Sunday, January 31, 2010

New week ... more music

Some fine choices for live music early this week ....

Monday
If you're looking to start your week by strappin' on those those dancing shoes and stepping out to some great big band swing and blues, head to Duff's for the monthly gig of Lily Wilde and her 17-piece band. Very hot and very fun ... 8pm, $5

If a guy and a guitar playing acoustic blues in a cool little neighborhood joint is more your speed, check out Lloyd Jones at the Muddy Rudder in Sellwood. And you never know who might drop by to join him. Every Monday .... 7:30 pm, no cover

At the Alberta Street Pub it's Sideways Reign - a Washington based genre-blending band that's beginning a five week cross-country tour. Their mix of folk, blues, reggae and funk is worth a listen (I have friends in Portland, Shelton, WA, and Dallas, TX who've recommended this band to me). They'll also be on KATU's AM Northwest at 9am ...  6:30 pm, $3

Tuesday
Tony Furtado's Tuesday residency gig at The Woods just gets better each week. This week's guests include Lara Michel and Lewi Longmire ... and given it's format, others will be dropping by. If you haven't made it over, I highly recommend checking out the last of his 3 week series on Tuesday. Lots of folks hope this will continue as long as Tony is in town and not out touring (but nothing announced, so I'd catch this show if you can!) .... 8:30 pm, $6   ... BTW, good article about Tony over at Oregon Music News.

At Jimmy Mak's, it's a Partners in Jazz show with the young and talented jazz/blues piano player Mac Potts and his jazz/funk quartet ... 6:30 pm, $3; ... Postponed until next week.

Speaking of jazz, David Ornette Cherry will be at the Mission Theater ... 8 pm, no cover

And for something completely different, it's Spanish Flamenco music and dance at Mississippi Studios with Flamenco Arte Y Paz featuring Vicente Griego (vocalist from New Mexico), Ricardo Diaz (guitarist from SF) and Savannah Fuentes (dancer from Seattle) ... 8 pm, $15

Saturday, January 30, 2010

Other shows for Saturday and Sunday

Saturday ...
Prior to the Jimmy Boyer fundraiser at the Laurelthirst, Little Sue and band will be holding down happy hour. 6 pm, no cover

At The Woods it's Keep Your Fork There's Pie - fun band with a great name ... and maybe pie ... 9pm, $8

Shoebox Letters is at Duff's Garage ... 9:30 pm, $??

Mike Coykendall and the Golden Shag is at The Knife Shop (otherwise know as Kelly's Olympian) ... 10 pm, $5

Sunday
It's the Crystal Ballroom's 10th annual birthday bash (96 this year!) with a great lineup of music, building tours, kids activities, tastings. Drop by anytime as it's going all day .... Free

More benefit shows this weekend

Recovery work in Haiti, helping a musician with medical bills, supporting music education - musicians are pitching in and lending their services ... and asking you to show up, buy a ticket, contribute more where you can. So here's three this weekend where your dollars will support causes both local and global.

Tonight at the Laurelthrist Lewi Longmire and Little Sue have put together a fundraiser for Jimmy Boyer. Jimmy suffered a ruptured hernia in late December leaving him unable to play gigs and earn money for the time being. This is to help. Musicians participating include: Billy Kennedy, Tim Acott, Miss Jessie Spero, Michael Hurley, James Low, Michael Jodell, Mike Danner, Michael Dean Damron, Little Sue, Lewi Longmire, Ed Gibson, Lex Browning, Roger North, Dave Reisch, Emily Butler, Jack Hawk, and many more!  9:30 pm, $10 sliding scale.

In Peter's Room at Roseland tonight it's PG3. Portland Guitar Three features Jennifer Batten, Terry Robb, and Geoff Metts in an electric guitar showcase and benefit for Parkrose K-12 Music Boosters. This event will showcase the unique stylings of three NW guitar masters, while helping support NW music education. And ticket holders are entered in a raffle for an autographed Fender Stratocaster ... 8pm. $18

And the Portland Blues community pitches in for Mercy Corps' relief efforts in Haiti on Sunday evening with a benefit show at The Refectory (1618 NE 122nd). Jim Wallace and the Housecats, Lloyd Jones, Dover Weinberg, Lisa Mann, Suburban Slim, Stu Kinzel, Terry Robb, A.C. Porter & Big Noise, and Kevin Selfe and the Tornadoes along with many more great musicians will have the place jumpin' and hopefully raising a whole lot of cash. There will be auction and raffle items too, curtesy of Music Millennium ... 6 pm, no cover, but give what you can and all the proceeds go to Mercy Corps.

And the music community thanks you for your compassion and generosity! 

Friday, January 29, 2010

The slow post to music

Is it Friday? Shoot ... okay - quick picks, no links or blather.

Piano Throwers, Moon Mountain Ramblers, Lewi Longmire Band at the Mt. Tabor Theater ... 9 pm, $7.00

Country Joe McDonald at Mississippi Studios ... 9 pm, $20

Jackstraw at the White Eagle ... 9:30 pm, $6

... and two Mercy Corps Fundraisers tonight to support their recovery efforts in Haiti:

TaborSpace (5441 SE Belmont St ), 6:30 pm, donate what you can ($5-$500)
Come to TaborSpace this Friday night for an incredible ensemble concert!! All proceeds from this concert will be donated to Mercy Corps. And if you donate here before the night of the concert, your name will be on the will-call list and you can attend FREE.

The team at TaborSpace feels compelled to acknowledge and respond to the current disaster in Haiti. As a neighborhood center focused on being a resource for our community, we feel that focus should and does apply to our global neighbors as well as our immediate - especially during such a time of crisis.


Hope For Haiti - R & B and Reggae Concert Fundraiser, 7 pm , Ambridge Event Center (300 NE Multnomah )
Jungle International presents a great Reggae charity event for Mercy Corps' Haiti relief programs - come and make a difference.They've got Abduel Hall, Iesha, Chata Addy, Lowenbad, Toni Hill, DJ George, Nuborn and 3RP. Come out for a great music venue and bring your generous heart for Haiti survivors.

More for the weekend tonight or tomorrow  .... 

Saturday, January 23, 2010

Monday, Monday ... and a peak at Tuesday

Couple of things you might want to be aware of ...

As part of the always enjoyable Reel Music film series at the Northwest Film Center, there will be a screening of Portland Mojo: How Stumptown Got The Blues at the Whitsell Auditorium at the Portland Art Museum. It's at 7 pm ($8), but you might want to get your ticket in advance. And after the film there will be a no-cover show at the Mission Theater featuring a number of the artists featured in the film. Should be a fun Monday night.

Portland's music community has really stepped up to raise money in response to the earthquake in Haiti (anyone surprised? I'm not.) In a continuing effort by various strands of the community, there's a benefit Monday night at The Woods - the All Souls Rising Benefit for Haiti will feature Nick Jaina, Builders and Butchers, and Tu Fawning. All proceeds will go to Mercy Corps. Great reason to head out on a Monday night ... 9 pm, $10

 ... and speaking of The Woods ... remember that Tony Furtado does his second of three Tuesday gigs this week. Music will start at 8 pm and this week's announced featured guests are Stephanie Schneiderman, Garett Brennan, and Scott Law. This was a great show last week and a bargin at $6. Don't miss this one.

A few Saturday and Sunday picks

Will be fast  ... it's all good ....

Saturday
Stephanie Schneiderman and band @ Jimmy Mak's ... 8 pm, $10

Grant Lee Phillips @ Mississippi Studios ... 7 pm, $15

Jay Farrar (Sonn Volt) and Benjamin Gibbard (Death Cab For Cutie) will be doing songs inspired by Jack Kerouac at the Wonder Ballroom ... 9 pm, $27


Carnivale Americana continues at the Someday Lounge tonight featuring Casey Neill & Little Sue, Mike Coykendall, Rob Stroup & the Blame, Steve Wilkinson, and The Redeemed ... 9 pm, $10

Kolvane's annual Fan Appreciation Party will be happening tonight at the Trails End Saloon in Oregon City ... 9 pm, $5 (or free if you sign up to be an honorary member of the band via the website)

Sunday
Laura Love will be doing an afternoon show @ Mississippi Studios   ... 2 pm, $15

Blue Cranes will be at Blackbird Wine (on NE Fremont) .... 7 pm, $15 advance/ $20 at door - contact Matt Miner for tickets (or 503-484-8196).

Nancy King will be at the recently reopened Brasserie Monmarte ... 7 pm, no cover


Stephanie Schneiderman and Keith Schreiner with The Portland Cello Project: "Stone China" from Douglas Jenkins on Vimeo.

Friday, January 22, 2010

Friday music - lots!

Still catching up this week (sleep, work, teaching), so I'll try to be brief ... but there are a ton of great choices for tonight ... I'll cover Saturday in a separate post later or tomorrow morning ...

It is a New Orleans funkfest at Berbati's tonight with the Rebirth Brass Band and Ivan Neville's Dumpstafunk. Good blurb by Ryan White in the A@ E about just how good this will be. Yeah you right ... 9 pm, $25

Portland FolkMusic Society has an excellent acoustic blues show tonight with Steve James, Del Rey, and Eric and Suzy Thompson doing traditional and original blues/old-timey tunes. Show is at Carvin Hall Friday near 16th and SE Division ... 7:30 pm,, $12

David Vest and his Seven Piece Dance Band will be at Duff's. This piano playing raconteur's gigs are always a treat. Nice interview by Tom D'Antoni with David this week in Oregon Music News ... 9:30 pm, $7

The Andrew Oliver Sextet and Trio Subtonic are at Jimmy Mak's ... some of the finest young jazz artists in Portland ... 8 pm, $10

There's a special two-day benefit for the Human Solutions "Homeless Families Warming Center" is at the Someday Lounge. The Friends of Scotland Barr present Carnivale Americana: Tango Alpha Tango, The Slow Dregs, Rob Bonds aka Highway, Brian Berg. This is a great way to honor the memory of Scott Moritz, songwriter and leader of Scotland Barr & The Slow Drags, who died last year ... 8 pm, $10 or $14 for a two day pass.

A fine triple bill of AA Bondy, Willy Mason and Haley Bonar are at Mississippi Studios ... 9 pm, $10

Seattle's Hey Marseilles and Portland's Sallie Ford & the Sound Outside will be at The Woods ... 9 pm, $7

The Low Road, Michael Dean Damron, and Sarah Gwen Peters are at the Laurelthirst ... 9:30 pm, $5

King Louis & Baby James are at the Brasserie Monmartre ... 8 pm, no cover

And if you want to get your night of music started early ...

The Quick and Easy Boys will be rockin' the happy hour at the Laurelthirst ... 6 pm, no cover
 ... and, The Troublemakers will be makin' trouble (the good kind) at the Trails End Saloon ... 7 pm, no cover

I've probably missed some shows here, but that's all the time I have ... told you there were a lot of great choices - and that's just tonight!

Here's a little Rebirth for y'all ....

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Songs for Haiti Benefit Concert tomorrow at the Aladdin

This is from Mercy Corps and is a fundraiser for their work in Haiti ... try to go ... or buy a ticket and give it to someone.

Songs for Haiti: A Benefit Concert for Mercy Corps -- January 21, 2010
"Songs for Haiti" is a one-night-only show: a meditation on the enormous loss of life in Haiti; a celebration of hope; and ultimately a fundraising concert aiming to raise upwards of $25,000 for the Haiti disaster relief efforts of Mercy Corps.

Performers at the Thursday, Jan. 21 show at the Aladdin Theater include: pianist Thomas Lauderdale, Cool Nutz, Portland Cello Project, Janice Scroggins, Holcombe Waller, Oregon Symphony concertmaster Jun Iwasaki, with pianist Grace Fong, Broadway veteran, baritone Douglas Webster, Flash Choir, PHAME, the Grant High School Royal Blues, and Storm Large among others. You can see all of the details at Songs for Haiti.

Come and enjoy a star-studded cast of hot, local musicians and feel the good vibrations of doing good to support Haiti earthquake survivors.

Thursday, January 21, 2010
6:30pm - doors open
7:30pm - show starts

Aladdin Theater
3017 SE Milwaukie Ave
Portland, OR

$30 tickets. Minors need to be accompanied by parents.

For more go to Songs for Haiti.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Back with some recommendations

Back in Portland after a very satisfying SBC-16 (will post some thoughts and photos when I get around to it for anyone who is interested). But I see a couple of shows early this week you might want to have on the radar.

Steve Earle has two shows at the Aladdin - tonight and tomorrow - both are sold out, but if you really want to go and don't have a ticket, show up, have patience and maybe someone will have an extra or two. But as alternatives, try these -

Tony Furtado will be doing the next three Tuesday nights at The Woods. Each week he'll have a special guest or two who will join him. Tonight it will be Casey Neill and Jeremy Wilson ... 8 pm, $6

Great alternative for Wednesday night is Richard Shindell at the Alberta Street Pub. A wonderful songwriter and performer, this former New Yorker now living in Buenos Aries, gets to Portland every year or two - and shouldn't be missed when he does. Highly recommended ... 7 pm, $18

On the local side, Little Sue does her weekly happy hour at Biddy McGraw's ... 6 pm, no cover

Scott Law has the happy hour slot at the Laurelthirst ... 6 pm, no cover ... followed by Alice Stuart at 9 pm ... also no cover.

A cool little trio of Steve Kerin (keys), Bob Shoemaker (guitar) and Heidi Shu (percussion) are holding down Wednesdays at Halibuts on Alberta Street. And there could be guests  ... 8 pm, no cover

Good to be back .... see ya out and about!

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

SBC-16 mid-week report ...

Wednesday, half-way through the week. In port at Costa Maya and taking a few minutes to relax and gather my thoughts about the cruise so far. 

We got off to a chilly but encouraging start at the pre-cruise party on Saturday night ... The unusually fridgid Florida night didn't slow the music or the reconnection with old friends - and everyone was excited about what was anticipated to be the last Delbert cruise. But no one was disappointed to hear that one more has been booked for next year ... lifting the weight of potential finality added to the great vibe that started to build. The weather was more of source of humor than annoyance -- particularly since may cruisers skipped last year because going out of San Diego and cruising the Pacific was "too cold". Fred Eaglesmith pointed out the karmic whack we had all been given. 

But it's been quite the week of music so far ... with the first night almost sounding like the last -- amazing sets by Marcia Ball and Delbert. Marcia had the Mingo Fistrap horns join her - and her new guitar player, Mike Sherman helped kick it up a notch. Delbert had a host of folks join him and the band on stage for a rousing kick-off to the week. It has continued Monday and Tuesday with some killer sets by Teresa James (who was joined by Tommy Castro), Mingo Fistrap, Tab Benoit, Seth Walker, Paul Thorn, Cyril Neville, Fred Eaglesmith and Mike Farris (who if you've never heard, you need to -- one of the most soulful singers I've ever heard!).  I knew some about Mike before the cruise, but hearing him live was a treat. So far the discovery act is Foy Vance - young Irish songwriter who knocked out a small crowd in the Ocean Bar with a mesmerizing set. He's a one man band using loops and tracking that is fascinating to hear and watch - one of the most masterful coordinated uses of technology I've heard. 

Ported yesterday in Cozumel and had a pleasant afternoon touring about and lunch on a quiet beach ... today a relaxing wander in Costa Maya. Look forward to checking out Roatan, Honduras tomorrow.

Anyway, gotta get ready for tonight . . . but thought I'd check in let you know how the cruise is progressing .... See ya!

Saturday, January 9, 2010

A few shows for Saturday

I may be in Florida, but figured I track a few things going on in Portland that you might want to check out.


Laura Viers at the Artistry ... I have been thoroughly enjoying Laura's new CD, July Flame - it's officially released this month, but since picking it up at her show with Blind Pilot recently, it's been in pretty constant rotation. Beautiful songs and production. See her and pick up a copy. ... 9 pm


Outstanding jazz trio at Jimmy Mak's - Dave Freisen, Randy Porter and Alan Jones ... 8 pm


Physical Hearts, Sallie Ford & the Sounds Outside, and Lewi Longmire at the Doug Fir ... great story about Sallie Ford on Thursday in the Oregonian ... keep an eye on her .... 9 pm


Mary Flower and Thad Beckman will be at O'Connor's. Last time they did this it was a great blend of very satisfying solo and duo acoustic blues. Two of our best players - and last chance to catch Thad before he hits Europe with Tom Russell. ... 7:30 pm


BTW, it's really cold here -- going to be a chilly couple of days to begin the cruise. Music needs to be extra hot.


That's it for me on show recommendations until I return ... have a great week! 

Cruise minus 1

In very chilly Florida ... a day before SBC-16. Got a chance to visit with Floridian and former Portlander Reina Collins. She's excited about her new CD, Saltwater Soul (and she should be - it's really good), has a band together, and is playing around the Tampa Bay area. She'll be back in Portland for a Northwest CD release show at Biddy McGraws in early April. Glad to see she's doing well.

Thinking a little bit about the cruise and the fact that since my first trip in 2001, we've lost a number of cruisers (not unusual considering our aging), but the loss most of us will feel this year is that of Stephen Bruton. On every cruise through the 12th, he was an integral part of the music and the week - whether doing his own sets or sitting in with others. His cancer kept him from the last three, but there was always hope that he'd be back. Hopefully there'll be some sort of tribute performance by his good friends that will be assembled. Here's one of my favorite Stephen songs.

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Vacation time ...music, friends and SBC-16

It's been two years since I've done this and am really looking forward
to my week on Delbert McClinton's Sandy Beaches Cruise
<www.delbert.com>. It is the 16th and supposedly last one - and it it
really is, this closes an amazing chapter for me that has contributed
immeasurably to my relationship with the music community. This is a
live music fan's dream - a pretty amazing week.

I'm headed to Florida today for some visiting with relatives, then
boarding the ms Ryndam on Sunday for a week of friends, music and
(hopefully) warm Caribbean weather. Might get a post up tonight or
tomorrow about Portland music, but this might be last post until I get
back ... but maybe not. Don't think I'll be posting from the cruise
(expensive to get online), but we'll see.

Y'all have a wonderful 10 days and I'll get back to more regular posts
the week of the 18th.

Get out to some live music!

- Jim