Last month I traveled to Belfast to attend the Northern Ireland Music Prize, because this year’s ceremony included the debut of the Joe Cassidy Chrysalis Award—named for the late Belfast-born artist who’d become one of Chicago’s most important and beloved musical transplants. Cassidy, who led the group Butterfly Child, was an old friend of mine […]
Category: The Secret History of Chicago Music
There’s still time to catch up with the Joy Poppers
When I started the Secret History of Chicago Music in 2005, I had a rule: no artists from the 1990s. Not enough time had passed, I figured, for them to be forgotten. It’s been 18 years, though, and the local scene is full of people who don’t remember the 90s—or who weren’t even born then. […]
Downstate weirdos Max Load brought punk to Belleville
Secret History readers often ask about my criteria for including an artist. Sometimes they want me to cover an early-90s band, but I’m still reluctant—that’s when I started going to shows myself, so it seems too recent. I definitely felt that way when I launched this series in 2005, but I guess we’ll see. I’m […]
Pastor Mitty Collier spent the 1960s as one of the great voices in soul music
The Secret History of Chicago Music may have my name on it, but it’s never a one-man show. I often consult experts, especially when I’m covering an unfamiliar genre or I hit a dead end in my research. Earlier this month, in fact, I turned to Chris Young of the excellent blog Downstate Sounds to […]
The Rooks cut a hall-of-fame garage-rock single but broke up in obscurity
In August I said I thought the Secret History of Chicago Music might be running out of 1960s garage bands to cover. I’ve been a fan of the Rooks for ages, for instance, but I’d given up on writing a story because I couldn’t reach any former members to fill in the gaps in my […]
All-girl garage band the Same got short-changed by the grown-ups in the room
Sometimes you have to play the long game. I’ve been trying for years to get the story of local 1960s girl group the Same. My interview requests didn’t lead anywhere, and I couldn’t track down much info about their only release—the 1967 single “Sunshine, Flowers and Rain”—or about the women who’d created it. Thankfully, Chicago […]
Don’t call Brighter Side of Darkness one-hit wonders
I’ve never liked the term “one-hit wonder.” This is partly because it’s often misused; I’ve seen Americans describe T. Rex as a one-hit wonder because “Bang a Gong (Get It On)” was Marc Bolan’s only stateside smash, but in the UK he had 11 top-ten hits in three years. I also find “one-hit wonder” a […]
Let’s make Marshall Vente a star
I discover subjects for the Secret History of Chicago Music lots of different ways—I might see an unfamiliar artist mentioned in passing during an interview with somebody better known, or spot a name I don’t recognize in the credits of a well-loved local LP. Sometimes a musician simply contacts me directly, or a friend or […]
Soul singer Garland Green couldn’t quite turn luck and talent into stardom
I know I’m indulging in nostalgia for the “good old days” before the global consolidation of the entertainment industry, but it sure seems like it used to be easier for a talented artist to luck into a shot at fame—something more lasting than 15 seconds of Internet virality. In the 1960s, the workings of the […]
Society’s Children had a combo unheard-of in 60s garage rock: mother and son
Long ago, an early fan of the Secret History of Chicago Music stopped me at a grocery store. Not only was I surprised that this gentleman had recognized me—I tend to think of myself as a faceless columnist—but I was also taken aback by his first question. “You do that garage-band column in the Chicago […]
Peter Brown is an A+ argument against dissing disco
I’d like to think the narrative has changed on Chicago and disco since the infamous Disco Demolition Night at Comiskey Park in 1979. White rock fans blowing up disco records was never a good look, in no small part because the genre was so heavily Black, Brown, and queer. I’ll allow that some of the […]
Gerald Sims played on two of the most immortal soul songs ever
Lately the Secret History of Chicago Music has been playing a losing game, trying to keep up with the all-too-frequent passings of underappreciated musicians from the 1960s and ’70s. I’ll celebrate some living artists soon, but first I want to shine a light on Gerald Sims, who died in May. Sims made immortal contributions to […]
Pianist Dorothy Donegan gave zero fucks
Musicians who transcend genre and expectation often have to settle for being described decades later as “ahead of their time.” Multifaceted jazz pianist and vocalist Dorothy Donegan overcame racial prejudice, sexism, and musical gatekeeping to grow into her own bad self in the 1950s—to borrow a contemporary phrase, she gave zero fucks. She once described […]
Polymathic percussionist Derf Reklaw deserved a better farewell
When Ramsey Lewis died in September, the Secret History of Chicago Music didn’t weigh in—the keyboardist, composer, and radio personality was hardly a secret, and the news of his passing prompted an international outpouring. The same was true of Maurice White from Earth, Wind & Fire, who’d had an early gig as Lewis’s drummer and […]
Jazz bassist Cleveland Eaton had a career almost too vast to imagine
I’ve been covering underappreciated artists in the Secret History of Chicago Music for more than 18 years, but as I research a subject, I still sometimes catch myself wondering: “Why is this person not a universally beloved household name?” Cleveland Eaton is just such a case. He was a composer, bandleader, producer, arranger, publisher, teacher, […]