Terre haute tribune star readers choice 2023

Thirteen missing black keys from a symbolic piano epitomize one of Terre Haute’s most underestimated resources — music.

Vandals plucked the granite keys from the marble keyboard of the Brick Piano sculpture at the Crossroads Plaza in downtown Terre Haute. It likely happened earlier this summer. Now, folks who organized the effort to create the sculpture — honoring local musicians and Wabash Valley Musicians Hall of Fame members — are teaming with the sculptor and the Musicians Hall to repair, replace and secure its black keys, just four years after the Brick Piano was unveiled.

Ironically, the repair project comes in September, when thousands of Hauteans and Wabash Valley residents enjoy a bevy of live music performances.

Occasionally, Terre Haute has aptly labeled and celebrated September as “Live Music Month.” And, the Crossroads Plaza served as the site of a “Live Music Lunch” series of musical performances.

It would be great to see that happen regularly, especially after the opening of the new Terre Haute Convention Center and the likelihood of more downtown visitors.

Branding September “Live Music Month” would basically acknowledge an existing situation, though the label would raise expectations and nudge the community to meet those. September 2022 exemplifies the level of local musical events that are typically packed into those 30 days.

A cornerstone of Terre Haute live music, the Blues at the Crossroads Festival, unfolded again on closed-off Wabash Avenue last weekend, just as it has since 2001.

This time, though, the festival expanded to two outdoor stages, as well as stages inside The Verve nightclub, operated by Blues Fest organizer Connie Wrin. Twenty-two acts performed through two days, including bands with national, regional and local followings. Wrin and her team have created a tradition that proves live music can draw a crowd here, with throngs as large as 10,000 turning out for the Blues Fest in good-weather years.

Live performances this month are hardly limited to the Blues Fest. The Terre Haute German Oberlander Club’s 48th annual Oktoberfest runs today and Saturday at the Wabash Valley Fairgrounds, with polka tunes from 5 to 11 p.m. both nights by Fort Wayne’s Jay Fox and the Jammin’ Germans and Terre Haute’s Streamliners. The annual Sullivan County Rotary Club Corn Festival at Sullivan’s Central Plaza completes four days of music with Beatles tribute band BritBeat at 8 p.m. tonight and Who’s Bad — the Ultimate Michael Jackson Experience at 8 p.m. Saturday. Bands and solo performers will also play pubs, wineries and Legion halls.

Plus, an iconic name in Southern rock history — Lynyrd Skynyrd — brings a roster of unforgettable 1970s and ‘80s classics like “Free Bird” and “Sweet Home Alabama” to The Mill on Prairieton Road on Terre Haute’s south side for a 7 p.m. concert, opened by Tennessee solo country artist Kendall Marvel. General admission tickets run $46 per person and remain available, Mill co-owner Kelly Drake said Thursday.

On Sunday, the Wabash Valley Musicians Hall of Fame inducts its fall Class of 2022 with a luncheon ceremony and jam session from noon to 6 p.m. at the Zorah Shrine on North Seventh Street. The inductees include Jon Adams, Randy Andrew, Richard Birdsong, Jeff Cartwright, Susan Clark, Wayne Cottrell, Billy Goodrich, Robert Mason, Mike McLeish, Scott Mercer, Phil Morgan, Todd Raley, Don Reed, Mike Rolle and Tony Shuman. Tickets are $15 per person and available at The Music Shoppe, State Farm Insurance on Margaret Avenue, or from any Hall board member and at the door.

It’s the Musicians Hall’s primary fundraiser and supports charitable donations to school music programs and other nonprofits, board member Andrew Hayes said. Those projects — and the decades of tunes played by Hall inductees for listeners at bars, churches, festivals, grand openings, weddings, funerals, parties and parades — prompted Don Seybold, and Michael and Susan Tingley to organize an effort to place a sculpture downtown to honor local musicians and the town’s musical history.

“We saw it as a gift to the city,” Susan Tingley said Tuesday.

Grateful Hall members joined the cause along with others, including downtown businessmen Al Ruckriegel and David Adams, owners of the Crossroads Plaza. Funds were raised. Mark Nicklasch, an artist and bricklayer, was enlisted and created the Brick Piano. It was dedicated Sept. 6, 2018.

Four years later, several of its stolen granite black keys are being replaced so Nicklasch can reinstall the full set more securely. Hall board member Doc Long alerted the Tingleys about the missing keys, and the couple — both experienced artists — carefully removed the remaining keys to prevent more thefts and got them to Nicklasch. The Musicians Hall helped fund repairs, and Nicklasch took the keys to a monument company, so replacements could be made.

It’s unclear whether the black keys loosened in the weather and passersby took them, or if vandals pried them off.

“As things are, if things aren’t nailed down, people tend to walk off with it,” Nicklasch said. The Putnam County-based and Indiana State University-trained artist hopes to inlay the refurbished keys this fall.

It would be fitting for the Crossroads Plaza — an area near Sixth and Wabash with seating, historical markers toasting the city’s transportation history and a performance space — to become a more regular site of musical events in 2023 and beyond. Especially in Septembers.

Terre Haute Mayor Duke Bennett said Tuesday he would “absolutely” support more music performances at the plaza, with the owners’ permission.

“We would be fine with the plaza being used for this,” Adams confirmed later Tuesday.

While steady, private sponsors would be needed, Terre Haute has plenty of musicians and bands to handle the music. Septembers make that clear.

Entertainment is essential for the city, if it expects to get more visitors and newcomers, and sustain that growth. Put the community’s musicians and venues to use.

Mark Bennett can be reached at 812-231-4377 or .

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