I don’t know how many kids will be in the audience when Jamie O’Reilly sits down at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Sweden Shop, a charming store on Foster Avenue across the street from the Tre Kronor restaurant on the Northwest Side. “Children’s Storytime with Grandma Jamie” will be the first of what she and the shop’s owners hope will be an ongoing series of performances, the latest offering in what has been O’Reilly’s lifetime of entertaining.
I have no idea what stories she will be reading, though they are intended for children ages 3-6. The stories are from books she has read to her own grandchildren — she has three, Cosmo, Arlo and Olive — and though it is hardly my place to suggest material for the show, I think these little kids might be well served by listening to the story of O’Reilly’s life, for it is so imbued with art and music that it could inspire the children, and inspire those of any age.
She was the ninth of 14 children born and raised in Crystal Lake. Her father, James O’Reilly, was a figure in the local theater scene, and the family house was filled with music and creative activities. After her father left the family, she was raised primarily by her mother, Winifred Ann O’Reilly, who died in the spring of 2019. If there was a bright light to her death at the age of 94, it was that her funeral was the first time all of her children had gathered together since James’ death in 1990.
At the time, O’Reilly told me her mother “was able to teach all of us how art is always around us in our lives.” Winifred Ann O’Reilly, nee Giebel, was tireless in her pursuit of arts and culture. Once the children were old enough for school, she earned some money giving private voice and drama lessons, and in the house there was always music.
In addition to Jamie, there is son Beau O’Reilly, who helped found the band Maestro Subgum and the Whole, its theatrical offshoot the Curious Theatre Branch and the annual fringe extravaganza called Rhinofest. Other siblings and their partners have also had an artistic and cultural impact in various ways as performers, teachers, singers and actors.
Jamie O’Reilly graduated from the DePaul University School of Music and spent the next decade on the local club scene as the lead singer of the band Jamie O’Reilly & The Rogues. She married actor Tom Amandes, had two children (Meg and Nia) and divorced.
More Top Picks Best Scalp Massagers
As a single mom and a solo performer, she had many fruitful collaborations with Michael Peter Smith, who was an enchanting and prolific figure. He was part of the folk boom, as one of its great singer-songwriters (“The Dutchman”). He wrote the music for the Steppenwolf Theatre production of “The Grapes of Wrath,” founded Weavermania, recorded dozens of albums, and toured nationally and internationally.
He and O’Reilly created such powerful shows as “Pasiones: Songs of the Spanish Civil War,” “Hello Dali,” “Scarlet Confessions” and a holiday CD and show titled “The Gift of the Magi.” O’Reilly also headed J. O’Reilly Productions, an artists management, development and production company.
I have known and admired O’Reilly for decades, shared a stage with her on occasion, and will be doing so again at an upcoming Chicago Literary Hall of Fame event. One of the most memorable stage-sharing events took place at a 2009 memorial service for our mutual friend Studs Terkel, who once called O’Reilly “especially gifted, with her vibrant voice and a passion for life.”
Smith’s death in 2020 combined with the ensuing pandemic’s closures and distancing made for some down days for O’Reilly and many other artists and performers. But she has been emerging with a renewed energy and sense of purpose.
The Sweden Shop reading was born thusly: “I had been reading books I bought at the shop to my grandchildren for some time and it was my sister Dorothy’s suggestion that I expand into the community,” she says. “Just to be planning this has given me a fresh outlook and renewed excitement.”
It should give the kids, and the parents who hang around, a fine time.
“Grandma Jamie’s Children’s Storytime” will be 2 p.m. Saturday at Sweden Shop, 3304 W. Foster Ave.; free, www.jamieoreilly.com