From Chaos to Perspective: Jon Strahl Amid the Pandemic
Before the pandemic, Jon Strahl was bouncing back from personal tragedy and gearing up for a big summer on the stage. Then the pandemic struck.
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Blues
Why Rebekah Meldrum’s Spirit is Free
As Rebekah Meldrum can attest to, a journey to a happy place often covers both years and miles.
Play One for Evan Twitty
The next time you shoulder your guitar, look at the crowd, and be thankful for the life you have. Think of Evan Twitty, and play the next one for him.
19th Blues at the Crossroads Set for September 13-14
On Friday and Saturday, September 13-14, several thousand people and 19 bands will unite at 7th and Wabash for two days of music and fun as the Blues at the Crossroads Festival returns to Terre Haute. Friday night’s kickoff begins at 6:00 pm and will continue until 1:30 am or thereabouts; the festivities kick back …
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Vignettes: Rebekah Meldrum & Paul Holdman
copy by Donovan Wheeler featured image by Tasha Ramey Photography The first time I heard Rebekah Meldrum sing she stood atop a flatbed trailer on the downhill end of Greencastle’s Franklin Street. Belting out the lyrics to “Coattails,” and anchored by Paul Holdman’s masterful fret work on blues guitar, Meldrum’s vocals climbed over Wasser Brewing …
It’s All in the Details—Backstage at Blues at the Crossroads, 2018
copy and photos by Mark Wright Terre Haute’s Blues at the Crossroads 2018 is in the books, and from my own eyes and ears and the accounts of the numerous folks I talked to, it was a resounding success. Nearly perfect weather drew crowds in the thousands, a new arrangement of vendors and services made …
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Vignettes: Cari Ray
I could say that Cari Ray is a superb, technical musician when she works the frets. That would be true. I could also say that Cari Ray’s voice is better than strong—it rings in even, resplendent peals of sound. That would also be true. I could say that Cari Ray evokes that sort of proud, confident, …
Chase Your Blues Away: Blues at the Crossroads, 2017
by Mark Wright Featured Image Courtesy Blues at the Crossroads [dropcap]W[/dropcap]hen I arrived at The Verve in Terre Haute at 12:30 on a Friday afternoon to talk to Connie Wrin about the upcoming Blues at the Crossroads, I did not realize I would be walking into the chaos of two local television stations and someone …
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The Dogmatics: Level With the Ground
by Donovan Wheeler featured image by Jeremy Black courtesy of The Dogmatics [dropcap]Y[/dropcap]es, traditional poetry still exists. Talented writers can still settle down on a park bench, scrawl out a quatrain’s worth of observations in trochaic tetrameter, patch it together with an alternating rhyme scheme, and find a publisher who will run it through a …
Giving His Best: Indigenous’ Mato Nanji
by Donovan Wheeler photos by Bruce Haley [dropcap]M[/dropcap]ato Nanji has one of those disarming laughs—the casual, innocent kind which makes you think you’re talking to the guy you grew up with who now hangs drywall, shoots pool for a dollar a game, takes his kids to the lake for fishing trips, and drinks light beer …