We’ll go in several different directions for your Friday. There are a couple of things I want to tell you about and then I have some tickets to giveaway. The weather looks fabulous for this weekend (when’s the last time we could say that?) and I hope to get out and about downtown and I’d love to run into you on the sidewalk.
Kidstuff is a great program for children hosted by Sean McCollough and broadcast live each Saturday morning at 10:00 AM on WDVX. Once each month the show is performed in front of an audience at the Knoxville Visitor’s Center and the show features musicians and other entertainers. I first wrote about it here nearly two years ago. I absolutely fell in love with it from the beginning and still feel it is a Knoxville treasure. I’ve gotten to know Sean a bit more since then and you’ll not find a nicer guy.
Up to this point the show has hosted the live show on the last Saturday of each month, hence the show this weekend, but that is changing. After this weekend’s show, the audience show will be the second Saturday of each month going forward. The first act on the new schedule is a huge one in the children’s music world: Lunch Money. They actually bill themselves as “Indie Music for the Whole Family.” I love their sound and would not have identified it as children’s music. Be sure to bring you children for that on March 8 and for the Knoxville Opera Company live from the Rossini Festival the following month.
In the meantime, local music veterans and the dominant force in local Irish music, Four Leaf Peat, will be at the show this Saturday. If you’ve never seen them, you ow it to yourself to come out and enjoy their music. It’s traditional Irish music with all the interesting instruments that implies. The photographs you see with this article are from a Blue Plate Special from a couple of years ago around St. Patrick’s Day.
The band is in high demand around the green holiday, as you might imagine, but this year is bigger than most for the band. They are celebrating their tenth anniversary as a band and dropping a new live CD recorded at the Laurel Theater. They have a big show at the Square Room on March 15, which is two days before the big holiday. Check them out tomorrow at Kidstuff and then get your tickets for the Square Room show at the link above. There won’t be a more authentic concert over the Saint Patrick’s Day weekend.
And now those tickets that I mentioned: I’ve been given three pairs of tickets to Regal Downtown West for the coming week for the showing of the Live Action and Animated Oscar Nominated Short Films next week. That’s right, you get to see them all in advance of the Oscars and pick the winners! The tickets are good Monday, February 24 – Thursday, February 27. Speical thanks goes out to Caitlin Rose of Ginsberg/Libby Agency in LA.
All you have to do is send me an email (Knoxvilleurbanguy@gmail.com) with the subject line “Ticket Giveaway,” and in the body of your email tell me a favorite thing about downtown and one thing that you wish would change about downtown. (Who knows, maybe I’ll use these for a future column!) Please only respond if you intend to use the tickets. I’ll notify winners and the tickets will be waiting for you at the box office.
I’ve included the trailer so you can get an idea of what will be waiting for the lucky winners.