Live and Local with Kevin Kelly

The great Australian finger-pickin' guitarist Tommy Emmanuel will play at Sangamon Auditorium in Springfield Tuesday night, along with Australian singer-songwriter Rick Price. We will be privileged to have both gentlemen live in our studios on the Monday edition "Live and Local." Be prepared for a soulful hour of energetic, virtuosic music-making!

On today's edition, we have our first Cajun band playing live in our studio: Dennis Stroughmatt and Creole Stomp, an Illinois-based band that plays "real-deal Louisiana Creole Zydeco, Cajun, Blues and New Orleans Swamp Pop." We'll also meet storyteller Kim Sheahan and hear a sample of her work. All will be performing at the Champaign-Urbana Folk and Roots Festival in downtown Urbana this weekend.

On the Thursday edition of "Live and Local," we'll have a conversation with the splendid Chicago-born, Irish-American fiddler Liz Carroll and hear from her recent CD. We'll also talk with guitarist John Elder, playing live in our studio. Both are appearing at the Champaign-Urbana Folk and Roots Festival, which opens Friday night in downtown Urbana.

The first annual Champaign-Urbana Folk and Roots Festival happens this weekend in Urbana. It's a celebration of American roots music, dance, storytelling, and visual arts with local, regional and national artists. On "Live and Local" this week, we'll feature several performers from the Festival, including singer Elizabeth Simpson and guitarist George Turner on Tuesday's show.

On the Monday edition of "Live and Local," I'll talk with Bob Vaughn, director of the Sangamon Auditorium at the University of Illinois at Springfield, about the auditorium's Visiting Artists, Broadway and Family series of events. With multiple forms of dance, musical acts across many genres and much more, it's quite a spectacular selection. Also, we have the first in a series of guests this week affiliated with the first annual Champaign-Urbana Folk & Roots Festival: Jan Kalmar, who will lead a song circle on Saturday at Heartland Gallery in Urbana.

On Friday's program, we'll air a concert by the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, the training orchestra of the Chicago Symphony. They'll play Mendelssohn's Hebrides Overture and Italian Symphony, and Verdi's Overture to The Force of Destiny. I'll be back with more local guests on Monday.

The Ahn Trio-three Korean-American sisters-travel the world with their genre-bending take on the piano trio medium. They're playing in Charleston on Friday and will be my guests on the Thursday edition of "Live and Local." We'll also hear about a recital this weekend in Champaign of music for organ, trumpet and oboe.

Audio is unavailable for this program