New music series coming to The Vault this Feb.
A new music series kicks off Saturday, Feb. 15, with hill-country blues artist Jason Waldrop performing at the Vault Art Gallery in downtown Tuscola.
Waldrop, of Atwood, will perform from 5:30 to 7 p.m. in the upstairs stage space at the Vault, located at 100 N. Main St. Americana musician Leighton Ewers of Bement opens and plays from 5 to 5:30 p.m.
Also Saturday, the Vault’s monthly “Bluegrass Jam at the Vault” takes place from 2 to 4 p.m. in the downstairs gallery. All pickers are welcome and the event is free and open to the public. At the same time, another new jam session will take place upstairs for any musician interested in rock, blues and other genres.
“We have had some musicians at the bluegrass jams interested in rock, alt-country and other genres, while the core group of pickers wants to focus on traditional bluegrass and old-time country music,” Vault manager Kirby Pringle said. “And so Marty Gibson, who organizes the bluegrass jam, decided to test the waters with a separate jam session that focuses on other genres.”
Gibson, who runs Rock University at the Vault, also put together the new “Vault Musical Artist Series” with Waldrop and Ewers debuting the monthly concerts. The special concerts will take place from 5 to 7 p.m. on the third Saturday of the month, following the bluegrass jam sessions.
“All the initial ‘Vault Musical Artist Series’ concerts will be free. We want to get the word out about the Vault and the upstairs stage place. It’s a great place for local musicians to perform or simply test the waters if they have new material to try out. We will also be able to do some live recording sessions for those who are interested,” Gibson said.
“Once the concert series established we’ll starting charging the public an admission fee and we’ll be trying out some new things down the road,” Gibson added.
In addition, the downstairs art gallery portion of the Vault will have special extended hours from 5 to 7:30 p.m. Saturday (Feb. 15) with a tasting of red wines and chocolates from Flesor’s Candy Kitchen, also of Tuscola, as part of a “Post Valentine’s Day Celebration.”
The Vault Art Gallery was recently honored by Visit Champaign County as one of “Five Amazing Places to Visit Outside Champaign-Urbana.” The art gallery, which is owned and operated by a cooperative of 60 artists, has also been featuring on WCIA-TV, WEIU-TV, WILL-TV, as well as news publications around Central Illinois.
The Vault is located at 100 N. Main St. in the heart of historic downtown Tuscola and features locally made artwork, antiques, vintage clothes, record albums and more. Go to www.vaultartgallery.com or www.facebook.com/vaultartgallery for more information.
