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A smashing review

30 October 2010 By Leave a Comment

On October 2nd, we performed our “Way Off Broadway” show as a benefit for The Friends of the Opera House n Woodstock, IL. Well, not too long ago, Gary called me and was very excited to read this wonderful letter we received from them and I thought I’d share it with you.

Dear DeVar Creative:

We do not, unfortunately, have all of your names, but addressing you as the DeVars is no less the compliment.

Your show was simply smashing – creative in every way: choice of material, the presentation of it, and such excellent voices, all delivered so professionally with such rousing keyboard accompaniment.

We can truly say, with much pleasure and many thanks, your performance Saturday night was the best entertainment yet that we have had for our annual “A Night at the Opera House”.

Sincerely,
S. D. Anderson
For the Board of Directors
FRIENDS OF THE OPERA HOUSE

All I can really add to this is that we had a great time performing the show and the audience was very gracious. We were happy to do the show for everyone who came. And it feels really good to get a letter like this.

A smashing review originally appeared on 4-AM on 30 October 2010.

Filed Under: News

144 – A Tribute to Mark Brink

31 August 2010 By Leave a Comment
Recorded 31 August 2010

This episode is a tribute  to a friend and great musician who passed away recently, Mark Brink. David Kav and I talk about Mark and his impact on everyone around him and how we got to know him as a musician and a person.  I also play a couple of his songs (recorded live) at Uncommon Ground here in Chicago and a short excerpt from an arrangement of Mark’s. I’ll let you listen, rather than try to recap here.  Here are the links to things discussed in the tribute:

And last, as I promised in the show, here are the lyrics to the last song played on the show:

The Saddest Song That I Never Wrote (vocals by Crystal BowerSox)

The saddest song that I never wrote
I thought I’d write about you
But I didn’t need to find
the perfect rhyme or reason
for things that came true

So the Saddest Song That I Never Wrote
had no beginning,
but happily ends
For we both understood
what we loved and was good 
was the Loyalty
of True Friends

Words and Music ©2008 Mark Brink

Mark, you will be missed

[00:30:47]

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Filed Under: Podcast Tagged With: , , ,

You want more? You got more!

31 July 2010 By Leave a Comment


Jim & Tim in the Beer Garden at the Beacon Tap

Photo credit Theresa Carter 2010

Okay, I’ve been remiss in writing. I’ve had a few things happen that kept me from writing about our last gig (And I’m not going to go into them here). And I will post some pictures, but let me tell you how it went and some news because of it and more.

The gig was fun, got there, got set up, said hi to the people we knew and started playing.  Now we had a good group of friends at the gig, which is always nice and a couple people came out that I literally haven’t seen in years, good surprises. But the best surprise of all is the unintentional one, and by that I mean the one that just sort of grows out of the situation.

We had a table of people come in that didn’t look any too interested in us or listening to us play. They seemed to be disinterested at best so at least from my point of view, I just tried to focus on the rest of the crowd who were enjoying us. Pretty standard performance, you just can’t please everyone all the time and so you go with the ones you do make happy. Well, I began to notice a change and soon enough, this table started lighting their lighters and more people came to the table (I found out after we were done that people at that table started calling their friends to come and hear us play and just have a great time at Beacon Tap, works for me!).

Even though it’s too late for long story short, what happened when we finished playing, they came up and asked how much it would take for us to stay and play a little longer. I told them it wasn’t up to me, they’d have to talk to the management at Beacon Tap. So they took up a collection and went to the folks there at the Beacon and we ended up playing for a little over an hour longer. Always a good thing when you have a gig like that. And the best thing? We talked with the Management there and they booked us for two more gigs in August! So you’ll have plenty of opportunities to come out and hear us and we’ll have a great time at a great place to have some summer fun! You just can’t beat that.

You want more? You got more! originally appeared on Jim & Tim on July 31, 2010. Tweet This

Filed Under: Gig, jim & tim, News, Podcast

Gig Redux

15 July 2010 By Leave a Comment

Okay, so it’s really not a Redux, we were scheduled for this one before the infamous power outage cancelled gig at Beacon Tap, but it is our first gig there.

We had our regular rehearsal last night and let me tell you, it was a good run through for tomorrow’s gig to be sure. We rehearse in the closest thing to a factory that I’ve ever spent time in and there are a lot of fans, but no air conditioning in the area we rehearse. If you’re in the Chicago area you already know where I’m headed with this. The temp was in the 90′s with high enough humidity that it took all of about 10 minutes before I’d sweat through my T-shirt. Now you may think that’s  pretty gross, but I look  at it a little differently. It’s good training for the gig. You see, the forecast is pretty much the same for Friday night and we’ll be outside in the Beer Garden. I’m hoping for a breeze, but I’m not counting on it.

Besides, if you ain’t sweating, it ain’t Rock ‘N’ Roll, right?

Hope to see you there tomorrow night and stop by and say hello if you’re there.

Gig Redux originally appeared on Jim & Tim on July 15, 2010. Tweet This

Filed Under: jim & tim, News

It’s out of the bag now!

2 July 2010 By Leave a Comment

The Free Spirit Yacht of Free Spirit Yacht CruisesWhew! I can finally talk about something I’ve had to keep quiet about for awhile now. It’s no secret that the City is cutting back on some of their offerings due to budgetary reasons (Like the fireworks with the Grant Park Symphony playing the 1812 Overture? Not tomorrow, not this year anyway). And one of the casualties of the budget wars this year is Venetian night, which would have been Saturday, July 31st.  But who says we have to have the city to have Venetian night anyway, right?

So The Local Tourist and Free Spirit Yacht Cruises have teamed up to present Bringing Back Venetian Night and Jim & Tim will be aboard The Free Spirit providing the live music for the entire cruise! Man, I’m excited, this is going to be a ton of fun. So here are the details:

The cruise is from 8:00 – 11:00pm on Saturday, July 31st.  There will be an Italian Buffet meal, an Open Bar and we’ll be sailing to watch the fireworks at Navy Pier from the water! The cost is $99 per person with everything I’ve just talked about included.

Come and join us and a lot of fun people by buying your tickets for Bringing Back Venetian Night!

 

It’s out of the bag now! originally appeared on Jim & Tim on July 2, 2010. Tweet This

Filed Under: jim & tim, News, Podcast
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