Tomorrow, Eight Forty-Eight is hitting the road and traveling to Springfield for a live broadcast from the Illinois State Capitol.

But today we’re taking a journey of a slightly different sort.

It’s a journey through the history of Illinois as told through its folk music.

The Illinois Humanities Council has just released the first two volumes of a three-volume set of compact discs.

It chronicles an enormous melting pot of folk traditions from 1800 to 1950.

The project is the work of Bucky Halker.

He’s a senior program officer at the Humanities Council and a musician and historian in his own right.

He says the idea for the project grew out of his own experiences.

Our segment on the Folksongs of Illinois was produced by Sarah Toulouse with special assistance from audio engineer Mary Gaffney.

You can catch Bucky Halker and a host of local musicians performing and celebrating the folksongs of Illinois at a release party.

It takes place this Friday at 6 p.m. at Martyrs' on Lincoln Ave. in Chicago.

The show is free and open to the public.