Music - The LocaL

MaFest Celebrates Music, Art, Heritage and Mothers

Posted on April 2, 2025April 2, 2025 by Editor - the Local

Embracing The Soul As Mother’s Day weekend approaches, Columbus prepares to ignite with creativity, culture, and community at the inaugural “Ma” Fest, held May 10 – 11 in the Historic Liberty District. The festival pays tribute to Ma Rainey, our “Mother of the Blues,” celebrating her monumental impact on music while revitalizing a district with deep cultural roots. “This isn’t just a festival; it’s the dawn of a new arts and cultural institution in Georgia,”…

Keni Thomas: A Hometown Hero’s Musical Homecoming

Posted on April 1, 2025April 24, 2025 by Editor - the Local

The air crackles with anticipation, and a familiar tune hums in the background, as Columbus prepares for a return that promises to reignite the local music scene. Country star and Army veteran Keni Thomas, with his band, Cornbread, is set to perform at The Loft on April 12, in a show that captures not only the spirit of his musical journey but also the deep connections that have shaped his life. This night at the…

Riding the Rail

Posted on March 3, 2025March 3, 2025 by Editor - the Local

Annual Opelika Songwriters Festival showcases top musical talents and the good times to be had in the sleepy railroad town. By Frank Etheridge Downtown Opelika sure is a sweet lil’ bubble to be in. Bordered by two bridges and bisected by railroad tracks, the charming historic corridor dates back further than the town itself, as the Montgomery and West Point Railway Co. line arrived in 1848 — six years before Opelika (the Muscogee term for…

Grand Funk Railroad

Posted on March 3, 2025March 3, 2025 by Editor - the Local

Is Rolling Into Columbus By David Turner It was July 9, 1971, and all of Shea Stadium was shaking. Staff engineers were afraid the building might collapse. Whole sections of seating rode up and down as tens of thousands of screaming fans rocked to the music booming from the stage. The band and the crowd in the jam-packed stadium were locked together in the pure celebration called rock and roll. It took The Beatles three…

Columbus, GA: Music City

Posted on March 3, 2025March 3, 2025 by Editor - the Local

What happened to live music? By Miguel Juarez I don’t like to romanticize “The Good Old Days” because I firmly believe the world we are building is better every day than what it used to be. If that’s not the case, it is us who are failing. Just like every generation before us, it is our responsibility to pick up what we were given and run with it as far as we can. I was…

If You’re Reading This, Thank YOU

Posted on January 8, 2025January 8, 2025 by Editor - the Local

For Another Year of Jazz By Miguel Juarez And just like that, we’re halfway through the decade. There’s a saying that goes, “The days are long, but the years are short,” and 2025 came lighting fast. Thanks to all of you who are reading this and who are supporting live music and the arts, the Columbus Jazz Society made it another year and is able to continue advocating for our unique culture. We have been…

Same As It Ever Was

Posted on November 22, 2024March 3, 2025 by Editor - the Local

The story of local band Skydog Gypsy comes with a pocketful of legend. By Frank Etheridge “There are people who have been to hundreds of our shows — and that’s more shows than I’ve played,” Josh Becker (half) jokes about the rabid fanbase for Skydog Gypsy. Four (or five) phenomenal talents playing transcendent tunes with jaw-dropping prowess, the seminal Columbus jam band – in the four (or five) years following its 1998 debut at the…

Tommy Prine – The Righteous Path

Posted on September 5, 2024September 5, 2024 by Editor - the Local

Rising folk-rocker Tommy Prine comes to Columbus with much more than a last name. By Frank Etheridge When the Local chatted with Tommy Prine by phone from his home in East Nashville in mid-April, the ascendant rock/folk/country singing poet had not yet come down with a case of pneumonia that would shelve his band’s Deep South string of shows, which included a stop at the Loft in Columbus. He had, however, already embarked on a…

The Columbus Jazz Society

Posted on August 7, 2024August 7, 2024 by Editor - the Local

Gospel Jazz By Dr. David Banks Just as there are at least seven different styles of jazz music, there are at least seven distinct styles of gospel music. It would follow naturally then that the styles, at some point, would overlap or crossover. “Gospel/Jazz” has been coined out of this overlap as a distinct style of music because of what both styles have in common. The same conditions which gave rise to gospel also gave…

Hustle & Flow

Posted on July 2, 2024July 2, 2024 by Editor - the Local

Singer IveY Ruth Jones – Steps Into A New Unknown Enjoying an IPA from Maltitude at Banks Food Hall after work, Ivey – such a future of Columbus rock ‘n roller she’s on a first-name basis with the scene – says she enjoys the rhythm of the freelance lifestyle, going between seasonal work as a self-professed river rat who “loves to show off Columbus” and a gigging musician. “With both, it’s all Go! Go! Go!…

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