Music Events in Rockford

Loga Metz with special guest Calvin Conway! Logan Metz is a musician, educator, and general polymath based in the American midwest. Metz moved to Los Angeles at 18, where he studied screenwriting and philosophy at Loyola Marymount University. After graduating, he worked as a music and English teacher in east LA, while touring and recording with a number of local bands. During this time he developed a creative and academic interest in the process of adapting classic literature into music, a subject which continues to inspire Metz’s work; he wrote plays, essays, poems, soundtracks and children’s albums, and would even go on to publish musical collaborations with Nigerian playwright and Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka. In 2015 Metz earned a master’s degree from the University of Chicago — his thesis, a full-length 1960’s rock-opera adaptation of Shakespeare’s Othello — and soon after released his first solo album, The Last Remaining Payphone in L.A. In 2018 Metz won a Fulbright scholarship to teach at IE University in Madrid, but turned down the award in favor of re-joining his old college friends’ band, Lukas Nelson and Promise of the Real, as a multi-instrumentalist. Since then he has had the honor of playing with Neil Young, Stephen Stills, Joe Walsh, Jimmy Buffett, Eddie Vedder, Warren Haynes, Robby Krieger, John Densmore, Mike McCready, Bob Weir, and in 2023 began playing piano on tour with Willie Nelson himself.

Wayne Baker Brooks is considered one of today’s top guitarists whose signature style combines powerful vocals with liquid fire guitar playing that honors his rich blues heritage yet effortlessly expands the boundaries of the genre. Born and raised in Chicago, IL amongst the most prolific blues legends and blues masters in the world, Wayne Baker Brook's blues roots may run deeper and broader than the Great Lakes themselves. Chicago Blues laid the foundation for Wayne's innovative style. Growing up Brooks was a regular visitor to such historic places as Chess Studios, Checkerboard Lounge, Wisefools, and many other blues landmarks at which he witnessed many live performances by blues masters like Buddy Guy, Jr. Wells, Luther Allison, KoKo Taylor, the great Muddy Waters, & his father. The youngest son of blues master Lonnie Brooks - Wayne Brooks was literally born into the blues! In 1997 he formed the Wayne Baker Brooks Band while continuing to work with his father's band. He made a cameo appearance in the film Blues Brothers 2000. WBB has performed with, supported/opened for, and appeared on TV with such notables as: Buddy Guy, Koko Taylor, Bo Diddley, Corey Harris, The Black Crowes, Otis Rush, Jr. Wells, Shemekia Copeland, Johnny Lang, Susan Tedeschi, Keb Mo, Jimmy Vivino, Buckwheat Zydeco, Robert Randolph, Taj Mahal, Mick Fleetwood, Otis Clay, Bobby Rush, Elvin Bishop, Billy Branch and many more...

THIS IS A GENERAL ADMISSION SHOW! LIMITED SEATING IS FIRST COME, FIRST SERVE! Something primal lurks in The Steepwater Bands music, but always wrestling with emotions and stories that are everyday ready music at once strut-inducing sexy and brass knuckles honest, a sound evolved smartly & patiently through countless gigs, running the bulls whenever and wherever they've been welcomed since 1998. AC/DC once said, "If you got the dollar, we got the song / Just wanna boogie woogie all night long," and The Steepwater Band surely embodies this lip-smacking urge to get some in this mean old world, befitting the group's Chicago roots and their earthy understanding of crackling city blues. The abiding, resounding passion inside this band is never in question. Dive into their seemingly endless catalog of songs just about anywhere, and the heart and muscle pumping away inside every track are palpable and present in a most pleasing way. Their sound is like a soundtrack for arm wrestling The Devil and then drinking shots with him 'til sunrise after you've pinned him down. Their songs bridge the miles between lovers, throw lines to brothers and sisters in need of some understanding and a spark that makes them shuffle, eyes closed, shaking off the day's heavy load, ready for another round because the right song by the right band made them feel they had enough fight left in them. That's the kind of band you're dealing with here, and they'll be doing this long after all the pretty boys, package acts, and pretenders have left the stage.