QUAD CITIZEN TO KNOW
CJ Parker Quad Cities Musician
Like a musical octopus, Rock Island’s CJ Parker has his talented tentacles plugged into many sonic outlets in the area, and the results are electrifying. The 25-year-old Davenport Central alum plays keyboards, bass and tuba (among other instruments), is a busy singer-songwriter, director of bands at Bettendorf’s Rivermont Collegiate, vocalist with 10 of Soul, private teacher at QC Rock Academy, and expects to have his new self-produced full-length record out by the middle of 2026. “It’s such a unique job, but I’m loving every second,” Parker says of the private Rivermont, where he has 15 students in the middle and upper school bands. “The staff is cool. They’re super supportive of the program and it’s gonna keep growing.” At 21, after sending an original song, Parker was spotlighted on MTV Music News as a “Rising Star Due for Take Off.” He made his solo performing debut that year playing at RIBCO, and he loves the QC music scene. Favorite gigs have taken him to opening for a packed crowd and Here Come the Mummies at East Moline’s Rust Belt, to several times at Davenport’s Raccoon Motel, and singing the national anthem for the Iowa Hawkeyes’ women’s basketball home games. “I love if it’s just me and a piano and 50 people. I love it and they’re all just sitting intently watching,” Parker says, noting QC musicians support each other, as does the public. “I haven’t moved because I love it so much and people will always ask me like, ‘When are you gonna head out?’ I will say, ‘What’s the point if I’m getting what I’m getting here, like we have what bigger cities have here,” he says. “There’s no reason to, here I have everything I need.” —Jonathan Turner
Alternating Currents Festival
The Alternating Currents Festival will take place in August, featuring over 100 free shows, celebrating original live music, film screenings, art and stand-up comedy. It will be hosted in 40+ venues throughout downtown Davenport, Bettendorf and Rock Island. Several free summer music series happen each year in the QC, including Live@Five on Friday nights in the Common Chord courtyard; the Bass Street Landing Concert Series Thursdays at the plaza on Moline’s 17th Street off River Drive; concerts Thursday nights outside the Bettendorf Public Library ; the East Moline Summer Concert Series is Sunday nights at Runner’s Park ; Lincoln Park in Rock Island hosts a Starlight Revue free concert series on Tuesday nights, and Schwiebert Riverfront Park in Rock Island hosts Thursday Night Groove free concerts from August through October. The QC theater scene alone offers a delicious cornucopia of options, including the professional Circa ’21 Dinner Playhouse , Rock Island, whose new season includes the comic murder mystery “Lucky Stiff,” and musicals “Honky Tonk Angels,” “Fiddler on the Roof,” “Wizard of Oz,” and “Rock of Ages.”
22 VisitQuadCities.com
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