Illinois Entertainer June 2018 | Page 4

June 2018 • Volume 44, Number 08 • www.illinoisentertainer.com COVER STORY: LISSIE 25-year old singer/songwriter Lissie made a move that surprised pretty much everyone around her – she impulsively bought a working 47.7-acre farm in northeast Iowa to return to her birth state, where she ditched the meddling music business in California and came up with what is arguably her best work to date, the chiming new Castles, her fourth album. And one of the first seasonal mes- sages she got in 2015 as the frost set in was, she will never survive this without a pickup truck. Just get- ting up her long driveway when it was below freezing required every bit of four-wheel drive horsepower she could muster. “So I bought a 2007 Dodge Ram, and I call her Pearl,” she admits, then sighs. “But she doesn’t get very good gas mileage.” Her new album Castles was worth the anticipa- tion. It’s a breakup album of sorts which opens on the ethereal piano etude “World Away,” then drifts into the "it’s-not-you-it’s-me" mea culpa “Crazy Girl”, and the arching “Blood & Muscle,” in which Lissie’s personable rasp gets so caught up in the passion and heartbreak that it crests and cracks like some powerful tidal wave. Tom Lanham talked to the new Iowan. Page 22 - Lissie File 2 hometown promoters join forces, Festival preview and more. 6 HELLO MY NAME IS IAN Famed rock flautist Ian Anderson is quite up front about it. Long before he fronted Jethro Tull – often standing stork-like on one leg in concert, his signature move – the Scottish-born Brit didn’t exactly despise celebrating other kids’ birthdays with lavish cake an ice cream affairs. But he would at least show up whenever he was invited. “It was like, ‘I’ll be there and I’ll try to join in on the spirit of it,’” notes the 70 year old singer of hits like “Aqualung,” “Locomotive Breath,” and “Skating Away.” “So it’s not so much that I hat birthdays and nostalgia – I just don’t revel in them the way other people do. I don’t enjoy all those festivities when it’s focused on me. Nostalgia when it’s been ritualized by others is always a bit awkward.” Tom Lanham talked to Tull's famed frontman. Sweet Home Remembering Doc. Cinemascopes Wax Trax! gets the docu-treatment at CUFF. Media 16 Spins 28 Mike Mulligan has built a morning radio powerhouse with Brian Hanley. Arctic Monkeys, Huntsmen, Frank Zappa and more Calendar Over 1700 showsto see the best bands at the best venues. Caught In A Mosh Jungle Rot hooks up with Victory Records. 20 THE CLAUDETTES Chicago-based punk/blues band The Claudettes pull out all the stops on their third full-length album, Dance Scandal in the Gymnasium!, released last month. The 12 eclectic tracks are a musical melting pot of sound that mines various genres, includ- ing piano-driven Chicago blues, improvisational soul/jazz and heartfelt punk/rock, all delivered with a quirky, tin-pan alley, neo-vaudevillian swagger. The band consists of heavy-handed pianist Johnny Iguana (aka Brian Berkowitz), endearing and seductive vocalist Berit Ulseth, versatile bassist/ singer Zach Verdoorn, and spaztastic guest drummer Michael Caskey, who’s filling in for regular drummer Danny Yost. Kelley Simms talked to Iguana. Classifieds You dumped your boyfriend's bassist, now you're looking for another. Studiophile Gravity, Rax Trax, CRC and Ranger studio news . Gear Cassette Day. Publisher Advertising Sales Contributors: John Vernon Scott Assmann Mike Engel Andy Argyrakis, Guy Arnston, Penelope Biver, Patrick Conlan, Deena Dasein, Jaime de'Medici, Jeff Elbel Terrence Flamm, Steve Forstneger Michael Gallucci, Michael C. Harris, Max Herman, Tom Lanham, Carter Moss, Michael Obrecki, Greg Olma Arsenio Orteza, Rodney Pawlak, Bruce Pilato, Matthew Pollock, Jason Scales, Kelley Simms, Ed Spinelli, Tim Shockley, James Turano Contributing Editors Curt Baran Mike Meyer Tom Lanham Lori Vernon Advertising Director Design Team Notion Pool Notion Pool Dragon Design Vision Design Teknigram Graphics Senior Columnists John Vernon Website Direction David Gedge Rosalind Cummings-Yeates - Sweet Home Rick Kaempfer - Media Founder Kelley Simms - Caught In A Mosh Kenneth L. Voss David C. Eldredge - East Coast Classified Advertising Publisher Emeritis David Roberts 4 illinoisentertainer.com june 2018 SUBSCRIPTIONS: $35 per year (first class). Material for insertion must reach our office by the First Of The Month preceding publication. We cannot assume responsibility for unsolicit- ed manuscripts or photographs. Follow us online at: facebook.com/ieentertainer instagram: illinoisentertainermagazine twitter.com/ie_entertainer 6 12 14 30 34 50 53 55 Address All Correspondence to: Illinois Entertainer 4223 W. Lake St., Suite 201 Chicago, IL 60624 [phone] - Chicago/North Sub [phone] - West/South Suburbs [phone] - Fax email us at: Editorial: [email protected] Advertising: [email protected] The ILLINOIS ENTERTAINER is published monthly by Roberts Publishing, Inc, All materials copyright 2018 by Roberts Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved. No portion of this publication may be reproduced without written permission from Roberts Publishing, Inc. Current and back issues of the IE are $10.00 postpaid.