Thursday, September 18, 2008
Top tickets: Some of the week’s best live music
Downtown buzzing tonight
Courtesy My Radio
IO Jukebox
My Radio
The New Familiars
The Avett Brothers
Poe Mack
Sol Creech Band
Tonight
My Radio CD release party
With Tricia Carter and the Lady J’s reunion
If you like your pop music rocking with shades of the Cars, Smithereens and later Elvis Costello, then you need to be listening to My Radio. The good news is that you can buy the group’s debut, self-titled CD at their release party tonight. The better news is that you can hear the band live. The Lady J’s are getting back together to toss you some alterna-eclectic goodness. Carter was one of our first podcast guests— listen at roanoke.com/entertainment/insideout/podcasts/wb/21789.
Details: 10 tonight. Martin’s Downtown Bar and Grill, Roanoke. Free. 985-6278, martinsdowntown.com, myspace.com/myradioband, myspace.com/404698122.
Tonight
Scythian
With The New Familiars
The headliner, a Celtic-based band from Washington, D.C., adds enough rock and klezmer energy to its shows to have created a big fat buzz by now. The openers employ a more recent Appalachian vintage, again with the stompiness and electricity to make you move — and to win the critics’ choice for best local band in Charlotte, N.C.’s Creative Loafing.
Details: 9 tonight. 202 Market, downtown Roanoke. $8. 202market.net, scythianmusic.com, myspace.com/thenewfamiliars.
Tonight
Emerging Artists Series
Featuring Matthew John Mortimer and Aaron Parker
Check the walls, full of Genesis Chapman’s post-human interaction landscapes. Hear the music, full of scales and passages that may baffle you. Sounds like a good combination to me.
Details: 6 tonight. Roanoke Public Library, downtown Roanoke. Free. 853-1057, myspace.com/matthewjohnmortimer, genesischapman.com.
Friday
SOLD OUT ** The Avett Brothers ** SOLD OUT
With Justin Gordon
Big voices, emotional lyrics, acoustic backing music and adoring fans aren’t all the Avetts have. Now they have a deal with American Recordings/Columbia Records, and Rick Rubin is producing them. Opening act Gordon sounds an awful lot like the headliners. Read an interview with Avett’s bassist Bob Crawford at roanoke.com/entertainment/insideout/music/wb/176963.
Details: 8 p.m. Friday. Jefferson Center, Roanoke. $19 in advance; $23 at the show. 345-2550, jeffcenter.org, theavettbrothers.com, myspace.com/justingordonmusic.
Saffire: Uppity Blues Women
The beloved, three-woman, acoustic blues act returns to Roanoke.
Details: 9 p.m. Friday. 202 Market, downtown Roanoke. $30. 202market.net, uppityblueswomen.com.
Sol Creech Band
If you haven’t seen Creech’s trio, you really should make it out. If you can’t bounce to “Cloud 99” or “So Fine,” then you might as well give it up.
Details: 9 p.m. Friday. Blue 5 Restaurant, downtown Roanoke. 904-5338, blue5restaurant.com, myspace.com/solblues.
Poe Mack
With Case Jones, Tre’Mendous and Ed E. Ruger
Get a load of some of the best rap music in the Roanoke Valley, from a crew of excellent gentlemen. Ruger is their new friend, from Greensboro, N.C.
Details: 9 p.m. Friday. Awful Arthur’s, Towers Shopping Center, Roanoke. $5. 21 and older. 777-0007, myspace.com/awfularthurs, myspace.com/poemack.
Saturday
Jonathan Byrd
A trip from Chapel Hill, N.C., to the hills of Southwest Virginia turned this onetime underground rocker into a burgeoning roots music monster. One of the first songs Byrd wrote in that style, “Velma,” is about the last woman executed in North Carolina. The victim? Byrd’s own grandfather.
Details: 7 p.m. Saturday. The Water Heater. 813 Fifth St. SW, Roanoke. $15. All ages. theH2Oheater.com, jonathanbyrd.com.
An Evening of Carter Family Music
Featuring Dale Jett, Mac and Jenny Traynham, Jeremy Stevens and more
Who better to pick some old “Big Bang” classics than Jett, a grandson of Sara and A.P. Carter. Jett has performed and emcee’d for decades at the Carter Fold, in Hiltons.
Details: 7 p.m. Saturday. Floyd Country Store, Floyd. $10; $5 for students. 745-4563, floydcountrystore.com, dalejett.com.
Big Lick Blues Fest
Featuring Shemekia Copeland, Ana Popovic, Jimmy Thackery, Hamilton Loomis and more
Read more about this big, blues shindig and barbecued ribs fest at roanoke.com/entertainment/insideout/music. The story features audio with Copeland, Popovic and Loomis.
Details: 2 to 9 p.m. Saturday. Elmwood Park, downtown Roanoke (rain location: Roanoke Civic Center’s special events building). $15 advance (online); $18 at the show. biglickblues.org, myspace.com/tobrbluesandjazz.
Big Lick Blues Festival After-Festival
Come out and jam with host Hamilton Loomis, who is a funky devil.
Details: 9:30 p.m. Saturday. Blue 5 Restaurant, downtown Roanoke. $5. 904-5338, blue5restaurant.com, hamiltonloomis.com.
CANCELLED ** Saturday and Sunday ** CANCELLED
River Grass 2008
With Pickin’ Buds, Barefoot West, Joey Cox & Friends
You can’t drive there. You gotta float. Once you make it, settle in for some good old bluegrass and laid-back pop.
Details: Noon Saturday to noon Sunday. Eggleston. Prices range from $30 for one person to $180 for a family of four. http://newrivertrail.com/?q=node/15, myspace.com/pickinbuds.
Sunday
New Riders of the Purple Sage
Here’s a band of cosmic country freaks for the ages. Broken up for ages, the band has recently reunited with original members David Nelson and Buddy Cage. Some say that if you can remember the 1960s, you weren’t there. I seriously doubt these guys remember a thing.
Details: 8 p.m. Sunday. The Sun Music Hall, Floyd. $18 advance; $22 at show. 745-7883, thesunmusichall.com, nrpsmusic.com.
Wednesday
The Tannahill Weavers
Guitar? Check. Bouzouki? Check. Fiddle? Check. Bagpipes? Check. Proceed now toward authentic Scottish music, from actual Scots.
Details: 7:30 p.m. Bedford Public Library. $10 donation. 586-8911, friendsofbedfordlibrary.org, tannahillweavers.com.
