QC Beats, an online audio streaming service, is taking submissions from local musicians the entire month of October. Thanks to the partnership of the Davenport Public Library, River Music Experience, and St. Ambrose University, QC Beats was created to showcase original music from Quad City musicians. Building a collection of featured local artists will expand the reach of our vibrant creative community by elevating musicians and connecting them with the larger community. QC Beats will also help support local musicians by paying them a $100 honorarium and feature artist biographies, upcoming show... Read More

Einstein’s Sister will release their first record in almost two decades TODAY at Record Store Day at CoOp Records in Moline! Throughout this week we’ve been recapping the band’s career in our special Einstein’s Sister Spotlight on QuadCities.com! The following is the first review Sean Leary wrote of the band’s recorded material, reviewing the first Douglas and Tucker album, titled ‘Einstein’s Sister.’ The review first ran on Sean’s blog, What The *&^%^&** Is Sean Leary Thinking, on April 11, 1996.   Jonesing for Squeeze? If so,... Read More

Saturday in the Arts is a comprehensive, in-depth look at a personality, issue, or trend in the Quad-Cities arts and entertainment scene, running every Saturday morning on your site for fun, free, local entertainment and features, QuadCities.com.   Hannah Holman has a dream and it’s tantalizingly close to coming true. The passionate principal cellist for the Quad City Symphony Orchestra – of which she’s been a member since 2001 – has spent years planning and forming the Quad City Music Academy, which is now a registered nonprofit organization with an accomplished local board of directors... Read More

Contrary to many people on Earth, 2020 has been a pretty good year for the Avey Grouws Band, and it’s getting better all the time. The Quad-Cities-based blues rock outfit (whose female lead singer lives in Decorah, Iowa) hit the top 10 on the Billboard Blues Album Chart for its debut disc; is nominated by Blues Blast Magazine for best Debut Album New Artist; was a semi-finalist in this year’s International Blues Challenge, and is the inaugural artist for a new online series presented by River Music Experience and Joy Avenue Media. The new J.A.M. Sessions – starting 6 p.m. Friday with the... Read More

Fourteen years before Aug. 6 was burned into the world’s memory (with the 1945 U.S. atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, killing more than 70,000 people), that date marked another impactful death. Davenport native and jazz legend Leon Bismark (“Bix”) Beiderbecke died Aug. 6, 1931 at age 28, from alcohol abuse and lobar pneumonia in his Queens, N.Y., apartment. His mother and brother Burnie were on their way to New York but arrived too late. Bix’s body was returned to Davenport with services on Aug. 11, 1931 at Hill & Frederick’s Funeral Home, and burial at Oakdale Cemetery,... Read More