. Columbia Public Schools […]

Chuck

Farewell Chuck Berry

“While no individual can be said to have invented rock and roll, Chuck Berry comes the closest of any single figure to being the one who put all the essential pieces together. It was his particular genius to graft country and western guitar licks onto a rhythm and blues chassis in his very first single, […]

Muddy

Big Muddy Folk Festival

The world is so noisy … music has been wounded by Steve Jobs’ technology … the main role of the artist is to serve the song, as opposed to him or herself.” — Musician and actor Wil Oldham There is something sincere, in this ironic age, about Prairie Home Companion’s Pat Donohue being a headliner […]

molly

Delta Thrash

Photo courtesy of mollygenemusic.com. March is Women’s Month here in the United States. This is funny because it is just one month out of 12 when not only does this noble gender outnumber their male counterparts, they also, judging by January’s march, can out-organize men and make their point without inciting violence. Women, they say, […]