We’re fans
Katie Kadan
Southside
Long before soul maven Katie Kadan was a finalist on NBC’s The Voice (Team Legend), she was singing in church. At age three, she joined her mother and sisters in a family ensemble that performed on Sundays and at funerals. By age 19, she was leading hymns behind the keyboard. “I tell my voice students that if you can sing to Jesus, you can sing to anybody.” The southside singer-songwriter released her self-titled debut LP in 2019 right before she got called to Los Angeles for filming. “Katie opened my ears to a what music could be,” says fan boy Matt Rodrigues, NBC Chicago Today co-host, who lost his sh** after her boot-stomping performance of All Better. “She is always so vibrant, so heartfelt. She connects with the lyrics in a way that instantly connects you to her.” Offstage, Katie is no different. Whether performing at sold out venues like House of Blues or coaching aspiring vocalists, Katie pumps love into every room. Says Matt: “She makes everyone feel like they are #1.”
Toronzo Cannon
Chicago
Toronzo Cannon’s “woke blues” (NewCity, July 2020) packs a gut punch. He takes on tough themes, having witnessed 28 years of humanity from the driver’s seat of his CTA bus. (Listen to I’m Not Scared on “The Preacher, The Politician or The Pimp”.) Now retired from his day job, Toronzo is writing, strumming a 12-string, and preparing for phase two as The Chicago Blues Man. Friends and fan girls Liz Hill (Rehoboth Beach, Delaware) and Christy Penrod (Traverse City, Michigan) can’t wait. “He’s a true audience pleaser who connects with you emotionally when he’s on stage. Off stage, he’s down-to-earth, easily approachable, gracious, and smart,” says Liz. She has watched his April 2017 performance at the Tampa Blues Festival dozens of times. Christy, also a bus driver, first met Toronzo in 2009 and has been traveling the country to catch him live ever since. “I had a very serious surgery in November 2019. I had a rough time and spent 8 days in the hospital. I was in a very dark place when Liz and Toronzo sent me a video message. It came at the perfect time and really lifted my spirits. Toronzo has a way when he speaks to you--he makes you feel like the only person in the room. His personality is so special. And his taste in clothing is superb!”
avery r. young/de deacon board
Chicago
avery r. young is the soul man, show man, truth seeker and poet, who fronts de deacon board, a five-piece funk, soul, rhythm, and blues outfit that packs the room. As super fan Xavier Ramey puts it, avery’s shows are about more than sound. “They are about movement, they are about bodies, they are about proximity between people. Whatever the band is playing—whether it is a Crucial Conflict cover or an original song—there is NO WAY you are going to leave without busting a sweat.” Avery doesn’t just get us moving. He channels our racist history, invites us on a journey of catharsis and reckoning, and calls us out if we are not right there with him every step of the way. His work in performance, visual text, and sound design has been featured at The Hip Hop Theatre Festival, The Museum of Contemporary Art, and American Jazz Museum. “Chicago NEEDS music,” says Xavier, a social impact consultant who sits in the front row at every show. “We are hot . . . violence, cold . . . weather. Chicago takes and takes and the artist scene listens, creates and gives back—it is so generative and it replenishes us. I am a shameless fan, I have probably put some bartender’s kid through college with all the money I have spent at avery’s shows.”
Sandra Antongiorgi
Southwest Side
Neo-soul singer/songwriter and muralist Sandra Antongiorgi radiates love with an intensity that can only come from darkness. Born in Puerto Rico and raised in Chicago’s Little Village, Sandra dives boldly into weighty subjects—bigotry, oppression, domestic violence--and emerges fully oxygenated. As childhood friend Jennie Castros puts it: “You don’t need to be bilingual to know her pain, her fight, her glory. She can actually transport you--her songs, her artistry allow you to go to a time and place that she has lived or that she creates for you.” Jennie’s husband Oscar loves Sandra’s eight-minute song “Vuela,” inspired by Hurricane Maria’s devastation in her homeland and the prolonged inaction that followed. In it, Sandra suggests that to truly be free, we need to speak out against injustice. “She sings with a passion that reverberates through your skin,” says Jennie. As internationally-known performer and culinary artists Lizz Wright puts it: “I love Sandra because she’s real. Without any kind of plan or bashfulness she can pick up a guitar and play straight from her heart. She makes everything slow down when she sings.”
Terriers
Northside
Terriers lead man Danny Cohen will break your heart. In early Beatles fashion, he delivers earnest vocals about love (lost) over catchy chords. Unlike the Beatles, Danny is hooky without the hook—a departure that reveals his appetite for post punk, jazz fusion, and creative catharsis/the undiscovered. “He’s freakin’ swell,” says Calvin Fredrickson, a DePaul University classmate that first heard Danny at open mic, where he covered Kate McGarrigle’s Go Leave. “I was stunned by how poetic his voice is--it seemed so complete, his playing, singing, his voice sounded so real, so lived in. I was devastated.” Danny’s early songwriting inspiration can be traced to This is Me Smiling, an uber talented, Chicago-based power pop group that broke up a decade ago. Danny stumbled upon Dan Duszynski at a Schuba’s show (Dan was performing that night with another one of his projects—Any Kind). Soon after, Danny asked Dan to produce their second album “I Don’t Still Want To Unless You Want To” (October 2017). Terriers is now preparing to release their third, yet-to-be-named LP and fans are waiting. Calvin says it the best: “Terriers is a cup of tea with like 10 tea bags of the greatest music steeped together . . . and no sugar.”
R3id
Chicago
R3id twists Hollywood bravado and power pop into a film noir thrill-ride: scary, exhilarating and full of imagery. Masterful guitarist and playful poet, frontman R3id Libby pulls us into his deliciously dark, imaginary world whether you are listening live or on Bandcamp (Check out Birdbrain--stylized as E3[®Δ]8!?@)-.), Fishbowl and Selected Eclectic.) R3id’s live shows are all-out revelry. R3id rides to the stage on the shoulders of his drummer, and the band performs at least one song blindfolded. R3id’s recordings can lean darker. His early music is angsty--full of word play, atonality and alternate voices. “The synesthetic kicks in, I’m color blinded by sin, the silence outside the house, the static screaming within.” R3id’s forthcoming album, A is for Ella, is way less scary, while maintaining his trademark exhilaration and imagery. “Had a dream that my time machine had broke / Flying saucers and sounds they’d call a hoax / How my hair was a mess when I awoke.” Like Birdbrain (2017), A is for Ella has voice actors in the roles of friends, family, and imaginary frienemies that are vivid, spontaneous, dramatic and warm. Through it all, R3id writes true to life experience. “One of the things that’s special about R3id’s music is that it sounds like you’re listening to a play,” says Mary, a longtime fan. “There’s a childlike quality to his work, but everything that comes out of his mouth is thoughtful and deliberate.” Let’s hope one day R3id partners with a filmmaker or playwright—there is much to see in his sound.