2020

Year 24

What a LONG strange trip it's been during the first half of 2020!! Damn!!! It's been very very weird!

As we turned the corner and rolled into 2020, which was suppose to be our home stretch, we were looking forward to celebrating our last year in business with a series of celebrations and parties beginning with Record Store Day in April, and ending with a fond farewell on July 31.

However, as luck would have it, or should we say bad luck, the world was hit with a virus, the likes of which we hadn't seen before. Yes, we have had several virus attacks in the past, but this one appeared to be different. But, I will say that I believe the jury is still out as to what we are witnessing and as to whether we approached and managed the situation properly. I can't wait to take a look into that rear view mirror and see what we see.

So ... as our world shut down at the end of March, I tried to figure out what the heck we were going to do for however long things were going to remain all messed up. We immediately went into a curbside and home delivery mode and we managed to do a little bit of business but nothing close to what was needed to keep the head above water. Yet, what business we did realize is very much appreciated and came by way of very kind and wonderful people who were doing what they could to help us stay alive. To all of you that worked with us and kept the records and cd's spinning, THANK YOU! We love you!

During the course of the next 2.5 months, I (Steve) kept coming to the store as shipments of new releases didn't stop. Mike worked from home ordering up the "new" stuff. I did the book work ... successfully applied for a small SBA loan ... emptied my five gallon water jug full of coins and deposited them into the KTS bank account and we did what we could to stay positive and sane. I listened to a TON of great music as well.

I hunkered down a bit here at the store ... I worked harder than ever handling the phone calls, text messages, emails and courier pigeons and tried to stay sane and focused not knowing how long we were going to be shut down.

On May 29, we reopened and celebrated the occasion with a Less Than Grand, Grand Reopening. People came ... they bought some stuff ... we told stories and shared our Quarantine Moments and thoughts and views on the situation. Viewpoints are scattered all over the landscape and run the gamut in terms of opinions. Such is America now ain't it!?

During all of this, Record Store Day was delayed from April to June and then revamped and delayed again to a trifecta taking place at the end of August, September and October, making it connect with Black Friday that takes place at the end of November.

That being the case, I decided that ending the Kiss The Sky journey at the end of this July did not appeal to me as I did not want to close up shop on a COVID sour note. Consequently, I am working on keeping the Kiss going for another year or two or three. We'll see. I am quickly approaching 70 and although I see that as a magical number worthy of a home stretch goal, go tell the mind and body that!

For the rest of June, I plan to work the store solo to see if business returns to the point where I can afford to have the gang return, which is what I would like to have happen as being a part of a "team" is certainly way more fun than talking to myself.

Hours have changed a little bit and they are posted on the ABOUT page on this website and they are noted on the Kiss the Sky Facebook Page as well.

Live Music will return to The Kiss as soon as we figure out what makes sense in terms of frequency and such. I've put together a couple of solo performances that were streamed during our Less Than Grand Reopening with Dave Ramont and Noah Gabriel providing the music. This may be a permanent type of thing as we get back to some sort of abnormality.

At the end of the day, I am thankful that everyone that is near and dear are healthy and for the most part are employed. I sincerely hope that all of you are doing good as well. I'm an eternal optimist. Therefore, I believe that there is always a silver lining in every dark cloud and I think that the dark clouds of the last few months are going to dissipate and we'll get exposed to that silver lining and some much needed sunshine. Vitamin D! That's what is needed to suck up the D in the COVID ... COVI sounds a lot less threatening!

If there is anything that you may need in your world of music, please don't hesitate to give me a call at 630-406-0086.

Hope to see you soon ...

All the best!

Steve

KTS Facebook Page

current projects

Please note that the Saturday Morning Cafe program generally begins at 10:30am while the Afternoon Cafe starts at 1:00pm. All of those shows are free of charge of course. Some of the Live From Kiss The Sky shows carry a cover charge … generally $5, with all of the proceeds going to the artists performing that night.

The Cafe Program runs from September thru May, thereby taking the summer off. Check back in the fall for more information regarding the Cafe Program.

The Live From Kiss The Sky shows have basically been assumed by the new music space in Aurora called The Venue. What we started here at Kiss The Sky when we first opened up in 1996 has been taken to a whole ‘nother level by The Venue, which we helped to create and get off of the ground.

The Venue

Five years ago, Scott Tipping (Cornmeal, Magic Box, Bluesman, Guitarman, Friend, Father, Good Man) and Steve Warrenfeltz (Kiss The Sky & Waterloo Sunset Records), started a project that was born out of being turned on to the knowledge of some mighty old and influential Blues recordings that were made right here in our own backyard. The recording sessions took place in the Sky Club atop the Leland Hotel in downtown Aurora, Illinois between May of 1937 and December 1938.

Those sessions were produced by Bluebird records which was founded by RCA Victor during the Great Depression and was intended to be a low priced or budget line of recordings primarily representing the Blues and Jazz genres. Historians and musicologists aptly refer to the recordings of that era as the Bluebird Sound.

For those of you that may know Scott and Steve, both are big big fans of the Blues and have been such for most of their lives beginning with their teen years listening to the likes of Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf as introduced to them by way of The Paul Butterfield Blues Band and The Yardbirds and Rolling Stones just to name a few. So, it came as no surprise that Scott and Steve would team up to put together a “tribute” to those Leland Bluebird recordings of 1937-1938 and calling that project The Leland Bluebird Sessions.

Beginning in November of 2013, Scott started to record interpretations of a dozen and half songs culled from the 320 plus that were originally recorded, and brought on board some of the best Roots and Blues and R&B musicians that Chicago had to offer and were known to Scott to be perfect for the project.

Featured artists included Robbie Fulks, Mae Koen, Mick Ducker, The Steepwater Band, Chicago Farmer, Mary Lou O’Brien, Nora O’Connor, Dave Nelson and Scott Tipping. Fantastic contributions were made by the many musicians, including Gerald Dowd, Scott Stevenson, Matt Thompson, Chuck Lacy, Anna Jacobson, Pete Galanis, Dave Herrero, Gary Schepers, Alex Hall, Rick Sherry, Don Stiernberg and John Abbey, in support of the featured artists

The Tribute Project Sessions took place at John Abbey’s Kingsize Soundlabs studios located on Chicago’s west side in an old print factory building and concluded in September of 2015.

The tribute tracks were mixed by John Abbey and mastered by John for compact disc production, and by Chicago Mastering Service for pressing to vinyl. The vinyl was pressed at Gotta Groove Records located in Cleveland during what turned out to be the days of the Chicago Cubs and Cleveland Indians World Series, oddly enough!

The compact disc version was released in June of 2016 while the vinyl version is scheduled for release in late February of 2017 to coincide with a performance by a representation of the artists involved in the project. We are calling that “representation” Leland!

For more information regarding the project, visit www.thelelandbluebirdsessions.com or www.skyclubrecords.com.