Take It to the Bridge

For more than 25 years, Mark Caro wrote about music, film, food, and other cultural topics for the Chicago Tribune, and he since has written for The New York Times and other publications. He is author of The Foie Gras Wars (Simon & Schuster) which won the 2009 Great Lakes Book Award for general nonfiction and two prizes from the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards in Paris. He also created and hosts the popular "Is It Still Funny?" film series in Chicago. He lives in the Chicago area with his wife, radio personality Mary Dixon, and their two daughters. Steve Dawson is a singer/songwriter/musician who leads the rock/folk band Dolly Varden and has taught songwriting and guitar at Chicago's Old Town School of Folk Music for more than a decade. He has been writing songs for more than 30 years. His band Dolly Varden has released six acclaimed studio albums and toured the U.S. and Europe. He has written and recorded two solo albums; a duets album with his wife, Diane Christiansen, and an album with three of Chicago's most revered improvising musicians in a band called Funeral Bonsai Wedding. At his recording studio, Kernel Sound Emporium, he has produced more than two dozen albums by up-and-coming songwriters.