Big John Cannon and The Lowdown Drifters bring road-worn country to The Law Office on Thanksgiving weekend

The Lowdown Drifters' frontman tops a $20 Saturday-night bill on Bridge Street in Yorkville, Nov 28.

The Saturday after Thanksgiving is a strange night in the Fox Valley: the relatives are still in town, the leftovers are running low, and everybody wants an excuse to get out of the house. The Law Office Pub & Music Hall in Yorkville just handed people one. Big John Cannon plays the Bridge Street room on Saturday, Nov 28, with The Lowdown Drifters on the bill. Music starts at 9pm, and tickets are $20 through Prekindle.

The date was announced Oct 28, which gives this one a few weeks to get around town before the holiday swallows everyone's calendar. In a room this size, that matters. Waiting until the Wednesday before is a gamble.

If the two names on the bill look related, that's because they are. John Cannon, who goes by "Big John," is the singer and guitarist out front of The Lowdown Drifters, according to a Rolling Stone feature on the band. Rolling Stone reports that Cannon started the group in Stanwood, Washington, in 2015 with Ryan Klein, who now manages the band. The lineup it lists rounds out with Dylan Welsh on lead guitar, Raina Wallace on bass, Josh Willaert on drums and Doug Rehfeldt on fiddle. The magazine headlined its piece "The Lowdown Drifters Left Trucking Behind, But Not the Road," and that's a fair shorthand for the band's sound: country with the windows down, built for long drives and longer nights.

The catalog backs it up. The band put out the EP *Cheating on a Memory* in 2022, which Country Music France reviewed that fall. Their most recent full-length, *In Time*, came out Oct 25, 2024, with producer Wes Sharon behind the board, and Saving Country Music's review placed the group in the country, rock and Americana lane where a lot of the best independent country lives right now. Back in 2022, Whiskey Riff was already telling readers to get listening.

Country with the windows down, built for long drives and longer nights.

Then there's the room. The Law Office sits at 226 S. Bridge Street, a short walk from the Fox River, in a building that Oh42Fifty reported went up in 1865 and housed an actual law practice from the 1980s until 2015, before the bar took it over. That same 2019 piece laid out the house rules plainly: there's no kitchen, so it's cocktails and music. Business partner and bartender Ben Seaver told the outlet the whole point was supporting live music, and the place has kept that focus since.

That makes it a good fit for a band like this. A Saturday-night country show in a room built around the stage, rather than one where the band is wallpaper for a dinner crowd, is exactly where a fiddle-and-steel outfit earns new fans. It's also a short drive for anyone in Aurora, Oswego or Plano who'd rather not make the trip into the city on a holiday weekend.

A few practical notes. The show starts at 9pm, so eat before you go, since the bar doesn't serve food. Parking and directions are on the venue's own site. And at $20, this is one of the cheaper ways to see a touring country band in the western suburbs this fall.

Thanksgiving weekend usually means a couch and a football game. This year, out on Bridge Street, it can mean a fiddle, a cold drink and a band that's spent a decade learning how to own a Saturday night.

Sources: The Lowdown Drifters Left Trucking Behind, But Not the Road (Rolling Stone) (rollingstone.com); Album Review – The Lowdown Drifters – In Time (Saving Country Music) (savingcountrymusic.com); Album review – The Lowdown Drifters' Cheating On A Memory (Country Music France) (countrymusicfrance.fr); If You're Not Already, Get Listening To The Lowdown Drifters (Whiskey Riff) (whiskeyriff.com); The Law Office: a shimmer of hope for live music (Oh42Fifty) (oh42fifty.org); The Law Office Pub & Music Hall (official site) (lawofficepub.com); Big John Cannon tickets (Prekindle) (prekindle.com); JamBase listing (jambase.com)