The State of Sound Road Trip
SPRINGFIELD, IL.–The new exhibit “The State of Sound (A World of Music From Illinois)” celebrates the migratory paths artists took to Illinois. Visitors at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum (ALPLM) in Springfield can learn about the roots of our musical tree as well as a multitude of contemporary branches.
Photo by Dave Hoekstra
You can follow some of this Chicago-to-Springfield path to visit “The State of Sound,” which runs through January 2022.
The ALPLM is rolling out a special $29 “State of Sound” VIP ticket starting May 26. That includes a T-shirt, our 36-page souvenir gallery guide filled with text and photos, lanyard with pass and guitar picks. The gallery guide alone is available for $9.99 in the gift shop.
Send pictures!
1. Begin at Chess Records studio, 2120 S. Michigan Ave. Check first to see if they are open.
2. Head west to beloved singer-songwriter John Prine’s childhood home, 1110 S. First Ave. in Maywood. Prine wrote the ballad “Mexican Home” about his father Bill suffering a fatal heart attack on the front porch of the house. In a 2010 benefit concert at his Proviso East alma mater, Prine thought back to his bedroom and remembered how headlights from cars on First Avenue would “streak across the ceiling and disappear.”
3. Give some love to the original White Fence Farm, 1376 Joliet Rd. (Route 66) in Romeoville. The roadside landmark opened in 1954 and just reopened after losing more than $2 million during the pandemic. White Fence Farm chicken is thoroughly pressure cooked before being flash-fried for just three minutes. Low cholesterol soybean oil contains less saturated fat so it won’t weigh you down on the trip to “The State of Sound.” Be sure to queue up Little Walter’s “Chicken Shack” on your playlist.
4. Drop by the Illinois Rock & Roll Museum at 9 W. Cass St. on Route 66 in downtown Joliet to check in on the progress of their late summer opening. The museum building dates back to the 1920s. The Joliet Slammers play independent league baseball just a few blocks away and their home season opens May 28 with a smashing fireworks show.
Smashing Pumpkins drummer Jimmy Chamberlin grew up in Joliet. And while Lionel Richie was born and raised in Tuskegee, Ala., he was a 1966 graduate of Joliet East High School. The address is 201 E. Jefferson if it is East you are looking for.
5. Polka king Lil’ Wally’s custom Concertina with inlaid decoration lives on in “The State of Sound.”
Wally Jagiello rockin’ The State of Sound.
But there’s nothing as big as Wally’s just off of I-55 and Route 66 in Pontiac.
Wally’s opened in October with 76 fuel pumps, 41 bathroom stalls and I’m told 20 stalls for the women’s bathroom.
Wally’s feels like a truck stop on steroids but there are no showers, tractor-trailer sites, or Louis L’Amour paperbacks. Instead, it bills itself as the “Home of the Great American Road Trip.”
I’ve been here a few times and no one will tell me who Wally is. The fresh popcorn is great although I have yet to sample the beef jerky bar. I love truck stops so much I’ve driven to Wally’s just to buy cheap gasoline.
6. Bloomington-Normal; step back in time at Mother Murphy’s Shockwaves/Skateboards, 111 1/2 W. North St. in Normal. Mother Murphy’s opened in 1968 in Normal selling wacky-tobacky smoking accessories, tapestries, and blacklight posters. In 2018 High Times magazine honored the joint as one of 10 “Legendary Headshops” in America. Today the operation has expanded into skateboards and there’s still some vinyl in the store. I’ve also found some affordable music at Reverberation Vinyl, 1302 N. Main in Bloomington.
7. Optional “longer” detour west to Peoria and visit the Dan Fogelberg Memorial on the Illinois River. Not far from the monument on the recently named Fogelberg Parkway is the corner store (at Frye Avenue and Prospect Road) that he made famous in his 1980 hit “Same Auld Lang Syne.”
For something completely different, Jonathan Wright, the co-author of the excellent new book “Punks in Peoria (Making a Scene in the America Heartland) ” suggests the Youth Building at Exposition Gardens, 1601 W. Northmoor Rd. The feisty venue featured appearances by the Who (1968), Black Sabbath (1971), the Kinks (1965), the Yardbirds with Jimmy Page (1966) and a landmark 1995 Fugazi show that Wright booked.
8. Jog east to the warehouse center for Land of Lincoln Goodwill Industries, 211 Capitol Way in Jacksonville. The records for the Beatles, Beach Boys, Wayne Newton, and others were pressed on this 288,000-square foot site. The Goodwill store is open to the public. (217-502-2026.) Capitol Records opened their factory on July 12, 1965, in Jacksonville to meet the demand of pressing Beatles albums.
I remember seeing “Jacksonville, Ill.” on my Beatles albums as a kid and felt I was living near someplace very big. The factory was known as the Capitol Records plant until 1993 when it went under the umbrella of EMI Music Worldwide. The Jacksonville EMI factory closed in 2004 and a distribution center shut down in 2009. Jacksonville is just 35 minutes from Springfield, the length of the Beatles’ mind-bending “Rubber Soul” album.
9. Arrive in Springfield and have breakfast at the Beatles-themed Sgt. Pepper’s Cafe, 3141 Baker Dr. Framed by tasteful Beatles memorabilia, the family-owned Sgt. Pepper’s serves breakfast all day as well as the obligatory Horseshoe, a Springfield creation. The Sgt. Pepper’s open-faced Horseshoe is a choice of steak burger, ham, turkey or roast beef served on toast, topped with a choice of potato and smothered with homemade cheese sauces. If that isn’t enough, their Horseshoe can be topped off with bacon or chili for an extra three bucks.
10, Check out The State of Sound. As content developer, I tried to be neutral on my first walk through the finished exhibit last week. But the director of exhibits Lance Tawzer and his team did a remarkable job of honoring the diverse artistic expression of our state in the 3,000-square foot gallery space. A special nod to museum theater systems tech Kurt Williams who didn’t miss a beat while editing my words with detailed documentary footage and the excellent attention from sound tech Garrett West. Free museum admission in May and June with proof of COVID-19 vaccination.
Carl Sandburg’s Washburn guitar at The State of Sound.
Afterward enjoy a Slow Food-inspired dinner at Maldaner’s, 222 S. 6th St., just a couple blocks from the Lincoln museum.
Established in 1884, Maldaner’s is the oldest continuously run restaurant on Route 66 and one of the longest-running restaurants in Illinois. (The Berghoff opened in 1898 in Chicago.) Route 66 also has a couple of variations in Springfield, Il.
“We’ve stayed open and no one has disputed that,” said chef-owner Michael Higgins, who came to Springfield in 1983 from San Francisco. Since his time in central Illinois, Higgins has made it a priority to network with area farmers and organic farms.
Wind down with “Something Cool,” jazz vocalist June Christy’s smooth album for Capitol Records. Christy was born in Springfield in 1925 and moved to Decatur when she was three. After attending Decatur High School she found fame in singing big band music in Chicago.
“Something Cool” was recorded between 1953 and 1955 in Los Angeles with Pete Rugolo and his Orchestra.
One of the album’s highlights is Christy’s evocative interpretation of the Kurt Weill-Langston Hughes composition “Lonely House.”
There is much to embrace as you step out of your home after more than a year of pandemic isolation. Listen to your surroundings. Music is the liberator and when you are free, who knows where the road might lead?
Leave a Response