Prairie Crossroads Blues Society

Champaign-Urbana IL


Upcoming Meeting

May Meeting
6:00 pm, Wednesday May 15
Louie's Dixie Kitchen & BBQ
1104 N. Cunningham Ave. Urbana

Come for our meeting and stay for a bite to eat and a beverage or two. We'll be discussing our future plans for summer events and beyond. Remember that all PCBS memebers are eligible for the Free CD giveaway at the conclusion of our monthly meeting. Phil Hult and Sherry Cibelli won the CD give aways at our April Meeting at Destihl.

Thanks to the folks from Fluid Events who came to our April meeting and gave an outstanding presentation about the upcoming Champaign Blues, Brews & BBQ's Fest.

PCBS is looking for some young talent. Does your school or youth organiztion have a musical group who'd like to perform at the Champaign Blues, Brews & BBQ Fest in June? Contact us at: prairiecrossroadsblues@gmail.com

We're almost 3 years old!

PCBS Raffle - Rossville Sound Werx SF112

[RSW Speaker Cab]

Thanks to the fine folks at Rossville Sound Werx who've provded us with a 1 x 12 professional series cabinet (with a Celestion Vintage 30). We're holding a raflle and we'll be picking the winner Saturday evening at Champaign Blues, Brews & BBQ Fest. We'll have all details of the raffle on our website soon!

Rossville Sound Werx manufactures speaker cabinets in various configurations and hand wired point to point tube amplifiers. Their products provide quality, durability and awesome sound. Check out all their terrific products.

[RSW Logo]

This sound equipment is locally made and of the highest quality. PCBS member band, The James Jones Trio uses Rossville Sound Werx equipment.

Blues in the Library

[Kids in the Library]

What a fun time everyone had at Prairie Crossroads Blues Society's second Blues In The Schools - Library Edition, which we held at the Urbana Free Library on Saturday March 30th.

Thanks in part to the Orange Krush Foundation for their generous grant, we once again reached out to the area youth to educate them about blues history and teach them some harmonica basics. We also want to send a big thanks to the Urbana Free Library who provided a terrific venue and the audio/visual equipment that allowed us to put on such a great event.

Courtney Cain, a graduate student at the U. of I. in African-American History, gave an oustanding talk including a Power Point presentation on blues history. Thanks to Courtney for making her slides available to all. Then Doug Schroer, a local harmonica player and educator, taught some harmonica basics and demostrated a few advanced harmonica techniques.

[Blues in the Library]

We handed out free harmonicas to all the kids who came through the door, and many of the parents as well. A special thanks goes to our friends at Samuel Music for a generous donation of some of the harmonicas and a great deal on the rest.

What a fantastic job our instructors did at both the Champaign Public Library on Saturday Feb. 9 and at the Urbana Free Library on Saturday March 30.

Thanks to all the attendees and contributors. We loved seeing you at the library.

Check out our Education page for details about our Blues in the Schools programs. Contact us if your organization would like to have us present a similar program at your location.

Remember, you can make a Donation to our Education Fund through PayPal.

Blues Shows

[Kilbron Alley Promo Picture]

Saturday, April 27
The Iron Post
120 S. Race St., Urbana
The Kilborn Alley Blues Band
13th Anniversary Party

What a fun party Kilborn Alley Blues Band and their guests put on to celebrate their 13th Anniversary at The Iron Post on Saturday April 27. Featured singer Abraham Johnson, original harmonica player Joe Asselin, Dave Fauble on sax, with Willie Buck sittin' in on vocals, Martin Lang on harmonica, and multi-instrumentalist Gerry Hundt on guitar, mandolin, harmonica and keyboards.

The club was packed and everyone had a great time.

Check out Kilborn's website; Kilborn Alley or their Facebook page for their complete schedule and more info.

For information on other shows, check our Events and Calendar pages.


Want to help support the blues? Consider becoming a Member of PCBS. We support blues throughout our community and the world, and want to educate everyone about the history and value of this amazing musical art form.

PCBS is a non-profit organization formed to promote blues music and artists in East Central Illinois. We're a proud affiliate of The Blues Foundation.