BROADWAY MEETS THE BLUES TO BENEFIT ARTS

Broadway meets the blues on behalf of the arts Thursday night.

Nona Chapman will sing Broadway tunes and Van Gogh's Ear will play blues and rock Thursday night at Rufus Mudsucker's Restaurant in a benefit for the Arts Council of Southeast Missouri. The performance will be the swan song for Van Gogh's Ear, a power trio that has been a mainstay of the Cape Girardeau music scene since February 1996.

Chapman's "Off-Broadway" performance will be presented from 7-9:30. Accompanied by pianist Bev Reece, Chapman will sing tunes from the Broadway shows "My Fair Lady," "Babes in Arms," "South Pacific," "The Secret Garden," "Sweeny Todd," "A Little Night Music," "Show Boat," "Sunset Boulevard," "Oklahoma, "Smoky Joe's Cafe" along with "It Goes Like It Goes" from the movie "Norma Rae."

Dr. Peter Hirschburg, host of "Themes Familiar" on KRCU, will conduct a trivia contest.

Chapman studied vocal music at Southeast under Doyle Dumas, Shirley Zielinski and Louisa Panou-Takahashi. She has sung with the Cape Girardeau Municipal Band and at Riverfest, and before many civic and charitable groups and state and national organizations.

Van Gogh's Ear will plug in at 10:30 and continue until 1 a.m. Tickets for each of the performances are $7.

Eric Dahl, guitarist and leader of Van Gogh's Ear, characterized the band's decision to stop playing after Thursday night as "a much needed hiatus ... Everybody tells me we will be back in nine months or a year, but everybody is trying to focus on their jobs."

Since forming, the band has been performing almost every weekend and sometimes three times a weekend, most often in Cape Girardeau but as far north as Farmington and south to Sikeston.

"We've been playing for four years hard," Dahl said.

Dahl is director of operations and promotions at KBSI-TV. Drummer Jay Bond is a manager at Edgewater Glass. Bassist Allan Palermo, who got married last weekend, is employed at Keys Music.

Dahl and Bond have been with the band since the beginning. Palermo is the last of three bass players.

At last year's Southeast Missouri Music Awards presentation during the City of Roses Festival, Dahl, Bond and Palermo won awards as the top musicians on their respective instruments, and Van Gogh's Ear was named best rhythm and blues band.

The band members listen to lots of other bands but always particularly liked the approach to playing music taken by Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble, Dahl said.