Old Town Art Fair

Donna Herula Trio – Old Town Art Fair – June 14, 2025

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I really got my money’s worth – there were four musicians in the Donna Herula Trio.

I’d never heard of the Independent Blues Awards (given out by Making the Scene!, the self-proclaimed #1 resource for the independent artist and the fans who love them), but winning anything is probably better than not winning it, so I figured Herula’s 2022 awards for Best Acoustic Blues Album (Bang at the Door) and Best Traditional Blues Artist might be indicative of someone I’d want to hear.

I was right, though, interestingly, this was not an acoustic performance (still, no earplugs necessary).

I liked all the songs the trio (quartet?) played from the album, starting with the title song, and followed by Can’t Wait to See My Baby, which, we were told, is normally a duet sung by Herula and her husband, Tony Nardiello (but he apparently could wait, because he wasn’t there, and she instead sang both parts herself).

Herula enlisted the audience to repeatedly repeat the hook in I Got No Way Home, a lyric that, perhaps, explained her husband’s absence.

The album contains two versions of Black Ice, a song Herula wrote based on the couple’s survival of a driving mishap. She originally wrote lyrics, but her husband told her that a blues song can’t have a happy ending, so she also recorded an instrumental version, which is what she played for us, even though hubby wasn’t there to know.

The hour and a half set also featured legendary blues songs, including Walkin’ Blues, Give Me Back My Wig and You’re Gonna Miss Me When I’m Dead and Gone.

The next good opportunity for me to see Herula will be in August at the Navy Pier Beer Garden. I’ll be there. I don’t know if Nardiello will make it.

Raviv – Around Town – June 8, 2024

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I wanted to see the trio Raviv, for my my first time seeing electric cello players (two brothers, one in college and the other in high school, which hasn’t stood in the way of them getting bar gigs), at the Old Town Art Fair, but wasn’t sure I could get there in time, so I decided I’d see them later in the day instead at the Wells Street Art Fair, which is less crowded and closer.

But there was the expectation of rain in the afternoon (appropriately Raviv translates as rain or raindrops), so, despite running late, I rushed to see some of their set at the OTAF.

Of course, the weather then started clearing up, so I decided to double up and see what I had missed of them at the WSAF, where my hand stamp from the OTAF would do me no good whatsoever in terms of entry. I went home first and changed shoes so they wouldn’t recognize me and think I was some kind of stalker.

There was no cowbell, but there was loud drumming, which, though good, I would have turned the volume down on to better highlight the cellos. I’ve heard drums before.

The brothers played the cellos like electric guitars, if those had only four strings, and were planted on the ground and played upright, with bows, in a way that put Jimmy Page’s bowing with The Yardbirds to shame.