Heritage Days 2024 Music Lineup
Thursday Night:
- Municipal Band - 5:45-6:45
- Mississippi Dogfish - 7:15-9:00
Friday Night:
- The Imperial Sound - 6:15 -7:30PM
- Rachel Drew Band - 7:45-9:00PM
- Tomar & The FC - 9:15-10:30PM
Saturday Night:
- Sara Jean Stevens - 6:15-7:30PM
- Nathan Graham Band - 7:45-9:00PM
Macomb Municipal Band
Traditional
July 4th 2025 will mark the 173rd anniversary of Macomb’s Municipal Band. That’s not a typo – the band is 173 years old! That’s quite a milestone that not only the band should take great pride in, but also the entire Forgottonia community.
Previous to 1852, there had never been an organized brass band in the county. Under the vision of Dr. G.M. Huggins and William Patterson, the first Macomb Band was formed in 1852 and consisted of 12 members playing Eb clarinet, Bb clarinets, cornets, bugles, French horns and ophicleides. Led by conductor Patterson, the first engagement of the band occurred on July 4th, 1852, where the band sat on a wagon and trawled from Col. Bailey’s, around the square, west on Jackson St, ending at the Present day 4H grounds (owned at that time by the daughter of Edward McDonough). The Macomb Journey reporters declared the performance a success writing, “The boys of 1852 performed wonders and the spectators could readily recognize the tunes they attempted to play.”
This chronical was unearthed through diligent research of the band’s current director Mike Fansler. He adds, “ [That’s] what I’ve gathered - someone can try to debunk this, but I wish them luck.” Fansler also noted that while doing his dissertation work on the history of the Western band program, he went through numerous historical newspaper issues.
Fansler is the well-known Professor of Music and director of bands and conductor of the wind ensemble and chamber winds at Western Illinois University, where he also leads the graduate wind conducting program and teaches undergraduate music education courses.
For the past 60 years, the majority of the concerts have been led by the director of bands at Western Illinois University. Fansler, took over the reins in 2005 and says, “We’ve had so many musicians play for our town’s band and many are considered legends by those who come to hear us each year. There are far too many names to list, but our main attraction is Bruce Briney, who has remained our solo cornetist for decades, (and even conducted the band for a time!)” Today the Macomb Municipal Band has 35 to 40 members on stage per performance, with a total pool of 60 musicians.
The Macomb Municipal Band welcomes all players and enjoys the status of being a true community band. The group does pull off some amazing performances, typically having only one rehearsal before a concert. The music they play includes marches, showtunes, major orchestral transcriptions and concert band music written by living composers. Fansler says, “The reason the Macomb Municipal Band has been able to continue its 170 year success is by “incredible support from our mayor, a never-ending assortment of selfless musicians, and a community that still loves to attend and listen to live music in their own beloved community.”
As the tradition of the Municipal Band performing patriotic music at Macomb’s annual Independence Day fireworks celebration will continue into its impressive 17th decade, it has also been customary that the musicians perform as Heritage Days’ annual opening band. “It’s pretty significant and very historic,” Fansler concludes. “It’s one of the hidden treasures of our city.”
And we couldn’t agree more. Don’t miss the civic pride and pomp of our historic Municipal Band as the kick-off Macomb’s 40th Heritage Days Anniversary live from the Pepsi Main Thursday, June 23 at 5:45.
For more info follow Macomb Municipal Band on: https://www.facebook.com/MacombMuniBand
Mississippi Dogfish
Rockabilly Roots
Mississippi Dogfish are a trio of Forgottonia local musicians that create uptempo rockabilly, playing the best dance tunes from the past hundred years. Don't miss them June 26th LIVE from the Macomb Heritage Days Pepsi Main Stage!
Check out Mississippi Dogfish at https://www.facebook.com/mississippidogfish
The Imperial Sound
The Imperial Sound is a swinging pop band with roots in 1970's AM radio, Chicago soul, and first-rate song craft. Kenn Goodman (keyboards) and Rick Mosher (guitars and vocals) have been partners in a variety of musical ventures, from the Chicago-based Pravda Records store and label to the legendary trash-rock trio The New Duncan Imperials, for many years. Their latest incarnation, as the founders of The Imperial Sound (sometimes shortened to ImpSo by its fans), puts them at the center of a group of seasoned musicians with years of experience and a drive for self-reinvention.
The band’s debut full-length album was recorded with Mike Hagler at Kingsize Sound Labs (Wilco’s “Summerteeth” and “Mermaid Avenue” discs, Neko Case, Mekons, Waco Brothers) and mixed by John “Strawberry” Fields (everyone from Miley Cyrus and Demi Lovato to the Dollyrots). The twelve songs on the Imperial Sound's debut forge an immediately identifiable sound and style: songs bristling with pop hooks, taut arrangements driven by an all-star horn section, heavenly harmonies courtesy of a who's-who in Chicago pop. Guests on the album include Peter Himmelman, Poi Dog Pondering's Dag Juhlin, singing legends Kelly Hogan and Nora O'Conner, and Kathy Ruestow.
The roots of this band are long and strong. Kenn Goodman and Rick Mosher met in college, where they shared a love of both music and good-natured provocation; they started a new wave band, and also published a phony college newspaper that ridiculed frat culture. Their band played mostly originals, unusual for the scene, and they had success on the local circuit, playing virtually anywhere and anytime, for any number of people (this era included an opening slot for the biker band Black Oak Arkansas). The band recorded two 45's, got their songs played on the local radio station, and totally ruled the scene.
But Kenn and Rick had bigger ideas. Soon they had dropped out of college, started a new band, and relocated to Chicago, where Kenn led the way in starting Pravda Records, a label and store located in the Cabaret Metro building. Soon Pravda was one of the most recognized record stores in the city. Kenn and Rick were busy with the Pravda label as well, releasing records by a number of bands. During this time the label was perhaps best known for producing a pair of tribute albums to K-Tel Records, a nostalgic compilation of 1970's one-hit wonders performed by well-known local and national bands including The Smashing Pumpkins, Mojo Nixon, and The Young Fresh Fellows.
Along with running the store and the label, Kenn and Rick were busy with their new band, The Service, which by now included Gary Schepers on bass. The Service was a mainstay of Chicago's new-music club scene, and the band's four albums are full of sturdy, no-nonsense songs and inventive arrangements. Their music has aged well, as critic Peter Margasak noted in the Chicago Reader on the occasion of Pravda's 25th Anniversary: I still have an awful lot of underground rock records from the mid- to late 80s, before media and marketing geniuses cooked up terms like "alt-rock" and "indie rock," and few of them have aged as well as my Service albums. They were the epitome of the Midwestern rock of the time: unfussy, exuberant, and with a certain elegance in its simplicity.
The Service was a hardscrabble band with more songs and passion than money in the bank, but they toured constantly despite $2 per-diems and shared single motel rooms (a past memorialized in the Imperial Sound song “6 To A Room”). They had a good run, but after several years the pressure got to them. Kenn, Rick, and drummer John Smith split off to form The New Duncan Imperials, a band as noisy and irreverent as The Service were earnest and poetic. NDI enjoyed a meteoric rise to the top of the city's club scene, and were soon selling out shows throughout the country; they made inroads into Europe as well. Their recorded output - 10 releases in all - is an avalanche of chaotic, absurdist power pop. These days the band is sometimes referred to as “legendary.” No one is arguing.
Fast forward: NDI performs when the feeling is right. Kenn runs Pravda as a successful indie label and publishing company. Rick is still writing songs. The two men share a history and a sensibility, and now they have a new project in which to pour their remarkable energy. The Imperial Sound is a band with years of shared experience, yet they sound anything but tired -- the songs are fresh and the vibe is driving and melodic. This may be a band with a past, but it's also a band with a future.
The Imperial Sound take the Heritage Day Pepsi Mainstage Live for a FREE rockin’ ‘70s revue Friday, June 27 at 6:15. DON’T MISS IT!
Check out The Imperial Sound at https://www.youtube.com/@theimperialsoundrocks2818/videos
and https://www.youtube.com/@theimperialsoundrocks2818/videos
Rachel Drew
Modern Country / Americana
Rachel Drew is a singer-songwriter from Chicago, celebrated for her soulful voice and catchy, self-penned tunes that blend pop, rock, folk, and retro soul. She grew up singing 3-part harmony with her parents and making up songs on the family piano. For Rachel, music and harmony are home, medicine, and pure connection.
Rachel’s music has been featured on NPR’s Great American Folk Show and WFMT’s legendary Midnight Special program. Alongside her band—John Szymanski (Jon Langford) on guitar, Michael Krayniak (Anna Fermin’s Trigger Gospel) on bass, and Jason Batchko on drums—she creates a dynamic force on stage. Alan Harrison of The Rocking Magpiewrites of Rachel’s latest album, “There’s something of a hint of Dusty in Memphis, minus the strings here; as Rachel has a similar breathy and pearlescent voice that reels you in, and before you know it you’re sitting totally engrossed in the offering coming out of the speakers... In many ways songs like Stuck In The House All Day and Please Don’t Wake Me Up are Classic Country songs; but the arrangements are pure Laurel Canyon at its height when Linda Ronstadt and Mama Cass could do no wrong.”
Her latest album, "Old Sky New," has been recognized as one of the 13 Best Chicago Albums of 2024 by the Chicago Sun-Times and WBEZ/Vocalo-NPR.
Don’t miss the Rachel Drew live from the Pepsi Heritage Day main stage Friday, June 27 in the heart of Unforgettable Forgottonia, Macomb, IL!
Check out Rachel and the band's music and performances at https://www.youtube.com/@racheldrew
and https://racheldrew.bandcamp.com
Videos
SUMMER’S OVER
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qphUQBxnjMQ&t=5s
IF MY HEART WAS MADE FOR YOU
TOMAR & THE FCs
Modern Soul / R&B
Austin, TX based Tomar Williams is the fifth of seven children was born into a musical family in Las Vegas, Nevada. When the family moved to Texas in the 80s Tomar began performing as a teen with his brother in a band they created call ed “6 AM.” Tomar was lead vocalist as the family band toured the Chitlin Circuit.
Having enjoyed many successes with his brothers through “6 AM”, Tomar went on to perform across the Austin music scene with heavyweight musicians including Brannen Temple & Malford Milligan, to name a few. Tomar became increasingly focused on music production and songwriting. In the 90s, Tomar and his brother, Salih, formed “Carnival Beats” productions. They went on to produce iconic Hip- Hop tracks for renowned artists Big Moe, Mike Jones, and 2Pac In the early 2000s, In 2005 Carnival Beats signed with Universal Music Publishing.
In 2015, after several decades as a music producer and side man, Tomar decided to return to his roots in soul music and as a frontman. He was introduced to a local instrumental band, the FCs, and just like that, Tomar and the FCs was born.
The band have recorded several albums including “Day by Day”, “Heart Attack”, “Rise Above”, rand the just release “Soul Searching” on Tenwick Records. They have toured all over the country and have performed at Austin City Limits Music Festival, Old Settlers Music Festival, SXSW, and in 2022, Bonnaroo. NPR Music picked Tomar and the FCs out of hundreds of Austin entries to represent the city for their Tiny Desk Concert series. The band became mainstays around the Austin and built up a solid following in Texas with regular shows in San Antonio, Houston, and Dallas. At the 2023 Austin Music Awards, the band won best R&B act and Tomar was named best male vocalist.
Check out Tomar & The FCs at
https://www.youtube.com/@tomarandthefcsofficialchan4193
SARA JEAN STEVENS
Modern Country
Sara Jean Stevens' music brings a strong country influence to her music, with hints of folk, roadhouse and singer-songwriter poetry, she continues to explore her unique voice in Americana. The Chicago-based artist grew up on a horse farm in the flatlands of Illinois and began taking classical voice and piano lessons as a child before picking up the guitar at 18. Her solo material has been hailed as a mix of Emmylou Harris and Mazzy Star.
No matter how much time passes, it always seems to catch up with you. For Sara Jean Stevens, those fleeting moments became a rich source of inspiration for her sophomore EP, Lovesick released just this February the four layered tracks solidify her stand as a rising new voice in the modern country genre.
On the pensive title track, padded with delicate lap steel and earnest vocals, Stevens pleads over and over, I look for you in cold strange places. It’s a search that has eclipsed her for years. “I wrote the song 20 years ago, and have never even played it live. It’s like it had to marinate deep in my cells for two decades before it was ready to see the world,” she says.
To be fair, in those two decades, Stevens has been busy. She toured the world as part of top-line ensembles before choosing to find her own place in music. Her solo material has been hailed as music for the loners, the hopeless romantics and the dreamers. In the past couple of years, her sound has caught the attention of acclaimed roots, rock, country and folk artists like John Hiatt, Rhett Miller (Old 97s), The Wood Brothers, Nora O’Connor and Whitehorse who have called on Stevens to open for them.
And now she coming to unforgettable Forgottonia for the first time to dazzle you with her band live from the Macomb Heritage Days’ Pepsi Main Stage Saturday, June 28th at 6:15. Get there early or regret missing this next new star of country music!
Check out Sara Jean at
https://www.youtube.com/@sarajeanstevens/videos
NATHAN GRAHAM
Americana
When you think of a singer-songwriter, who comes to mind? Nathan Graham says it probably isn’t somebody who looks like he does, and he wants to change that.
Born and raised in Chicago, Graham meshes South Side Blues with Nashville Americana, beginning his career backing blues singers at famous haunts like Buddy Guy’s Legends and Kingston Mines. He spent a decade as a guitar-for-hire before picking up a mic to tell his own stories on the stage.
Soulful and steady, Graham’s music offers a raw introspective of the human condition that’s both painful and comforting. His guitar conveys heartbreak, lyrics tell stories of regret, but his rich vocal delivery offers the remedy.
Having brought his songs on international tours with both major label and indie acts, Graham is challenging the notion of what it means to be a singer-songwriter. He's driving inclusivity within the genre, and he hopes to evoke a sense of understanding in the process.
“I’m writing about universal experiences,” he says. “I’m writing music to connect my story to yours, show you all that we have in common, and maybe help both of us feel less alone.”
In the past year Nathan and his band have really caught fire, drawing larger and larger crowds every time they play, the group is in demand in clubs across the country. And now it’s your chance to see them live, right here in the heart of Unforgettable Forgottonia.
Be there when Nathan Graham and his band hit the Heritage Days Pepsi Main Stage Saturday night June 28th!
Check out Nathan’s music and performances at:
https://open.spotify.com/search/Nathan%20Graham
https://nathangraham.bandcamp.com
