While we’re on the subject of new beginnings, the New Year’s Day release show for the debut album from this
local singer-songwriter is about as auspicious as you can reasonably hope for. Naughty Dynamic and the Design opens with a funky acoustic set, and Americana-rockers Pantherburn close out the night with a set of tunes from their own debut record.

Pantherburn - The Octopus
Pantherburn - Mister Baby [demo]

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Christmas show by the local country rock brother band featuring guests like guitarist Nick Cordle, Travis Elliott, and the titular Papa Bill. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to a soup kitchen and canned food donations will also be accepted at the door.

Sons Of Bill - Broken Bottles
Sons Of Bill - Joey’s Arm
Sons Of Bill - Rock And Roll

The Hill And Wood - I Can Say What You Want

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Singer-songwriter

Eric Reitz - Lunar Lonely
Eric Reitz - Dublin
Eric Reitz - Cumberland
Eric Reitz - Carolina
Eric Reitz - Breaking
Eric Reitz - 12 South

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Intricately fingerpicked one-man loop pedal bluegrass band

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Acoustic guitarist plays Latin jazz

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Instrumental rock, blues, funk, and R&B from the local guitar wizard.

Jamal Millner’s Comrades - Break Out

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Folk tunes from the formerly-local multi-instrumentalist (dulcimer wizard, especially) and singer-songwriter whom Cash once called “the most impressive instrumentalist I’ve ever heard.”

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Banjo and fiddle duets

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Three singer-songwriters perform in the round

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Pensive acoustic folk-pop and Americana singer-songwriter

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Singer-songwriter

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Mister Baby beefs up the tunes of local alt-country songwriter Megan Huddleston. Also featuring local Americana rock outfit Pantherburn and Asheville country-rockers Wooden Toothe. This show is a dual fundraiser for both the SPCA and Mister Baby bassist Jake Hopping’s ailing mother.

Pantherburn - The Octopus
Pantherburn - Mister Baby [demo]

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Country and folk duo

The Don’t Tell Darlings - Single Girls

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Look, do you really need us to explain this?

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Alt-country songwriter

Carlton James - St. Augy
Carlton James - Smile Boys
Carlton James - Dig A Hole
Carlton James - Blue Moon Please

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Americana rock

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Americana singer-songwriter. Sons Of Bill guitarist Sam Wilson opens.

Sam Wilson - A Melody Instead
Sam Wilson - In The Morning
Sam Wilson - Once In Your Life
Sam Wilson - Green Gates

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Choral folk music from South Africa, Corsica, and the Balkans, among others, with a touch of 30’s gospel and accompaniment on instruments like accordion, fiddle, tambura, and drums. Show up early for a $12 workshop which runs from 2pm onward.

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Singer-songwriter

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Bluegrass and old-time

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Love songs in anticipation of valentines day

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Acoustic singer-songwriter

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Fellini’s piano staple Jim Wray and bebopper Hod O’Brien face off in an unusual duo format which started with a chance encounter at the Hamner two years back.

Jim Wray and Hod O’Brien - Indeed I Do

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The experimental Italian composer sweeps his usual African field recording projects under the rug just long enough to demonstrate Mask Mirror, a custom-programmed sampler instrument he created which sorts and outputs speech and text according to both phonetic sounds and semantic meanings and which serves as his platform for improvisational performance art.

And now, in a new segment which we desperately hope we’ll find semi-legitimate cause to bring back repeatedly, let’s hear this event listing rendered through the built-in text-to-speech function on this Mac.

we’re-so-meta.mp3

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Rootsy singer-songwriter plays blues and swing with guitar accompanist

Barbara Martin - Existential Blues [with Mac Walter]

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Featuring Peter Richardson, Humberto Sales, Miles Pearce, and more.

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Reggae

Loop-driven pop-rock from Richmond songwriter Brian Martin which draws from Keller Williams and Coldplay, proudly both 100% free of electric instrumentation and occasionally splattered with found-object percussion.

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Two of the pillars from the classic C-ville acoustic rock act SGGL perform to raise money for relief efforts in Haiti.

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The young songwriter and his new band the Point play a set surrounded by the surrealist paintings of artist John Lynch

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Mardi Gras festivities soundtracked by the local jazz singer and bebop pianist

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Pianist and singer

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The “Musical Postcards” series continues with a look at “The Heartland of Europe,” which will focus on music from the Czech Republic, Poland, and Estonia.

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The “Musical Postcards” series continues with a look at “The Heartland of Europe,” which will focus on music from the Czech Republic, Poland, and Estonia.

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Bluegrass and folk from the energetic Richmond quartet.

Roots and reggae

The Greg Ward Project - Right Time

“We’ve had so many guys come up to us, saying, ‘Wow, I saw you guys, and I thought, great, another girl band. Then you played, and you really surprised me,’” ukulele player Nikki Darlin relates. “What, because we’re girls, you expect sappy girl music? That’s a general frat boy assumption.” The Murfreesboro, Tennessee-based rockers Those Darlins aren’t actually having an identity crisis, much to the surprise of the numbskulls among us as the Darlins spread their catchy, folk-infused rock throughout the country. Their rollicking self-titled debut combined punk-rock sensibilities with backwater country storytelling under song titles like, “Snaggle Tooth Mama,” “DUI or Die,” and “Keep My Skillet Good and Greasy.” There’s usually an element of novelty with all-girl bands, of course (that could be a whole separate discussion), but Those Darlins handily transcend it, fueled by equal parts alcohol, confidence, and— cheesy, perhaps— sisterhood. The Hook: Would you prefer to be filed under country or rock? Nikki Darlin: It’s one of my pet peeves when people describe our band as “countryfied.” I hate it. I think of us as a pop band. Not as in like “this song is made for TV” kind of pop— more like The Beatles wrote pop songs. That’s what a pop song is: really catchy. The Hook: Would you say there’s a dangerous side to this band? ND: We’re mainly dangerous to ourselves. We might give someone a black eye, but other than that… The Hook: So you have a sense of humor? ND: All three of us have funny personalities, and in general we’re pretty silly people— it comes out a whole lot in our music. Kelley tends to write heartfelt love songs, Jessi writes sillier songs— we wrote “Snaggle Tooth Mama” together about growing up in the middle of nowhere. The Hook: Did you bond over your shared Southern roots? ND: Me and Jessi definitely, we both grew up in the country, our parents just living off the land. My mom is a visual artist, and so is hers, so we got to a point where we were talking about our moms bringing home dead animals– “Is your freezer full of dead hawks and stuff too?” The Hook: Is it fair to say that the band’s identity is feminine? ND: It’s sad that just because we’re women, it is something rare and weird. We’re not preachy feminists, our songs aren’t about being women, but I do feel like I’m proud that we’re women, and we’re doing it, pretty much being gypsies. The Hook: As women in the spotlight, do you have any body image issues? ND: There are things you can and can’t do, which bothers me. None of us have any issues with our bodies, or think that we’re fat— we are who we are, we like to look interesting when we play, like wild crazy people with feathers and fur. Those Darlins plays at The Southern, Saturday, January 30. The Pine Hill Haints open. The show starts at 8 pm and tickets are $8.

In what might initially appear to be a blow to artists such as Bruce Springsteen, who bemoaned the proposed merger, the Justice Department gave tentative approval today to the merger of Ticketmaster, the widely reviled concert ticket company, and to LiveNation, an entertainment conglomerate whose click-pack-and-ship division is headquartered in the Charlottesville-area community of Crozet and known as MusicToday. The L.A. Times reports that Ticketmaster would have to license its ticketing technology. Both companies shares climbed 15 percent on the news. –post amended 11:50am Tuesday, February 2 to remove this phrase from the headline: “What’s good for Capshaw… ” A cursory glance at the annual reports of LiveNation shows that LiveNation bought 51% of Coran Capshaw’s MusicToday in September 2006 and the remaining 49% in July 2007. If Capshaw owns any shares of LiveNation, we don’t know about it.

For local award-winning songwriter Brian Patrick, nothing is more important than connecting to a great song. He’s not referring to that moment when an audience realizes they are hearing their favorite Journey cover; in fact, his Brian Patrick Band refuses to play any covers unless they are obscure, personal favorites— and yet his audiences have recently been clamoring for more. But winning over audiences only wanting to hear Lynyrd Skynyrd remakes is all in a day’s work for the winner of Rapunzel’s 2009 Songwriter’s Contest— a feat he hopes continues with the release of his debut solo album, Nowhere Left to Fall. “It was the first time I allowed myself to put all of my influences in one basket— it’s kind of eclectic, but it’s exactly who I was when I wrote and recorded it,” he says. “Regardless of what other flavors there are there, it is rock ‘n’ roll music, seasoned with folk, country, and blues.” Patrick references the work of folk rock greats Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty as inspirations for his own writing. The sophistication of both artists doesn’t mar the common-man appeal of their songs, allowing the blending of country and rock nuances to speak to wide audiences. Patrick, with Ohio, Philadelphia, and Austin roots, finds a similar need to blend blues, folk, and rock— a convention he finds appreciation for in Charlottesville. “In Ohio, within circles of rock ‘n’ roll music, country music was very uncool— that’s just not true in Charlottesville,” Patrick notes. “It wasn’t until being in Charlottesville that it was okay to synergize [country] with rock ‘n’ roll, it’s okay to blur those lines— that’s what I love about here.” Twangy guitar riffs and country basslines accompany Patrick’s musings on lost dreams, hard working waitresses, and relationships— much as Nowhere Left to Fall represents the first time the songwriter has struck out to focus on his own career. As a guitarist and songwriter for Austin-based band Mr. Goldtooth and Charlottesville ensemble Modern Epic and soul/country outfit The Misery Brothers, Patrick fell into the team player role, relegating his original pieces out of the spotlight to support the larger goals of his bands. “I like contributing to other people’s songwriting as much as I like doing my own,” Patrick says. “I’ve spent a lot of time over the years being involved in other people’s projects, but now I’m at the point where I wanted to focus on my own.” Gathering his Ohio childhood friends to help him record his debut, Patrick combined his solo-songwriting self of the mid-2000s with the collaborative arranger of today. It may not have taken him long to discover his musical interests— a sprinkling of blues here, a dab of folk there— but connecting with his audience is a skill he has refined over his nine years in Charlottesville. After entering the Rapunzel’s contest three years in a row, he finally emerged victorious in a competitive field of songwriters last year. “It was a shock to win— there were a lot of people who could have had first place and deserved it,” he says. “I must be doing something that people can emotionally attach themselves to.” Nowhere Left to Fall may be just that— an everyman album with a sophisticated sheen. Brian Patrick releases Nowhere Left to Fall Saturday, January 22 at The Southern. Carleigh Nesbit and Carl Anderson open. The show starts at 9:30 pm and tickets are $6.

Prabir Mehta, former frontman of defunct Richmond pop-rock faves Prabir and the Substitutes, performs with a new project featuring two members of the Richmond Symphony. Astronomers frontman Nate Bolling opens.

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Recently transplanted NYC songwriter playing acoustic versions of his usual indie rock tunes

Joshua Slack - Saturday Night
Joshua Slack - Prisoner
Joshua Slack - 57 

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Roots-rock and Americana quartet

The Lost Souls - Wildflower
The Lost Souls - NJ Turnpike
The Lost Souls - Horseshoes

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Acoustic show from the local roots-rock and Americana quartet

The Lost Souls - Wildflower
The Lost Souls - NJ Turnpike
The Lost Souls - Horseshoes

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Roots-rock and Americana quartet

The Lost Souls - Wildflower
The Lost Souls - NJ Turnpike
The Lost Souls - Horseshoes

Local songwriter and his rock band

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Funk and R&B

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Guitar and piano duo playing jazz and blues, oldies and originals

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Italian baroque chamber orchestra

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Acoustic rock

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Experimental improvisations on sax and bassoon, including pieces by UVA professors Judith Shatin and fellow performer Matthew Burtner as well as one by modern minimalist master Terry Riley. Also featuring appearances by some of UVA’s computer music students.

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When Austin-based rocker Alejandro Escovedo was informed that his 2001 single, “Castanets” appeared among the most-played songs on then-president George W. Bush’s iPod in 2005, the politically-active musician refused to play the song for months. Only recently, after performing at the 2008 Democratic National Convention, being named “Artist of the Decade” by No Depression magazine, and finding widespread success in the aftermath of his ninth studio album, Real Animal, has Escovedo warmed up to performing it again. With Real Animal, Escovedo took an introspective turn, combining thoughtful reflection of the people, bands, and sounds that informed his nearly 34-year-long career with hopeful projection for moving forward. “We approached it like writing a screenplay— we have a list of characters, a timeline, different phases, and different bands,” Escovedo says, “The experiences were all there.” In particular, after battling Hepatitis C for years, Escovedo endured a near-death experience in 2003, took a few years off, and emerged feeling revitalized. He reflected on the years that brought him from club performances with his early punk group The Nuns and a roots rock outfit called Rank and File to national tours with Bruce Springsteen and Dave Matthews. The Hook: Real Animal is said to be your most retrospective album yet. Why now? Alejandro Escovedo: Because I’ve been doing this for a long time— what spurred this whole thing on was the fact that I became ill. It was an intense and frightening illness, and in the process of fighting that disease, it was the first time I’d stopped long enough to think about what I had done. The Hook: Where did it begin? Alejandro Escovedo: Growing up in San Antonio, listening to the music of my father, my mother, my cousins, that’s where the bug hit me. It was a way of dressing, being, talking; but it wasn’t until I was twenty-four that I finally started playing. The Hook: Which of your various sounds came first? Alejandro Escovedo: I just wanted to be a rocker. I wanted to play this music that seemed so full of life and sweat and blood and sex and just this pent-up frustration, this joy in liberation. The Hook: Producer Tony Visconti once remarked that your audiences seemed to expect a religious experience at shows. Do you agree? Alejandro Escovedo: When everyone connects in a room, you’re not singing to them, you’re all singing together, they’re part of the process of communicating ideas. The sheer joy of playing a loud guitar and all of us dancing in one place— that’s the spiritual aspect of it. The Hook: Are you religious yourself? Alejandro Escovedo: If you were to tie me with anything, it would be Tibetan Buddhism. It’s a difficult thing, but what I love about it is that it’s a path— I try to be a good Buddhist every day. The Hook: You’ve done particularly well during the last couple years. Alejandro Escovedo: The larger tours are like another world entirely— we’ve played clubs for thirty years, and this is a gigantic beast of an experience. I felt really small as a result of not being used to it— it’s like suddenly you really gotta work on something again. To break into the psyche of a big concert audience was hard, but great. The Hook: So does putting out a retrospective album mean you’re satisfied with your career? Alejandro Escovedo: No, there’s still a lot to experience in my life, things that I need to say. There’s a sense of fulfillment, in that the record was a true work of love, perseverance, and faith— it took two years to get the record together, up against people who didn’t feel the story was worth telling. But there’s more to feel, experience, learn, sing. The Hook: When you were sick, friends and peers rallied to help you pay your medical bills— you’ve been very politically active in the past, so what’s your take on health care reform now that you’ve really had to depend on the system? Alejandro Escovedo: It was beautiful to see that there was such a large community ready to support and help— it was really disheartening to see what the medical landscape was like when really thrown into it. I experienced so much bureaucracy and papers and not enough happening. It’s insane that we don’t support each other. If I had been left to the medical industrial wasteland, nothing would have happened. Alejandro Escovedo performs at The Jefferson Theater on Sunday, January 17. Roman Candle opens. The show starts at 7 pm and tickets are $20 in advance or $25 at the door.
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Ellis Paul is a beloved member of Boston’s folk music scene, but you’d never know it. Problem #1: he lives in Charlottesville now. Problem #2, however, is that he’s been relatively quiet since moving here. His award-winning 2008 album, The Dragonfly Races, was his first foray into children’s music, and beyond that, it’s been live albums and a two-disc greatest hits collection, making his forthcoming album The Day After Everything Changed his first piece of solidly C’ville-based art. “In Charlottesville, there’s only a very small pocket who know who I am, but that’s changing,” he says. “I’m trying to grow my audience and let people know I’m here.” Small pocket or not, Paul and his Boston-based backing band were able to fill the house at his January 2 album release party at The Southern. Fans of his older work, parents who followed their kids to the dragonflies, and a whole separate contingent supporting opening act Mariana Bell cheered Paul on and even sang along. “Thanks for outnumbering us,” Paul laughed with youthful exuberance. So that’s something. Emerging in New England coffeehouses in the 90’s alongside the likes of Dar Williams, Patty Griffin, and Martin Sexton, the Boston University graduate has been associated primarily with neo-folk, but he has a serious pop side too. Several of his songs have appeared in mainstream television shows and films: Shallow Hal and Me, Myself, and Irene, among others. Paul says that while he was growing up in small-town Maine, the pop music of the ’80s supplemented the musical training he received from school bands and choruses. “Hearing those pop songwriters— Billy Joel, U2— that got me into songwriting,” he says. Later, Paul started to identify with the socially-conscious, politically-charged storytelling of the folk music that Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, and Joni Mitchell had produced years before him. He now refers to the three as the “Father, Son, and Holy Ghost” and even went as far as tattooing Guthrie’s face on his shoulder. Paul approached his latest release with a renewed passion and unprecedented control over all aspects of the project. Producing the 15-track album without a label, he turned to his fans for help financing the project— and despite the sudden turn in the economy the $100k influx inspired Paul to make “the best record I could.” “This is the first record where I really got all the ingredients right,” he says. “If I could put out five more records of this quality, I would hit that point where I would say I’ve done what I wanted to do. I’ve touched on something that could get me there.” Recorded in Nashville with several tracks co-written by Kristian Bush of the country duo Sugarland, The Day After Everything Changed represents a new stage in Paul’s approach to songwriting. “Ellis is just the most extraordinary story teller and the new album is breathtaking— in almost every song you can picture a scene in a movie with all the textures, colors, and landscapes he puts in his music,” Bell, a longtime fan says. “It was quite an honor to be invited to open for him.” He’s developed an appreciation for the modern mainstream pop-rock of guys like John Mayer, Howie Day, and Jason Mraz, for one thing. But most interestingly, inspired by his work with children’s music, Paul has turned to addressing heavy personal and social issues more directly than on previous releases. “I used some of that direct language on this record— it taught me how to grab attention quicker,” he says. “When I sit and write, I think ‘Who am I trying to move with this song?’ ‘What would Jesus do?’ ‘What would Woody Guthrie do?’” Paul’s recent move to Charlottesville similarly allowed for more control over his life outside the tour bus; in particular, he chose the family-friendly Charlottesville for the sake of his daughters. It seems to be working out; fans clamored to buy an early copy of his release after the show, and local stations have already been giving it air time. Maybe it’s time for some more pockets. Ellis Paul releases The Day After Everything Changed on Tuesday, January 12.
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Last year, Charlottesville music management powerhouse Red Light Management signed country star Tim McGraw; now, the company owned by Dave Matthews Band manager Coran Capshaw has signed the star’s wife, Faith Hill. CMT has the story.
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Fresh off a year full of Phish tours, guitarist Trey Anastasio is starting the new decade off with a bam— and a month long tour in February. After transforming the John Paul Jones Arena into a full-fledged Phish fanzone Saturday, December 5 (complete with glowsticks and a naked stage crasher), Anastasio returns to Charlottesville. This time, he and his Classic TAB band will take over the newly revamped Jefferson Theater, reported Rolling Stone Tuesday, January 5. After wrapping up 2009 with four nights performing with Phish in Miami (culminating on New Year’s Eve), Anastasio will begin his aggressive month-long tour Monday, February 8, in Charlottesville before heading up to Washington D.C.’s 9:30 Club the next night, then cruising to Philadelphia and Boston later the same week. Tickets go on sale through Starr Hill Presents on Friday, January 15 at 10am, but according to RS, an online request for tickets begins on Trey Tickets (a fan site) tomorrow, January 6, at 10am. –updated 1:40pm Thursday, January 7: after confirming the date with Danny Shea of Starr Hill Presents, changed Saturday, Jan. 16 to Friday, Jan. 15 as the correct date tickets go on sale.
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Singer-songwriter Lauren Hoffman has long been a traveler — with trips to India, a burgeoning fan base in France, a strategic career move to Brooklyn, and now an album recorded in Israel. But all that’s changed now that she’s had a baby and come home.

“I’m really happy about being a mom and being in Charlottesville and being settled down,” Hoffman says. “There’s not much that will tempt me away from that.”

Hoffman’s own lineage involves music, as her father Ross taught Dave Matthews to write songs; and not long after Matthews shot to fame, Hoffman signed with Virgin Records for her 1997 debut Megiddo. While she toured to widespread critical acclaim, she eventually parted ways with the label after clashing with its publicity department. Subsequent work was dark and brooding; eventually she hit the road.

“I was about to turn thirty, I was here in C’ville renting a little place, and I felt that I could just stay here and thirty could turn into forty,” says the now 32-year-old musician. “I felt like I had one more adventure in me.”

Connections she made while traveling in India in turn led her to Israel, where she (more)

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Local pop-rock outfit. Richmond jammers Farm Vegas and UVA fourth-year pop-rock singer Kayce McGehee open.

The Sometime Favorites - All Along
The Sometime Favorites - What You Wanted
The Sometime Favorites - We Are
The Sometime Favorites - Can’t Stop Fighting It
Farm Vegas - Down A Road

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The Jefferson was christened by former Trucker Jason Isbell, so it’s perhaps fitting that this set from the critically acclaimed Alabama band he splintered from is an epic two-night stand, likewise the first in the new venue’s history. Arguably the foremost contemporary alt-country outfit practicing today, the Truckers rose to prominence in 2001 and 2002 with the limited initial release and subsequent Lost Highway Records reissue of Southern Rock Opera, an ambitious double album which somewhat farcically used a fictionalized version of the career trajectory of fellow triple-guitar Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd as a metaphor for the development of the deep South. Songs like “The Southern Thing” simultaneously pay homage to its best music while looking starkly at the cultural baggage; in “Wallace,” for example, the infamous segregationist governor is welcomed to hell by Lucifer himself.

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listen to Drive-By Truckers at the Hype Machine

Punky country-rock; think Replacements, but from Texas instead of Minnesota. A little Springsteen influence lately, too, but then again it seems like everybody’s doing that these days. Glossary opens.

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listen to Lucero at the Hype Machine

After pulling the plug on folky college jamband trio Dispatch in 2002, Chad Urmston went on to found this new band, heavier on both the rock elements (fine) and the faux-reggae (uh…), which has taken on an inordinate number of hippy-dippy social injustice causes in its scant four years while simultaneously outpedaling the group’s other alums (see also: Braddigan, Pete Francis) to a slot on the remarkable season-ending self-inflicted arson scene from Weeds a couple years back. And you know “Keepsake” isn’t half bad as pyromaniac anthems go, actually.

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listen to State Radio at the Hype Machine

Widely acclaimed jamband-oriented folk-rock quintet which aims high with its lyrical content and then delivers it with rich three-way vocal harmonies.

Donna The Buffalo - Conscious Evolution

Split Lip Rayfield opens.

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Reggae

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At this price, that’s only half true.

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Adventurous local rock trio that gets their drum parts from a box. As for the wonderfully-named Philly pop-rock outfit Sweatheart, who do the same, we tend to just run with it whenever bands send us testimonials directly attributable to Spank Rock, so according to Naeem Juwan: “If Sparks, The Bangles, and Blue Oyster Cult made a smoothie, it might smell a little like Sweatheart.”

Sweatheart - Baby Lynette
Manorlady - Boy and Flippers [demo]
Manorlady - Red Juice [demo]

Also featuring Bride of the Narwhal (Narwhal’s sweatheart?)

Jazz trio

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Classic long-running C-ville Americana troupe.

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Jazz with a badass trumpet in front

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Three awesome things about this show: 1) free 2) midnight 3) Cinnamon Band. The latter, of course, is the popular Staunton guitar/drum duo which started touring alongside Wolf Parade guitarist Dan Boeckner’s Handsome Furs side project following a fortuitous Satellite Ballroom gig, which is perfectly sensible given their pounding but surprisingly nimble hooks, statistically equally likely to give you craft or fury at any given point. Hands down, if you are in Charlottesville tonight, you should be at the Southern at midnight. (Also applies to: Crozet, Batesville, Earlysville, Ruckersville, Gordonsville, and Palmyra.)

The Cinnamon Band - I’m Asking You

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Jammy acoustic folk and bluegrass in the tradition of Yonder Mountain and Old Crow.

Second Draw - Water
Second Draw - The River
Second Draw - Take Me
Second Draw - So Many Dreams Of Love
Second Draw - Distant Star
Second Draw - Back To Me

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Rootsy rock band in which VCU music students perform Americana tunes written by Richmond songwriter Doug Fuller.

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Lighter set than usual from some of the Kings Of Belmont.

The Kings Of Belmont - The Jerk Store [demo]
The Kings Of Belmont - Git R Done
The Kings Of Belmont - South Bound
The Kings Of Belmont - Beg For More
The Kings Of Belmont - Sway
The Kings Of Belmont - Talking To Myself

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Jamming rodents marsupialsfrom Waynesboro

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Multi-instrumentalist traveling minstrel Chris Bell plays wobbly chamber-folk and alt-country tunes which you might not expect to include accordion, glockenspiel, piccolo, cornet, and loop recordings made from sampled violas. Then again, perhaps we should not be jumping to such conclusions in the first place with someone who starts touring via bike and canoe when gas prices get high.

Christopher Bell - Everyman A King
Christopher Bell - Are You Trying To Keep Me Running

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Rootsy singer-songwriter plays blues and swing. With bebop pianist Hod O’Brien and bassist Bob Bowen.

Barbara Martin - Existential Blues [with Mac Walter]

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Guitar, flute, and African percussion

Jamal Millner and Darrell Rose - Bell Hollow 77

Instrumental rock, blues, funk, and R&B from the local guitar wizard.

Jamal Millner’s Comrades - Break Out

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Rock-inflected Americana from the Harrisonburg guitarist.

Trent Wagler - Today

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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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listen to Roman Candle at the Hype Machine
listen to Alejandro Escovedo at the Hype Machine

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

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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

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listen to more Wrinkle Neck Mules at the Hype Machine

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.

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listen to more Those Darlins at the Hype Machine

By 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

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Blues

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Delta and Chicago blues

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Standards and improv led by the local pianist

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Jazz trumpet player

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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

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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

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Husky-voiced local singer-songwriter and his backing band

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Rock quartet

Dentists with guitars