Illinois artist of the month: Micah Wall

• Arts & Culture
• Artist of the month
• Micah Wall
• woodworking
• functional art
• Sculpture
• design
• furniture design

Micah Wall is an artist based in Edwardsville who specializes in woodworking and personalized craftsmanship. He founded his own business called Unnatural Resources and prides himself in working with his hands and tools to bring beauty into our everyday lives and spaces.

Coming from a long line of craftsmen, the spirit to create and design is something he considers part of his DNA. He specializes in bringing others’ visions to reality and bringinging out the natural beauty in his materials.

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TBT to the Father of Chicago Blues, Muddy Waters, winning his first Grammy

• Muddy Waters
• Grammy
• Chicago Blues
• They Call Me Muddy Waters

In honor of the 59th Annual Grammy Awards this past weekend, we’re throwing it back to 1971 when the Father of Chicago Blues, Muddy Waters, won his first Grammy for his album They Call Me Muddy Waters.

Muddy Waters was born on April 4, 1913, in Issaquena County, Mississippi as McKinley Morganfield. He was raised by his grandmother after his mother’s death in 1918. His grandmother nicknamed him Muddy Waters because he frequently played in a muddy creek.

Muddy Waters began playing guitar at the age of 17. In 1940, he visited St. Louis and later joined the Silas Green tent show as a harmonica player and singer.
In 1943, Waters moved to Chicago where he worked in a paper mill. Soon thereafter, he began playing guitar at South Side clubs. He signed with Aristocrat Records in 1946 and recorded several singles. He recorded his first hit single, “Rollin’ Stone,” in 1950.

Muddy Waters helped pioneer the Chicago blues style, which earned him the nickname of the Father of Chicago Blues.

Muddy Waters went on to record a number of blues classics including “Honey Bee” in 1951, “I’m Your Hoochie Coochie Man” in 1954, “I’m Ready” in 1954 and “Mannish Boy” in 1955. In the 1960s he performed at concerts and festivals across the country and recorded several albums.

Waters made three of his best-selling albums in the late 1970s with producer and guitarist Johnny Winters. They performed together throughout the 1970s and 1980s.

Muddy Waters won his first Grammy for They Call Me Muddy Waters in 1971. He won the following year for The London Muddy Waters Session and at the awards ceremonies in 1975, 1978, 1979 and 1980.

Muddy Waters’s last public performance was in 1982. He died the following year of a heart attack in his home in Westmont, Illinois.

Muddy Waters was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987. He received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1992.

Valentine's Day at Pease's and Bunn Gourmet

• Springfield
• Business
• Pease's Candy,
• Bun Gourmet
• Valentine's Day

In celebration of Valentine's Day we caught up with Pease's and toured Peases at Bunn Gourmet to see how they prepare for one of the sweetest days of the year.

16 facts about our 16th president

In honor of President Lincoln’s birthday, here are 16 facts that you probably didn’t know about our 16th president: 

1. Hours before he was assassinated, Lincoln signed legislation creating the U.S. Secret Service. 

2. Lincoln was a wrestler, and a talented one at that. He lost only one match, out of an estimated 300, and he is enshrined in the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.

3. Lincoln read the Bible every day, but he never belonged to an organized church.

4. He supported women’s suffrage in 1836 – more than 80 years before the passage of the 19th Amendment.

5. When Lincoln was nine years old, his mother died after drinking tainted milk from southern Indiana that contained poisonous white snakeroot.

6. Lincoln was scheduled to take part in a duel, but it was called off at the last second.

7. He was the first president to use a telegraph, have a beard, and to be born outside of the 13 original colonies.

8. John Wilkes Booth and Abraham Lincoln were photographed together at Lincoln’s second inauguration.

9. In 1864, someone shot at Lincoln and pierced his hat.

10. John Wilkes Booth’s brother, Edwin Booth, saved the life of Lincoln’s son Robert. The young Lincoln fell off a train platform in New Jersey and Booth’s brother pulled him from the tracks.

11. In his US Senate race against Douglas, Lincoln won the popular vote but lost the election.

12. Ulysses S. Grant was supposed to accompany Lincoln to the show at Ford’s Theater, but he cancelled at the last minute.

13. Lincoln served as a judge on the Illinois Circuit Court.

14. A year after Lincoln died, a drunken assailant killed Lincoln’s dog, Fido.

15. Lincoln loved cats. He even let his cat eat at the White House dinner table.

16. He hated to be called Abe. Instead he preferred people call him Lincoln.