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The Caroling Connection Returns to Festival Lane and announces appearance on The BMO Harris Bank Magnificent Mile Lights Festival Broadcast

(ELGIN, IL; October 23 2017) The Caroling Connection, carolers who make holiday memories, is returning to Festival Lane for the 2017 BMO Harris Magnificent Mile Festivals of Lights, November 18th from 1 – 3 PM. New this year, they will also be featured on the Live Broadcast of the Festival of Lights on ABC 7 in Chicago and 108 markets around the United States and Canada.

The Caroling Connection on Festival Lane at the 25th BMO Harris Magnificent Mile Festival of Lights 2017 Photo Credit: <a href="https://chicago.thelocaltourist.com/events/holidays/christmas">Theresa Goodrich</A>
The Caroling Connection on Festival Lane at the 25th BMO Harris Magnificent Mile Festival of Lights 2017 Photo Credit: Theresa Goodrich

“We’re honored to participate in such a great tradition in Chicago, not only by performing in Festival Lane again, but also by appearing on the broadcast of Saturday’s events.” said Jim Goodrich, Founder and Head Voice at The Caroling Connection. “Working with everyone involved at The Magnificent Mile Association, Tamar Productions and ABC 7 in Chicago has been a wonderful experience and a great opportunity.”

This is the second appearance in Festival Lane by The Caroling Connection, which is celebrating its second year. What makes The Caroling Connection so special?

“It’s a combination of experience, professionalism, and vision,” said Goodrich, who’s been singing professionally for the past 30 years and caroling professionally for the past 24 years. “While the group may be new to the Chicago scene, I’ve been around awhile and have had the privilege to work with some amazing musicians. What truly makes The Caroling Connection special is combining the talent of experienced and highly trained singers with a vision of providing a memorable and magical experience. We help people feel that childlike wonder while they’re celebrating with family and friends. We want you to fall in love with the music all over again and feel the joy it brings. ”

The Caroling Connection will be strolling in Festival Lane on Saturday, November 18th from 1 – 3 PM, caroling to all the attendees of the Lights Festival. These four a cappella singers, festively dressed in 19th Century Dickensian costumes, will sing classic songs of the holidays, such as ‘Deck the Halls’, ‘Holly Jolly Christmas, ‘Silent Night’, ‘O Christmas Tree’ and more.

What: The Caroling Connection in Festival Lane and on ABC 7’s broadcast of The 26th BMO Harris Bank Magnificent Mile Lights Festival
Where: Pioneer Court 401 North Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IL 60611
When: November 18 from 1-3 PM in Festival Lane: Live broadcast begins at 6:00 PM

About The Caroling Connection: https://TheCarolingConnection.com

The Caroling Connection books through With A Voice Like This. For additional information, call Jim Goodrich at 630.492.0487

 


Click or tap above to view video [runtime 00:02:40]

Lake FX Summit & Expo Registration Opens

This in directly from the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE):

Lake FX & Summit Chicago 2015

Lake FX Summit + Expo
April 16-19

 

Pre-registration is now open
Full schedule is available 

The Lake FX Summit + Expo presented by Google is the region’s largest FREE conference for artists, creative professionals and entrepreneurs in the areas of film, music, fashion, culinary and the visual & performing arts. The inaugural four-day event, running April 16-19, will host keynotes, panels, professional development workshops and interactive labs featuring leading artists and industry innovators at the Chicago Cultural Center, the Virgin Hotels Chicago, the Gene Siskel Film Center, the Hard Rock Hotel Chicago and Macy’s on State Street.

Pre-registration for the summit is encouraged and allows registrants access to a “Fast Pass” to some programs at the Chicago Cultural Center in the Claudia Cassidy Theater (priority seating based on availability) and special giveaways including a commemorative Lake FX Summit + Expo poster created by internationally renowned Chicago-based artist Carlos Rolón/DZINE (while supplies last). Only the Google Workshop on Friday, April 17, requires advanced registration which opens separately at 10am on Monday, March 23.

By signing up in advance you will also be entered in a chance to win reserved seating to a future DCASE produced event in Millennium Park between May-September 2015. Paid, ticketed and contracted rentals are not included in this offering.

The Lake FX “Fast Pass” will give you priority seating (first entrance based on availability) for the following programs (schedule subject to change):

Friday, April 17

  • 10:30am How to Win at YouTube
  • Noon Website Demolition Derby
  • 1:30pm Breaking Down the Walls: Art and Creative Industries and the Making of Community
  • 3pm The Improv Toolkit: Bringing Yes, And to your work

Saturday, April 18

  • 10:30am Visual Art Keynote: Carlos Rolon/DZINE
  • Noon Maker to Market
  • 1:30pm TBD
  • 3pm Film Keynote TBD

Register here and tell your friends!

 

 City of Chicago Seal and DCASE Logo

I wanna SEE you!

I can’t tell you how many times someone had said to one of us “I want to see you guys! When are you playing near me?”.

Well, it took awhile and a learning curve, but while we can’t play near everyone, you can still see us in this video.

I’d say come up and say hi, but that might be a little uncomfortable, talking to your computer…or maybe not, so feel free to come up and say hi if you want to after watching this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkZz3HEhFLo

And now you know where to go or music that you love to sing along with as well. Right here.

I wanna SEE you! originally appeared on Jim & Tim on March 27, 2012. Tweet This

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Why don’t we see Jim & Tim this holiday?

Well, the biggest reason is because I’m off being a crazy caroling madman with the Merry Maskers and performing in the show A White Christmas Holiday Revue. That’s because that’s what is most requested at this time of year.

And we love that. We love the time of year and we love the music too.

That doesn’t mean we stop making music. Far from it. We understand that there are many events and parties that aren’t holiday related. You know we’re there for those whenever and wherever they may be. And we’ll even do a holiday song or two when they’re wanted/requested by popular demand.

It just means that in December you’re less likely to see something like this in your Twitter stream:

 

Just keep watching, these will start popping up again very soon and we’ll be having a great time doing what we do best. Singing for you.

Happy Holidays from Jim & Tim.

 Photo Credit: mikecogh

Why don’t we see Jim & Tim this holiday? originally appeared on Jim & Tim on December 1, 2011. Tweet This

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Is it too early for Christmas?

Not if you’re Arthur Christmas!

For the Holiday season, 4-AM returns to our roots with The Merry Maskers Carolers singing holiday carols and having a great time getting into the spirit.

Well, last Saturday, November 12th,  at Woodfield Mall was the earliest I’ve ever caroled. But it was all a part of the 12 Days of Arthur Christmas, a new holiday film from Sony Pictures and we were caroling and having pictures taken with anyone who asked. There were Arthur Christmas activity books for the first 100 kids to visit Santa in the Ice Palace, a speed wrapping contest and prize wheel in the Grand Court of the mall. Oh, I almost forgot the cookie decorating there as well. I think they may have been tipped off ahead of time, because I didn’t get to decorate any cookies…Which is probably better for everyone all around, now that I think about it.

It was a great time. There were lots of smiles and wide eyed kids, replete with cookie frosting all over their faces, pictures taken, flying wrapping paper and people singing along. I guess it’s never too early for Christmas.

But here’s a not so secret ‘Secret’.

If you go to the 12 Days of Arthur Christmas Calendar and choose Chicago, IL from the drop down list and you look at the 11th Day of Arthur Christmas, you’ll see this:

O COME ALL YE CAROLERS
Trump International Hotel and Tower Chicago | River Walk
401 N. Wabash Ave. | Chicago, IL 60611 | 2:00PM-4:00PM
Spot the ARTHUR CHRISTMAS Carolers for your chance to learn a Christmas carol and receive a prize

…And I bet that if you look hard enough and long enough on the internet (are you done looking yet?), you just might be able to find a picture of the Carolers you’ll be looking for Tuesday.

Happy Holidays and Good Hunting from 4-AM!

Is it too early for Christmas? originally appeared on 4-AM on 15 November 2011.

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I went and did it this time

I admit it, I did it. I’m responsible for enough sites that I decided to make this site an aggregate of those sites. I’ve started taking feeds from both the Jim & Tim site and from the 4-AM site, including the upcoming gigs feeds. So now there’s one place to follow what I’m doing when I’m doing it and I get to show off the majority of my work in one place.

Some call this “Lifestreaming”. I would agree, except it’s only my musical life I’m streaming here, plus it doesn’t include Facebook updates and only one of the Twitter feeds that I use.  At any rate, I’m a bit more streamlined now and that’s definitely a good thing for me. I hope you enjoy it as well.

I also added a plugin to all my sites that gives proper attribution to the feed, so I don’t hurt my SEO rankings. Always trying to stay one step ahead.

Let me know what you think.

Hey, what are you doing the 21st?

Jim & Tim at Elburn Days 2010

Hey, it’s this coming Sunday and if you’re not busy…

We had our rehearsal and a couple of weeks ago we determined the songs we were going to use for the day. Elburn Days is always a fun gig for us, we’ve been playing a for a few years now. It’s the site of the infamous seven and a half hour gig  a few years back and it’s been a favorite of mine ever since then.

I don’t think that we’ll be playing that long this year (you never can be sure, can you?), but we’ve got our set list all ready. Come out and join us, it’s a great place and it supports the Elburn Lions Club. A worthy cause and a great group of people.

Even if you’re thinking about coming out, do, you’ll have a great time and I just don’t think…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoMgRnygok8

Photo and Video Credit: Theresa Carter

Hey, what are you doing the 21st? originally appeared on Jim & Tim on August 18, 2011. Tweet This

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Just playing around

Okay, I’m trying something new here. I’ve been working with some video and I wanted to see how it looks in a regular post. So what I’m going to do is post a few videos that I have and then you’ll be seeing more as I have them ready. I’m also going to have a small poll afterwards. I’d like to see which ones you like. Here they are.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoMgRnygok8

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCJWpKD97-s

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95d5vpanVYk

 

Just playing around originally appeared on Jim & Tim on July 4, 2011. Tweet This

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One door…

I just found out last night that our July 15 gig was cancelled. The venue has decided not to have live music in the beer garden on Fridays anymore.  On the other hand, we’re talking with that same venue about taking a Saturday night slot coming up soon. Keep your eyes and ears here to find out how that turns out. I’ll let you know as soon as we hear anything about it.

Now for that open door. I also just found out that Jim & Tim will be playing at Elburn Days this year. It’s at Lions Park in Elburn on August 21 and it’s one of my favorite gigs because of its history. We’ll have some fun and probably even play some songs you haven’t heard us play before. In the meantime, we’ll be looking to set up some more gigs in the area so you have a chance to hear us play. Because that’s what we love to do.

Photo by Steve Snodgrass

 

One door… originally appeared on Jim & Tim on June 25, 2011. Tweet This

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Who is that mysterious Jim?

Hey there, Jim here. Well, not really here, I’m over there. On the West Coast, in California to be exact. I’m on a road trip, but I wanted to make sure that you knew that Jim & Tim have a gig tomorrow night in Des Plaines at the Beacon Tap.

But wait, how can that be? Jim, are you some sort of Svengali that can transport himself through space and time in the blink of an eye? Hmmm, can you…Can you?!

While I’d like to say yes, the answer is no, I’m not. I have to get back the old fashioned way in this case, by driving. So you might ask yourself  ”How are Jim and Tim going to perform Friday night, if Jim’s halfway across the country?”. Well, it’s simple, really and it happens a lot in the music world. The role of Jim will be played by someone else Friday night. Ken Overbey will be filling in for me and I’m glad he is.

So please, make sure to go out and See Jim (Ken) & Tim at the Beacon Tap in the Beer Garden. And come up and say hi to me when you get there.

Who is that mysterious Jim? originally appeared on Jim & Tim on June 17, 2011. Tweet This

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You want more? You got more!


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

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Gig Redux

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

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It’s out of the bag now!

Whew! 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.

[UPDATE: This event has come and gone] 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

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Gigus Ingterruptus

Right now I’m sitting in a Starbucks writing this (And I hate Starbucks coffee) because the power is still out from a thunderstorm last night. the same thunderstorm that struck just before I left for the gig at Beacon Tap last night. and that’s what brings me to the topic of this post. here is the play by play of last night, printed as soon as I could get me some internet access. Sit back, relax and enjoy the post, even if it is with a cup of Starbucks coffee. (c; One more thing,  a bunch of people showed up and we sat around the parking lot for about 2 hours, then I headed out to no power. the group split up and did different things.

18 June 2010

Well hey, this is shaping up to be an interesting night. We had a thunderstorm roll through about 4:15 in the afternoon, carried some winds and rain with it, not a lot of thunder , so since the gig wasn’t until 7:00, I headed over to the Beacon Tap, only to find that the power is out. Not everywhere mind you, it was out at my place, so I basically got ready in the close to dark, but I’m far enough away from the the venue that there was no way to know. Driving over, there were areas with and without power, so it was a crap shoot.

As I write this, it’s about 6:10 PM and although it’s cloudy, it doesn’t look like it’s going to rain anymore, so if the power is out, we may still perform, so here I sit in the parking lot. It’s not a bad temperature out and I’m willing to stick around for a little while, see what happens. I can’t tell, but it look s like the Starbucks across the street has power, I’m going to check that out and if it does and I can get online, I’ll post this on the site, give a play by play of the situation. Ah, first gig stories, nothing like them.

The Starbucks doesn’t have power either, so I’m just sitting in the parking lot waiting to see if anyone I know shows up, just seems like the fun thing to do right now. I’m starting to hear that power is out in a lot of the surrounding communities and the traffic here right now is unbelievable. These are the types of days made for a pay or play clause, but we don’t have one and that’s not a bad thing.

Gigus Ingterruptus originally appeared on Jim & Tim on June 19, 2010.

Here we go

Hey there, Jim here. What do you think of the new site? I’m digging it. This is the beginning for us. Here’s a brief background on us.

Tim and I have known each other somewhere between 8-10 years, I don’t remember exactly. We’ve sung together a lot in those years, subbed in for gigs, been called up to sing, things like that. We’ve just never put it together as our own gig.

Until now.

Tim plays a mean guitar(s) and sings and my main gig is singing. We do a ton of harmony work. You’ll be hearing everything out of us from Aerosmith to Josh Turner to the Beatles. Yeah, it’s a wide variety and everyone will something they love in what we sing. You can take a look at our Song List and see what I mean. We’ll be adding more as time goes by, just like we’ll be adding more pictures and of course, more gigs.

We’ve set a goal for ourselves of performing by Memorial Day and you can hear what we can do on our Media page and what you hear there is what we can do in any setting. We use MIDI tracks to fill in the rest of the band so we always have a big sound, but a small footprint. How can you beat that?

Check up on us to see how we’re doing or just come to the page to see and if I can ever get that Facebook Like box working right, you can even join our page on Facebook…But then again, you can do that already, can’t you? Well, I hope to see you soon at one of our gigs and get a picture with you.

Bye for now.

Here we go originally appeared on Jim & Tim on April 30, 2010.