Alejandro Escovedo’s folk and blues stylings are rooted in the punk and rock bands of his youth, and the blend has been winning rave reviews ever since the release of his debut solo album in 1992. By March 1998, that had even morphed into an “Artist Of The Decade” award from alt-country music magazine No Depression — despite the fact that said decade still had nearly two years left. But he’s also seen darker times which often turn up in song: his first two albums grappled with the suicide of his first wife, for example, and a near-death encounter with Hepatitis C in 2003 might have ended differently without the benefit album put together by Steve Earle, John Cale, Lucinda Williams, and Jay Farrar to help cover his medical bills. Thankfully, Escovedo is now in good health, able to resume both his recording career with last summer’s Real Animal and his more-miles-than-money touring schedule.
Rising Nashville-flavored Carolina quartet Roman Candle opens with Whiskeytown styled alt-country tunes that have been cast using indie rock and power-pop molds.
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The award-winning local songwriter/guitarist and his eponymous local lineup play rootsy Americana tunes ranging from rockers to ballads from his brand new album, to be released here, which he recently recorded with a rhythm section consisting of old childhood friends.
The Brian Patrick Band - Tumbleweed
The Brian Patrick Band - Nowhere Left To Fall
The Brian Patrick Band - It Hurts Me More
The Brian Patrick Band - Don’t Believe In Me
The Brian Patrick Band - California
The Brian Patrick Band - Big Muddy
Adorable alt-folk youngsters Carl Anderson and Carleigh Nesbit open, but don’t you miss the Rogan Brothers simply because they’re not quite so adorable.
Carleigh Nesbit and Carl Anderson - Three Steps Out The Door [live]
Carleigh Nesbit and Carl Anderson - Passing Through
Carleigh Nesbit and Carl Anderson - Train Song
Carleigh Nesbit - Three Steps Out The Door
Carleigh Nesbit - River Run Dry
Carleigh Nesbit - Turn On The Heat
Carleigh Nesbit - Your City Skies
The Rogan Brothers - Into The Light
The Rogan Brothers - Heartbeat
The Rogan Brothers - Hang Tough
Twangy roots-rock and alt-country, equal parts Richmond and Austin and in the vein of Drive-By Truckers.
Wrinkle Neck Mules - Swagger and Honesty
Wrinkle Neck Mules - Cumberland Sound
Wrinkle Neck Mules - Black Skies For The High And Mighty
Undoubtedly the pride of Murfreesboro TN at this point (which probably isn’t saying all that much, but still), the three nutty and reportedly party-animal girls who head up Those Darlins make for a sloppy Tennessee country-punk hayride which Pitchfork famously likened to “Vivian Girls’ hillbilly cousins” and which gelled into a fascinatingly strange blend of rockabilly and estrogen on last summer’s acclaimed self-titled debut. Country-rock is largely a male world at this point, and while these girls probably can’t change that entirely on their own, they can at least start things off with a bang.
Those Darlins - Wild One
Those Darlins - Red Light Love
Ghoulish Alabama rockabilly quartet The Pine Hill Haints opens by playing a ton of really really ridiculously short spooky songs.
buy tickets onlineBy now you likely know both the synth-driven indie pop of Straight Punch (who, we are reminded, were doing the wolf-howl thing in their songs long before Shakira) and the rocking Americana of Pantherburn, but yikes, what to do with classically-minded Brooklyn chamber-pop quartet The Fancy? They’re huge fans of both Mariah Carey and Fleetwood Mac and count among their numbers a viola player and a bassoon player, the latter an alum — this would be the fanciest part, here — of one of legendary free jazz saxophonist Anthony Braxton’s ensembles.
Straight Punch To The Crotch - Robot Baby
Straight Punch To The Crotch - When Animals Attack
Straight Punch To The Crotch - Summer Sun and Firecrackers
Pantherburn - The Octopus
Pantherburn - Mister Baby [demo]
The Fancy - Breadwinners
The Fancy - Out Of The City
Standards and improv led by the local pianist
Yikes, starting off with a case of the blues doesn’t bode particularly well for the rest of your year, now does it?
The Chickenhead Blues Band - Talk To Me, Baby
The Chickenhead Blues Band - Glamour Girl
The Chickenhead Blues Band - Hunky Dorey
The Chickenhead Blues Band - Marvin’s Water
Both local glam-rockers Red Satellites and Lollipop Factory use a punk rock edge to deliver the sounds they love most from the 70’s, while The Hilarious Posters are inspired by pop from the 60’s and 80’s, mostly skipping the stuff in between.
Red Satellites - Dancing [demo]
The Hilarious Posters - That Thing You Don’t
The Hilarious Posters - Sugarbread Falls
Husky-voiced local singer-songwriter and his backing band
Now-local transplanted New Orleans musicians play funk, rock, and covers
Rootsy Americana and classic rock from the local guitarist and his quartet.
The Brian Patrick Band - Tumbleweed
The Brian Patrick Band - Nowhere Left To Fall
The Brian Patrick Band - It Hurts Me More
The Brian Patrick Band - Don’t Believe In Me
The Brian Patrick Band - California
The Brian Patrick Band - Big Muddy
Instrumental rock in the vein of Band of Gypsies and Booker T led by local guitar wizard Jamal Millner.
Indie rock. Also featuring Pinball Locomotive.
Old-school acoustic country with religious inflections
Virginia Beach songwriter Jesse Chong tags along with an acoustic set for Willie’s usual deal at South Street.
Pink Floyd tribute band. Watch out for flying pigs!
buy tickets onlineShenandoah Valley a cappella sextet
Local rock crew The Nice Jenkins bring their unfortunate recent hiatus to an end with some help from openers The Octagon, the latter featuring short low-res home-recorded indie-pop tunes from its dual New York City songwriters, one a best-selling novelist in Singapore and the other the touring drummer for the Dirty Projectors. Also featuring Adam Smith and Thomas Dean in DJ mode.
The Nice Jenkins - Cowboy
The Nice Jenkins - Outside Of York
The Nice Jenkins - Sweet and Filthy
Rock and roll blues power trio
Eli Cook - Static In The Blood
Sort-of acoustic blues from the local guitarist
Eli Cook - Static In The Blood
Finger-pickin’ foot-stompin’ folk rock. Also featuring the Free Radicals.
Talented local kids. First Night Virginia button required for admission.
Bluegrass. First Night Virginia button required for admission.
Beleza Brasil plays Latin jazz and samba fused with blues
Beleza Brasil - Water To Drink
Beleza Brasil - Fever
First Night Virginia button required for admission.
Folk duo. First Night Virginia button required for admission.
Early music ensemble
First Night Virginia button required for admission.
Blues and rock covers
Harpist, singer, and storyteller. First Night Virginia button required for admission.
CHS Orchestra string quartet. First Night Virginia button required for admission.
Celtic music meets Americana.
First Night Virginia button required for admission.
Popular local Beatles cover band.
First Night Virginia button required for admission.
The nationally-renowned local folk-pop singer-songwriter (who, it should be noted, has tattooed Woody Guthrie’s face onto his right shoulder) celebrates the release of his new album, The Day After Everything Changed. It’s his first batch of new material in five years (for adults, at least, excepting a 2008 set of songs aimed at kids) and includes several tunes co-written with Kristian Bush of chart-topping country-pop duo Sugarland. Mariana Bell opens.
buy tickets onlineAnnual blowout at the Lovingston coffee shop. Performers include blues guitarist Eli Cook, folk duo Gene and Gayla Mills, songwriter Andy Waldeck, Hogwaller Ramblers Americana singer Jamie Dyer, and many more.
Eli Cook - Static In The Blood
Andy Waldeck - Those Days Are Gone
Andy Waldeck - Ordinary Men
Andy Waldeck - Diggin Me
Andy Waldeck - Healing
Gene and Gayla Mills - Ghost Town
Gene and Gayla Mills - Fool’s Gold
Boston folk fusion quartet The David Wax Museum mixes traditional songs from the US and Mexico. Folk duo Carl Anderson and Carleigh Nesbit open with Shankar Srinivasan playing fiery fiddle lines. Also featuring JJ von Briesen.
The David Wax Museum - Colas
The David Wax Museum - Beekeeper
The David Wax Museum - Jalopy Heart
Carleigh Nesbit and Carl Anderson - Three Steps Out The Door [live]
Carleigh Nesbit and Carl Anderson - Passing Through
Carleigh Nesbit and Carl Anderson - Train Song
Carleigh Nesbit - Three Steps Out The Door
Carleigh Nesbit - River Run Dry
Carleigh Nesbit - Turn On The Heat
Carleigh Nesbit - Your City Skies
Popular all-female Celtic song and dance group vaguely descended from Riverdance.
buy tickets onlineSolo show from the leader of local hip-hop outfit The Illville Crew.
Frontman from Richmond pop-rock faves Prabir and the Substitutes goes solo now that the band has recently called it quits.
Goofball psychedelic pop quartet from Philadelphia which is influenced by Ween and other such weirdos; as they put it, they “have written over one hundred songs (they are not all good, but the ratio is impressive).”
The Armchairs - Solar Puff
The Armchairs - Nebraska
The Armchairs - Lost In A Dream
The Armchairs - Chalk
The Armchairs - An Encouraging Shout To Hunting Hounds
Alternately psychedelic and minimalist Philly indie-pop brethren The Circadian Rhythms aim to coax a boogie from your behind with more conventional rhythms than their name might suggest. Also featuring Order Of The Dying Orchid and Harrisonburg’s The Alphabet, who just put out a limited-edition split 7″, the other half of which marks the first official release from Charlottesville’s own Invisible Hand.
Click the photo for a slide show. PHOTO BY TOM DALY
It finally happened: somebody made a rap about the benefits of using the Downtown Mall in Charlottesville. Credit (or blame) must lie with Emily Bolecek and Arin Noble, seen here in their five-minute video.
It’s funny how Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings became today’s preeminent funk and soul ensemble without really caring one iota about the “today” part. Jones and her Daptone Records bandmates, an energetic array of characters with names like “Bosco Mann” and “Binky Griptite,” look back at the legacies left by James Brown and Otis Redding with such affection that they can’t help but blow off all the newfangled digital trickery to make their music the old way: by recording killer performances. It’s an approach that has helped producer Gabe Roth (aka bassist Bosco) land them a number of higher-profile gigs delivering the same for albums by Amy Winehouse and Al Green. But surprisingly enough, Jones, now 53, is just as eager to look forward as she is to reminisce. The Hook: There’s this prevailing theme at Daptone that digital recording and pitch correction and obsessive micromanagement can suck the life right out of modern music, but I’ve read elsewhere that you’re a fan of Beyoncé, Alicia Keys, and even Fantasia from American Idol. All of them use Pro Tools and Auto-Tune. What is it that makes their version of digital pop work when others don’t? Sharon Jones: It’s played a lot. The Hook: Do you think your age has helped legitimize what you do? Younger artists doing throwback soul— Winehouse, Duffy, Adele, Joss Stone— are sometimes dismissed as fraudulent. Sharon Jones: I’ve been considered less marketable all my life— too dark, too fat, too old. I don’t have that gleam in my eye like I did fourteen years ago when we were first starting. The Hook: Well, you’re certainly still energetic. Sharon Jones: I’ll tell you man, it’s just that this is my job. Every time I get on stage, it could be my last time, so I gotta give you everything I got. The Hook: So you really do think about it all ending, then? Sharon Jones: My concern is just my security. I was born poor, I’ve been poor all my life. I don’t want to die poor. I have nieces and nephews that need to go to college. The Hook: What has changed as the band has become more successful? Sharon Jones: At first Gabe wrote a lot of the music. Even with Gabe mixing and producing, if you wrote the song, he’ll call you during mixing to get your input. And Daptone is a business now; we have a payroll, and we’re an LLC. And we picked up fans from Amy, and we picked up fans from Phish this past Halloween. The Hook: Speaking of Phish, I hear you like to fish. Sharon Jones: That’s my leisure, believe it or not; that’s one of the reasons why I want to get [financially] comfortable. I don’t need a big ol’ yacht, I just want a little home near a lake. The Hook: So “Fish In My Dish,” easily one of my favorite Daptone tracks, is actually kind of a personal song? Sharon Jones: It’s a good leisure song. The Hook: It’s hard to envision you working at Riker’s Island as a corrections officer. Sharon Jones: It was tricky because they had me working with the men, not the women. The Hook: So then when I learned that you were born in James Brown’s hometown, I couldn’t help but wonder if that disciplinarian ever comes out with the band. You know, all those stories about how he used to fine his musicians if they flubbed a note.
Sharon Jones: If that was the case, I’d probably owe more than anybody else. ~ Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings play the Jefferson Theater, December 12, 8:00pm, $20.
Folk singer-songwriter Paul Curreri is a C-ville fave and all, but he says his recent European tours went particularly well — one on his own, and another playing guitar for wife Devon Sproule — and he also has a new record called “California” which was recently released overseas in a few countries; it’ll be sort-of self-released stateside in March. Thankfully, you can at least get a preview, including both solo and full-band performances, now that the old throat injury which sidelined him for a while has finally calmed down enough to allow his first local show in Lord only knows how long.
New material:
Paul Curreri - Once Upon A Rooftop
Paul Curreri - California
Older:
Paul Curreri - Long Gone Again
Alt-country X-mas with Sarah White, Sian Richards, and Jim Waive.
Sarah White - Apple In B Major
Sarah White - Half A Smile
Sarah White - Ply Me
Sarah White - Sweetheart
Sarah White - Where You’re Going
Jim Waive and the Young Divorcees - Strike A Match
Gloomy goth-rock titans, both local talents and popular world-travelers, who paint over husky distorted guitars with chirpy sequenced synths to create metal-edged dirges that might just make you really happy despite the dark lyrical content.
Bella Morte - Fades Like A Song
Bella Morte - On The Edge
ThisMeansYou opens with pulverizing metal that might shake the recent renovations loose.
ThisMeansYou - River
ThisMeansYou - Order 66
ThisMeansYou - Demon’s Cry
This lineup aims to bridge the nonsensical gap between rock bands and experimental electronic musicians with help from Adam Smith’s throbbing freak-out project Great Dads, Wendy Hsu’s accordion-meets-amplified-trinket-percussion project Grapefruit Experiment, guitar and computer programming from Jonathan Zorn, drum and keyboard/sampler layers from Rhythm Bandit, laptop/keyboard/pedal duo Mss., and Lands Of Wonder’s synthy dream-pop. Also featuring Myceum and DBB Plays Cups.
Lands Of Wonder - Sun Drenched Haven
Lands Of Wonder - Overlapping Rocks
Jonathan Zorn - Guitar and Computer Excerpt
Great Dads - Pray To Your Riches
The Grapefruit Experiment - Irigaray
Whereas some artists have responded to the meltdown of the music industry by releasing ever-more-expensive deluxe packages aimed at uberfans ($495 for the Pixies’Minotaur? Seriously?), NYC math-and-physics geek composer Tristan Perich has taken a different approach: his 1 Bit Symphony builds automated circuitry which actually executes the composition, which is embedded in a microchip, into a conventional CD case, sending the signal out a headphone jack which is likewise mounted to the case — sort of a modernized version of the mechanical music box. You’ll be able to buy these nifty little gizmos at the gig, of course — he says he considers it an instrument more than a recording. And yeah, he also lugs a harpsichord around with him too with which to accompany it, but you probably wouldn’t want to buy one of those anyway. Lesley Flanigan’s deal, on the other hand, involves performing amidst an array of homemade speakers and microphones to create an evolving network of live vocals, impromptu sampling, and feedback. Also featuring Chris Peck.
Tristan Perich - Telescope
Tristan Perich - qsqsqsqsqqqqqqqqq [live]
Lesley Flanigan - Thinking Real Hard
Lesley Flanigan - Snow
New six-piece-plus Asian-themed surf and garage-rock band modeled after a sort of Taiwanese burlesque performance called Nakashi and helmed by UVA experimental electronic musician Wendy Hsu. The name means “super cool,” and the exclamation point is there because she requests that you always say it with both thumbs up. Come to think of it, we’re not really sure how to pronounce it at all, but we’re halfway there on that one. (Hey, wait, so does this work for anything? Tell them The Hook! sent you.)
With Bermuda Triangles.
The operatically-trained jazz singer’s recent spurt of local gigs comes to an abrupt end with this, her final performance before she moves out to California.
Holiday music. Bring canned food to donate to the Emergency Food Bank.
The leaders of the award-winning Kid Pan Alley children’s music program, including singer-songwriter-renaissance-woman and local favorite Terri Allard cap off their week-long residency at the school with a public performance.
Kid Pan Alley - My Shoes Are Spying On Me
Kid Pan Alley - My Dog Did My Homework
Kid Pan Alley - I Used To Know The Names Of All The Stars
DC-area jazz pianist and teacher performs with his new trio, which includes one of his former students on bass.
Simple acoustic tunes. Matthew Butler opens.
Brian Chandler - The Last Resort
Rockers in training perform on guitar, bass, and drums.
buy tickets onlineChristmas choral concert
Christmas carols on classical guitar
Holiday performance by the area kids featuring Bach, Sibelius, Debussy, and Claus.
Maryline and Jason Pollock. PUBLICITY PHOTO
Hot on the heels of the isolated news about an Iron and Wine show in February, The Paramount Theater on the downtown mall has now announced a fairly large slate of new shows for the upcoming spring season. Here’s what you need to know about the music schedule; if you want to check out all the other Russian ballerinas and so forth, head over to their calendar.
It seems that the word “chanteuse” has suffered from dramatic overexposure of late, being that these days it’s recklessly thrown around every time a mildly successful singer is found to possess girly parts, but we’ll grit our teeth and hope it retains some of its exotic charm when applied to Norah Jones. “Come Away With Me,” the slinky 2002 debut from Indian sitar master Ravi Shankar’s love child, was filled with mellow jazz-pop which went on to win her six Grammy awards and go Diamond. (Remember? That’s the one that’s above Platinum? Oh, forget it.) By the time she got around to The Fall, her newest, she’d traded the highbrow support of guitarist Bill Frisell and producer Arif Mardin for guys like alt-country crooner Ryan Adams and Okkervil River frontman Will Sheff, both of whom have co-writing credits. Perhaps more significantly, she broke up with longtime bassist/boyfriend Lee Alexander, who had been with her since the beginning; that is, you gotta rock a little harder on a breakup record or it’s not gonna work.
Norah’s guitarist Sasha Dobson opens with a set of her own vaguely Brazilian jazzy singer-songwriter numbers.
buy tickets onlineThis mob of African tweens, many of them orphaned by AIDS, travel the word performing at shows like this to raise money for education programs, in some cases musically-oriented ones, which benefit all the little ones left back at home.
buy tickets onlineThe brains behind the immortal Thanksgiving memorial narrative ramble “Alice’s Restaurant” is the son of the inimitable Woody, of course, but he’ll play the ill-fitting role of dominant patriarch here as he guides his sons and daughters (at least one of whom you may have seen at Gravity Lounge some time ago) in a rollicking family-bonding folk showcase during which they’ll interpret some of Grandpa’s unpublished lyrics using musical accompaniment written by folks like Billy Bragg, Wilco, and Janis Ian. “The Guthrie Family Rides Again,” they call it; Arlo did a tour using only Amtrak a few years back, so maybe this means they’ve at least rented an RV or something this time around.
Arlo Guthrie - If You Would Just Drop By
Arlo Guthrie - Coming Into Los Angeles
Sarah Lee Guthrie - If Mama Had Four Hands
Lynchburg-born country songwriter Phil Vassar has penned tunes for Tim McGraw and Alan Jackson since his ascent in the 90’s, but had started to draw CMT megastars like Kenny Chesney and Martina McBride into his own records by the early aughts. (Wait, so should we actually start calling them that now? Sorry, must have missed that memo if there was ever a consensus.) But the man still remembers where he came from — his December release, Traveling Circus, is packaged entirely using artwork created by his former high school art teacher. (Speaking of which, did anybody out there have a Mr. Erwin?)
buy tickets onlineMilitary marches and folk songs side-by-side
buy tickets onlineOne of the most acclaimed young violinists around these days, perhaps best known for providing, you know, the violin for the score to the 1998 Traveling Pants/Ocean’s Eleven hybrid film The Red Violin. Formidable pianist and long-running collaborative buddy Jeremy Denk accompanies.
buy tickets onlineBoth a Mark Ronson pet project and Unsigned Hype column alum, Wale is a DC rapper of Nigerian descent who first turned heads with his 2008 “Mixtape About Nothing,” Seinfeld-themed throughout but for its most ambitious bones, one of which was the key track about Kramer which just ruminated on Michael Richards’ infamous racist freakout.
But oh, college hip hop audiences, how fickle you are — when his proper debut album came out in November, it kinda flopped relative to expectations, and even relative to this spring’s big debut by grilled-American-on-Wonderbread frat-rap labelmate Asher Roth, who himself underperformed despite a rather impressive hype team and the popular Weezer-sampling single “I Love College.”
Then again, maybe the students will roll out en masse to UVA’s concrete-fishbowl Student Activities Building after all; remember, they just don’t buy music anymore.
DC’s UCB opens in a nod to Wale’s own go-go roots.
Communal sing-alongs of indie rock four-track wizard Sufjan Stevens‘ Christmas songs. Sheet music and space heaters provided; bring instruments and warm clothes.
Crushing local heavy metal band
Horsefang - River Of Dead Horses
Horsefang - We Will Use Your Dead As Vessels
Horsefang - Plaguebreaker
Horsefang - Genesis In The Retort
Local bluegrass outfit Walker’s Run’s prolonged existence started back when the members were still students about a decade ago. Brennan Gilmore, then the mandolin player, put the group on hold when he moved to Africa in 2002, reconvening it in 2008 and switching to guitar after returning a few years later. With fleet-fingered Andy Thacker now in the mandolin slot, the newer lineup recently recorded a mostly-live EP at Lime Kiln Theater in Lexington. “Working/living in conflict areas in Africa has fueled much of my recent songwriting,” says Gimore, pointing specifically to the restless pulse of “Kakuma,” which he says is about a Sudanese refugee. There’s also a new album planned for sometime next year, for which you can consider the studio recording of “Natalie” a teaser.
The new EP:
Walker’s Run - Road To Romney/Crooked Tree [live]
Walker’s Run - Natalie
Walker’s Run - Misery River/Fire On The Mountain [live]
Walker’s Run - Kakuma [live]
Walker’s Run - East Virginia Blues [live]
Walker’s Run - Ain’t Nobody Gonna Miss Me [live]
Older tunes:
Walker’s Run - Elzic’s Farewell [which is awesome]
Walker’s Run - Moonshiner
The Honey Dewdrops open.
The Honey Dewdrops - Nowhere To Stand
The Honey Dewdrops - Fly Away Free
