The only hikes I’ve been going on lately are price hikes. Seasonal work has me dealing with feast or famine and unfortunately, the feast is just enough to cover the famine. Then the celestial bodies align and the American dream comes into focus. Believing in your dreams like the constellations in the night sky will lead you back home again on Labor Day weekend to Camp Shaw in Manteno, IL to Shoe Fest.

Whatever you do, don’t go to Shoe Fest. Camp Shaw Waw Nas See is basically forgettable. The string-based bands all play at their own slots with no overlapping music. You’ll hate it.

Memories create the future. Memories of Memorial Day weekend at Three Sisters Park in Chillicothe, IL for Summer Camp Music Festival blended together with 23 years of Summer Camp past memories. Goldberg Productions announced this would be the last ever Summer Camp as we know it.

The brothers have been no stranger to performing live with the band Strange Arrangement® and we can add The Brothers Van Kirk to the list of siblings who work together, exploring and creating music and arts. The connection between brothers may have its advantages. The brothers provide a fun and funky environment mixed with a variety of energetic music. While performing the brothers expose and inspire each other offering an original refreshing and emotional sound.

Joe Marcinek Band (JMB) is proud to announce a series of midwest summer dates with special guests Allie Kral (formerly of Cornmeal), Janis Wallin (Family Groove Company), Steve Molitz (Particle) and Joe Hettinga (Strange Arrangement and Digital Tape Machine) with shows in Minneapolis, MN, Oshkosh and Milwaukee, WI, Bloomington, Crystal Lake and Crown Point, IL, and Indianapolis, Lafayette and Nashville, IN.Joe Marcinek Band is an ever evolving mi

The Joe Marcinek Band (JMB) is proud to announce a series of midwest dates with special guests Allie Kral (formerly of Cornmeal), Natalie Cressman (Trey Anastasio Band) and Joe Hettinga (Strange Arrangement and Digital Tape Machine) with shows at Bells Brewery in Kalamazoo, MI on May 29th, The Mousetrap in Indianapolis, IN on 5/30, culminating with a free show at The Ale House Pub in Bradley, IN on 5/31.

By the fireside glow of the happy hippie house I heard of the legend of the Whippersnap Music and Arts Festival.  It is a family friendly event of the new paradigm.  I have heard of the mobile stage that visits the campsites as a parade for the kids that maybe can’t play well with others or for kids that prefer the shade of their own campsites and their iPods rather than communing together at the main stage.  I’ve heard of a miraculous place where grandmas, mommas, babies and party kidz alike were togeth

There is a geek inside me that prefers Times New Roman, 12 point font.  If I could do anything professionally, I would be writing all day, every day.  I wish to write well and to write often.  This got me thinking about why I love writing for Grateful Web. By trade, I am a server, a lowly waitress.  I once waited the table of a local musician and although I was probably too busy to engage in conversation, he is a really talented bass player. I couldn’t help it.  I lollygagged about and eventually it came out.

Dear Strange Arrangement,Your Pre-Thanksgiving day bash is going to be off the hook.  I know this because I’m still toasty from the sweater of love you gifted me from your last Park West show in January.  The sassy sweaty sexy highway has been driving me through 2012.  When I count my Thanksgiving blessings I count you 3 xs! Chicago Farmer! Greensky!

The time of year has come where that childhood anxiety of change and new adventures both excites and frights us to the bone. Mother Nature tells us that it’s time to progress. After Labor Day we all start to feel it. This is the time when some of us head back to school, and this is the time when some of us start packing away our wonderful toys of summer.  We say goodbye to our wonderful wilderness festival dance companions. The end of summer draws near. Festavarians, especially us in the Midwest, know that our times together are going in a new direction.