How not to labor through the weekend

I can feel fall comin' in these cooler mornings. Suppose we should check out some live music as the summer winds down and the school year begins.  But September still gives us our last gasp outdoor music options and a big music festival in the coming weeks.

But this weekend? Here's a few to consider:

Friday
Catch a great happy hour at the Laurelthirst with the Mary Flower Trio - she'll be joined by Jesse Withers (of Jackstraw) on bass, and Spud Siegel on mandolin ... 6 pm, no cover

Sublime jazz vocals and piano from Rebecca Kilgore and Dave Frishberg (with a rhythm section, too) at Ivories Jazz Lounge ... 8pm, $10

Saturday
If you go to Art in the Pearl, there's a stage with live music on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday with some very fine "world music" acts ...

Rock icon Ian Hunter is at the Aladdin tonight, and doing a CD signing at Music Millennium at 1 pm. Since his days leading Mott the Hoople, Hunter has been an uncompromising rocker and inspiration to many famous and unsung. Portland Cleveland rocks with all the young dudes ... and The Minus Five opens ...  8 pm, $35

Thad Beckman and Kurtis Piltz are at O'Connor's ... 8 pm, $7

Atomic Gumbo with some special guests are at the Trails End Saloon ... 9 pm, $??

The Fruit Bats are at the Doug Fir .... 9 pm, $15

Monday
Lee Fields & the Expressions will blow the bark off the Doug Fir with high energy old-school soul ... and Philly's Phunkestra opens ... catch this show ... 9 pm, $13

Will be a wonderful day up at Timberline Lodge with an all day celebration of Timberline's 75th birthday and music that will be a tribute to Woody Guthrie ... check out the lineup and events ... and it's free ... here's the story about it from OregonLive.

Trombone Shorty Tonight at the Zoo!

Tonight -  one of the young shining stars of the New Orleans, Troy Andrews ...aka, Trombone Shorty, and his band Orleans Avenue will be rocking the zoo tonight. So much of music in New Orleans is about families that have been centers of the sound and their communities for generations... the Andrews family (from the Treme) is one of those. Troy has been performing since he was a young kid, handling a instrument taller than him. Now in his mid-20s and wielding his trombone or trumpet, Andrews and band lays down an irrepressibly distinctive New Orleans groove, but one that weaves a multitude of styles into something both modern and timeless. This is going to be a great show, as it also includes Robert Randolph and the Family Band opening ... wow! ... 7pm, $24

Tonight: Teisha and Friends CD Release and Tribute Concert

This is going to be a wonderful show tonight ... a fitting tribute to a wonderful musician and member of the music community we lost all too soon .... It will be a lovely night for an even more lovely show at Kruger's Farm on Sauvie Island.

    - Jim

TEISHA AND FRIENDS
CD Release and Tribute Concert

Thursday, August 23, 6:30pm
Kruger's Farm on Sauvie Island ... $10 per car
17100 NW Sauvie Island Rd
Portland, OR 97231

Teisha Helgerson, the voice of the bands Amelia and Say Uncle, left a notebook filled with lyrics and snippets of gorgeous melodies sung into her phone. Her friends and peers took those snippets and melodies and used them as seeds of inspiration for the songs on this record. Proceeds from the concert will benefit "Teisha's Place," a temporary home for transplant recipients and their families and The Jeremy Wilson Foundation. The event will be hosted by our own Courtenay Hameister, and features Live Wire producer and band member Jim Brunberg, who contributed a song and served as one of the producers on the record.

For more information, click here.

To preview the album, click here. 

A couple of quick recommendations for the weekend

Just a few quick ones to mention ...

Best shows for tonight are at Jimmy Mak's with the soul sax sound of Renato Caranto and at the Back Door Theater with three excellent songwriters ...
Caranto is the favorite sideman of practically every Portland jazz, soul, funk, blues band leader, but he'll lead it this time with an all-star group of musicians including the legendary Bernard Purdie on drums, Louis Pain on B3, Peter Dammann on guitar, and a rotating set of some of Portland's best vocalists ... definitely going to be fun ... 8 pm, $9/$11 reserved

Ron Rogers, Joe New, and Buzz Holland are three songwriters with ties to the Nashville and Texas songwriting communities (all carrying a lot of hard-earned writing cred) ... they'll each perform a set tonight at the Back Door Theater (cool spot connected to Common Grounds Coffee - 4321 SE Hawthorne) ... 7 pm, $??

In other shows ... at the Alberta Rose, it's National Flower and Celilo ... 8 pm, $10

The Doug Fir has Denver headlining a three band lineup for their CD release show (they did a couple of great sets at Pickathon) ... 9 pm, $5

For your dancing pleasure, it's DK Stewart at Duff's ... 9 pm, $??

It's a big weekend at the zoo - after Buddy Guy/Johnny Lang last night, there's two nights (Sat/Sun) with Pink Martini ... tonight's show is sold out, but there's tickets for Sunday if you want to join the wine-sipping-chatting-through-the-music-only-concert-they'll-go-to-all-summer crowd.

Sunday shows?

On the patios ... at Mississippi Studios, it's Sarah Gwen Peters, and at the Doug Fir it's Star Anna and Kasey Anderson ... both free and at 3 pm.

.... and if you're not going to the Sleep Country Amphitheater for Motley Crue and KISS, you should probably head to O'Connor's in Multnomah Village for the occasional and always entertaining, Country Side of Sunday with Kurtis Piltz, Jon Koonce, Steve Bradley, Jeff Woodcock, and Thad Beckman (and help celebrate Thad's birthday - it's a significant one) ... 7:30 pm, $5

Busy, busy weekend ... a summer crescendo!

Wow, there's a lot to pick from his week ... including Los Lobos for free, the Alberta Street Festival, Hopworks' Biketoberfest, The Bite, free music in the parks, NW String Summit, some rockin' bands at Duff's .... where to begin?

First I need to mention my pick of the weekend is my favorite band, Los Lobos. They'll be playing for free in Beaverton on Saturday. Yes, really! It's part of the Tualatin Hills Parks and Rec summer celebration series of concerts ... info is here. Pepe & the Bottle Blondes will do an opening set. This is where I expect you'll find me at 6 pm on Saturday.

Thursday
Today kicks off the NW String Summit at Horning's Hideout ...should be a really great weekend of music with a ton of fine bands including the Yonder Mt. String Band, 7 Walkers, Karl Denson's Tiny Universe, Danny Barnes, Joy Kills Sorrow, and lots more ...

The always sweet sounds of The Stolen Sweets will fill the plaza at the Oregon Convention Center's Plaza Palooza Concerts ... 5 pm, free

At Couch Park, it's more music in the parks with the Bobby Torres Band ... 6 pm, free ... Speaking of parks shows, here's the remaining shows in Portland Parks and check out the last four days of the series in Washington Park.


Head tonight to Kruger's Farm on Sauvie Island for Ashleigh Flynn's Country Band ... 6 pm, $10 per car

If you need to be inside for your tunes, The 44's are a killer roots rockin' blues band from Los Angeles and will at Duff's tonight ... 9 pm, $10 ... You can also catch them at Music Millennium for an in-store performance at 6 pm.

Jerry Joseph and the Jackmormons do the second of two nights at Mississippi Studios ... 9 pm, $12

If Western Swing's your thing, then head to the Secret Society for The Barn Door Slammers ... 9 pm, $5

Friday
Three days of The Bite of Oregon get going at Waterfront Park with lots of food, food demos, and some great local bands providing the music ... check out the schedule here. All for just $5 admission.

Good to see that Chris Miller is in town ... he'll be playing with James Sasser at the Bipartisan Cafe ... 7 pm, no cover

Terry Robb and Mich Kashmar will be at Vie de Boheme ... 8 pm, $10

One of the pioneer British bands that popularized Jamaican ska music in the early 80s, The English Beat, are at the Doug Fir ... 9 pm, $23

Saturday
Lots going on ... of course, there's the already mentioned Los Lobos show in Beaverton, The Bite, and the NW String Summit  ... but also:

The Alberta Street Fair goes all day with three stages of music ... it get's going at 11 am ...

Biketoberfest at Hopworks Urban Brewery hosts four bands including Casey Neill & the Norway Rats and The Builders and The Butchers during their all-day beer and biking celebration ... 2 pm, $5

The Lewi Longmire Band with Bingo Richey are at the Laurelthirst ... 9:30 pm, $?? (they also do a free acoustic set on Sunday at 3 pm on the patio at Mississippi Studios)

Guitarist Alan Hagar is at the Muddy Rudder ... 8 pm, no cover

Melissa Etheridge will rock the Oregon Zoo as the zoo's summer shows continue ... 7 pm

Sunday
Excellent acoustic show at O'Connor's in Multnomah Village with guitarist Mary Flower and Spud Siegel on mandolin ... 7 pm, $8

... and a very talented guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter - Seth Walker - will be at Duff's. Can't say enough about the Nashville-based Seth ... if you like artists like Delbert McClinton or our own Lloyd Jones, you will love Seth ... his soulful vocals and tasty guitar licks will be just what you need to end the weekend ... 8 pm, $10

Monday
And, for Monday, another favorite songwriter of mine, Austin's Alejandro Escovedo is in town at the Doug Fir ... 8 pm, $20

Okay folks ... whether it's indoors or outdoors, get out to some live music!

Some quick picks for the weekend

My weekend is going to be busy with Pickathon ... like last year, I'll be one of the video directors as part of the massive effort to bring folks a live video stream from the festival. With multiple stages for three days, that's a lot of video. If you're not going, here's a message from the festival about how you can see it:

If you absolutely cannot make it out the farm this weekend, we have an amazing live broadcast, being led by local livestream masterminds, Stumptown Bliss. The best places to catch the stream will be at KEXP.org or with our good friends at Paste Magazine. You'll be able to tune in beginning Friday, August 3, at 12pm Pacific and we'll be shutting it around noon on Monday.

 If you don't know Pickathon, I think it's a truly unique festival ... check out more about it with stories at Oregon Music News, Willamette Week, and the Oregonian .... and if you're out at Pendarvis Farm, drop by the Workshop Barn ... you might find me around the video gear.

So ... what music might you catch otherwise around town?

Tonight, at 72 years young, he's still one of the innovators of electric blues guitar ... Guitar Shorty ... and he's at Duff's ... 9 pm, $15

Need some happy hour tunes to get your weekend started early? The always dependable Lewi Longmire is at the Laurelthirst .... 6 pm, no cover

Get your funky dance groove going with Philly's Phunkestra at The Goodfoot ... 9 pm, $5

Friday
It's a first Friday again, so that means a few of my favorite happy hours - the James Low Western Front at the Laurelthirst, Wendy & the Lost Boys at the Hawthorne Theater Pub, and Swing Papillion at the Secret Society ... all at 6 pm, no cover

Hang around at the Secret Society and catch the My Oh Mys,  the Golden Motors, and Redray Frasier ... 9 pm, $8

There's a solid songwriters show at the Alberta Rose with Joe New,  Kurt Hugat, and Steve Cameron ... 8:30 pm, $10

And at Duff's catch the Duffy Bishop Band ... one of the best blues voices in the NW ... 9:30 pm,  $??

Saturday
Speaking of Duffy Bishop, she'll be performing tonight with the Bobby Torres Ensemble at Jimmy Mak's ... now that's going to be a hot show ... 8 pm, $10

At the Oregon Zoo, it's South Africa's Johnny Clegg Band with Ladysmith Black Mambazo ... 7 pm, $28/48

Kasey Chambers pays a visit from down under and you can catch her over at the Aladdin ... 8 pm, $25

Sunday
3 o'clock patio music at Mississippi Studios with Matt Sheehy ... and at the Doug Fir with Dolorean ... both free and great ways to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Two chances to catch one of the best harp players around, Rick Estrin & the Nightcats ... a free show at Music Millennium at 3 pm, and then at Duff's at 8 pm, $15

And there's a fundraiser at the Mission Theater with a fine bunch of local bands ... you can read about it here...

OK ... that all for now ... more next week! Get to the parks, the festivals, the venues ... check out live local music this summer!