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Home » Motown

Tag: Motown

Posted inAgenda

Unfinished Business, dance, and music tonight

by Kerry Reid and Salem Collo-Julin October 21, 2022October 21, 2022

Former Neo-Futurist Kurt Chiang and current long-distance Lucky Plush ensemble member Mindy Myers have been hoping to collaborate on an original performance piece for years. They finally got around to it (mostly over Zoom) during the pandemic shutdown, and the result, Unfinished Business, continues tonight and tomorrow at 7 PM at Links Hall (3111 N. […]

Posted inMusic

Khruangbin make sophisticated sounds from far-flung places on their dynamic third album

by Rob Levy June 29, 2020August 18, 2021

If you’ve ever wondered what Motown would sound like if it had been born not in Detroit but on the streets of Karachi or Kingston or in the surf dens of late-60s southern California, you might like Houston collective Khruangbin. On their new third album, Mordechai, bassist Laura Lee Ochoa, guitarist Mark Speer, and drummer […]

Posted inMusic

BJ the Chicago Kid has what it takes to carry any song alone on 1123

by Leor Galil November 21, 2019August 18, 2021

R &B singer Bryan James Sledge, aka BJ the Chicago Kid, has the kind of commanding voice most rappers seek out when they’re looking for a guest artist to make a good song great—and to loosen their inhibitions in the process. On Sledge’s second album for Motown, July’s 1123, he turns the tables, showcasing guest […]

Posted inMusic

Chicago soul aficionado Darrell Gordon on the most underrated Motown singer of the 1960s

by Salem Collo-Julin October 29, 2019August 18, 2021

Current musical obsessions of VJ Darrell Gordon, DJ Ken Wong, and Reader listings coordinator Salem Collo-Julin

Posted inMusic

Summoning the ghosts of Record Row

by Aaron Cohen October 23, 2019August 18, 2021

For two decades, a short stretch of Michigan Avenue hosted a concentration of creative entrepreneurship whose influence on Black popular music is still felt today.

Posted inMusic

Legendary soul singer Gladys Knight still sparkles bright

by Salem Collo-Julin August 2, 2019August 18, 2021

The true mark of a musical icon might be the power to move intergenerational audiences with a signature song, even decades after its original release. Take soul legend Gladys Knight: she often ends her concerts with the 1973 hit “Midnight Train to Georgia,” a tribute to those who follow their dreams and fail. Born in […]

Posted inMusic

Bettye LaVette can make any song sound like it was written for her

by Bill Dahl June 3, 2019August 18, 2021

Bettye LaVette debuted with a hit soul single in 1962, but she’s long since transcended genre, singing blues, country, pop, funk, rock, and more.

Posted inMusic

Bacon fat, corn liquor, and tail feathers: remembering R&B legend Andre Williams

by James Porter March 21, 2019August 18, 2021

R&B legend Andre Williams influenced generations of rockers and rappers—and his decades-long comeback ended only with his death at 82.

Posted inMusic

Crate diggers have caught up with the funky soul of Doug Shorts’s Master Plan Inc.

by Steve Krakow May 22, 2018August 18, 2021

Decades after his greatest group disbanded, Chicago soul singer Doug Shorts is finally being recognized for his brilliance.

Posted inBlogs

The alleged David Cameron-Brexit-O’Hare-pizza connection, and other Chicago news

by Kate Shepherd June 27, 2016August 18, 2021

Also, Chicagoan Raj Fernando is at the center of a Trump-Clinton feud.

Posted inMusic

Luther Allison was the Jimi Hendrix of blues guitar

by Steve Krakow February 2, 2016August 18, 2021

Guitarist Luther Allison learned his craft in Chicago, but he spent much of his career in Europe when American interest in the blues waned.

Posted inBlogs

Reader’s Agenda Wed 12/25: Christmas, Mary Wilson and the Four Tops, and The Great Escape

by Brianna Wellen December 25, 2013August 19, 2021

What’s on the Reader‘s Agenda for Wednesday, December 25

Posted inBlogs

Reader’s Agenda Sat 12/14: Windy City Soul Club fifth anniversary, Slo ‘Mo Spectacular, and Snow Angels

by Jillian Sandler December 14, 2013August 19, 2021

What’s on the Reader‘s Agenda for Saturday, December 14

Posted inMusic

The Secret History of Chicago Music: Mr. Lee & the Rearrangers Band

by Chicago Reader September 19, 2013August 19, 2021

Mr. Lee & the Rearrangers Band are credited on what Roctober‘s Jake Austen calls “perhaps the most bizarre 45 in Chicago history.”

Doug Shorts outside the Humboldt Park apartment of Cherries Records founders Andrew Brearley and Sheila Hernando
Posted inMusic

The long game of soul singer Doug Shorts

by Leor Galil June 26, 2013August 19, 2021

Doug Shorts has been a doorman, a karate instructor, even an extra in an Adam Sandler movie—and now he might finally make it as a soul singer.

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