As usual, I don’t know where to start… this time it’s with Steve Poltz. If you don’t know him and you haven’t seen him before, you really should! He inspires me to live my life to the fullest through his songs, his stories and his lifestyle. He tells his story on stage amidst songs. It’s not always the same parts of the story, because it’s his life story and he’s no spring chicken and he has songs to sing too. The gist for me is that he had a stroke (young it would seem, because though he is no spring chicken, he isn’t that old either and he had the stroke years ago) and doesn’t remember a lot of his life pre-stroke… things like co-writing a hit song with Jewel. When he tells his stories, they are funny and just a little bit sad and they make me want to do all the things on my bucket list but more importantly, they also make this cold, little black heart of mine just a tiny bit warmer and less black. It’s true! There’s just something about Steve Poltz that makes me so freakin-dammit-eggs happy. He makes me realize that I have a great life with great friends and though I don’t see all of them frequently enough, I try to stay connected and let them know that I love them and I try to be present and enjoy the moments when we are together.

Steve is also well connected in the local music scene so his shows tend to be a good time with special guests on stage and run-ins with your favorite local artists/celebrities off-stage. Local celeb, KC Turner, is promoting both of these shows.  For a full listing of KC’s current shows, go to his website at http://www.kcturnerpresents.com/. KC is how I ‘discovered’ Steve Poltz in September 2015 (and Birds of Chicago on the same night — what a night!!!!). I owe KC big time and not just for this; he’s instrumental in my live music journey and also turned me on to Darrin Bradbury.

So all in all, you should try to catch one of these shows…. but if you can’t make it to the Hopmonk on Sunday, there’s always Stern Grove with M Ward and Thao and the Get Down Stay Down.