Tag Archives: Local Live

Local Live tonight features Handmade Moments

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Handmade-Moments-This week’s installment of the free Local Live concert series features the Fayetteville folk due Handmade Moments! Presented by the Oxford American magazine with help from sponsor Landers FIAT of Benton, Local Live showcases the best of local and regional music talent. Call ahead to make your reservations at South on Main to ensure a table.

Handmade moments is a folk/jazz duo from Fayetteville, Arkansas. Their music is reminiscent of 20’s dance hall hits and viper era jazz standards mixed with current themes… Plus some beatboxing. Although modern and fresh, Joel Ludford and Anna Horton‘s songwriting contains a subtle and humble vibe. Every show leaves fans lusting over Anna’s prolific voice, while Joel’s guitar grooves continue to ring in their bobbing heads. The duo will be heading west this fall and embarking on a European tour next summer. This is a band you want to catch while they’re in town. They wont be playing small venues for very long.

The music starts at 7:30 p.m.

Opera in the Rock at South on Main for Local Live – presented by Oxford American and Landers Fiat

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OperaInTheRock_logo-singleskylineThe great thing about Local Live at South on Main – each week is a different kind of music.

Join the Oxford American and Landers FIAT in welcoming Opera In The Rock to Local Live. This debut venture includes a varied program of vocal entertainment with standards from Opera as well as well-known and beloved Music Theater selections.

OITR is proud to present sopranos, Stephanie Smittle and Maria Fasciano Di Carlo, mezzo, Kelley Ponder, tenor, Matt Newman, and baritone, J. Daniel Altman. At the keyboard is Kristin Harwell. We hope you will come and enjoy our program which runs the gamut of sad, humorous, dramatic, and poignant songs loosely connected to the theme of Love Is Folly.

Call ahead to reserve your table for this classic event.

It starts at 7:30 pm.

Tonight at 7:30 – John Willis, King of the Cocktail Party at South on Main for Local Live

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local live logoJohn WillisJoin the Oxford American magazine and Landers FIAT of Benton, Arkansas at South on Main for this week’s Local Live concert, featuring soulful indie-pop pianist, John Willis. at 7:30 PM

Local Live is a free Wednesday night series featuring local and regional Arkansas musicians on a solo bill. Call ahead to guarantee your seat at a table for this popular weekly event!

John Willis, the self-dubbed “King of the Cocktail Party,” spent his early musical years as a classically trained pianist playing private parties and backing several successful performing artists around Little Rock, including Cody Belew and Bonnie Montgomery. With his new release, King of the Cocktail Party EP, Willis has stepped into his own light as a front man with an intoxicating blend of piano-based pop, jazz, and parlor music that has elicited comparisons to Harry Nilsson, Leon Russell, Rufus Wainwright, and Feist.

Raised on a steady diet of old-time gospel sung in his father’s church, Motown and early ’70s singer/songwriters beloved by his mother, and Chopin, Debussy, and Gershwin tapes given to him by an elderly mentor, Willis has grown up to create a sophisticated musical style that is both instantly familiar and at the same time fresh.

Willis is actively promoting his new release locally and planning a tour in the coming months with his band. Though he still delights cocktail party audiences as one of Little Rock’s favorite piano guys, he is enjoying the success of King of the Cocktail Party and sharing his stylish mix of piano grooves and heartfelt ballads with lush, vocal harmonies liberally dosed throughout. These well-crafted songs are as much a nod to the past as they are a well-placed note hovering on the musical horizon.