For the Eve of New Year's Eve

As we roll into 2017, there's some fine music choices for the New Year's weekend (good rundown of concerts here).

For the eve of NYE (today for those of you keeping score), here's a few that might sate for saying a slightly early goodbye to 2016. Then you can just hunker down at home on Saturday night with a movie and a bottle of bourbon  ... but I digress. 

Tony Furtado continues his very satisfying week of residency at Al's Den with Casey Neill as his guest (and Stephanie Schneiderman on New Year's Eve)... 7 pm, no cover

Then there's the most excellent swampy roadhouse roots rock of Rich Layton and the Troublemakers at the Kennedy School. This will get your motor running and feets moving ... 7 pm, no cover ... and where I'll be tonight!

Lisa Mann and Her Really Good Band with special guest Ben Rice will rock the next to last night at the sadly closing Jimmy Mak's ... 8 pm, $12

At the Laurelthirst, it's Gerle Haggard for the early show (6 pm, no cover) and Dead Men Talking are at the late show (9:30 pm, $5).

Rae Gordon is at Duff's ... 9 pm, $10

Jerry Joseph and the Jackmormons are at the Doug Fir (and on NYE, too) ... 9 pm, $25

If you're headed out on NYE, a few of your choices include:

At Duff's it's the Ben Rice Colossal Group and Sister Mercy.
Caleb Klauder has a NYE Rhinestone Bash at the Spare Room. 

Kevin Selfe and the Tornadoes are at the Blue Diamond.

And, Lewi Longmire has invited a bunch of Laurelhirst regulars (and other musician not working this NYE) for a Straggler's Jam that promises to be a lot of fun - and it's no cover ... you might want to arrive early for this one!

For a more complete listing of NYE events, check out the Willamette Week music schedule.

For a lot of reasons 2016 kinda sucked, and looking ahead to 2017 I'm not encouraged things are going to get any better. It will be interesting, but not necessarily good interesting (maybe more like the interesting of watching a slow moving train wreck ... from the train). So as we face turbulent times, let the music help keep you grounded and sane.

See ya out and about, and a Happy New Year to all! 

    - Jim

If you're looking for music tonight

In case you're looking for some post-Xmas music fun tonight, you can't beat having Tony Furtado do a full week of shows at Al's Den. It's day three and his guest tonight is the fabulous Kenny White! Don't miss this infrequent opportunity to catch him in Portland. I'll quote myself about Kenny from the last time he was here:

"Since getting turned on to Kenny in 2010, I have not missed an opportunity to see him. From cerebral to emotional, sardonic to heartfelt, from cultural commentary to explorations of life's lessons, Kenny's tunes always provide an illuminating and entertaining perspective. Not to mention he's a kickass pianist."

Anyway, he's great - don't miss his set at 7 pm. He'll be part of the rest of the evening with Tony, but you really should hear his solo set which will start the evening at 7 pm. And there's no cover for shows at Al's Den ... so buy food and drink and tip generously! 

See ya out and about!

Kevin Gordon and more for Wednesday

Barreling our way to the end of 2016 (good riddance!) and the uncertainty of the coming year, there's always live music to give us a small pause, a communion with soul soothing sound ... whatever for each of us cuts through the noise of the world or the self-generated chatter into some present, occasionally transcendent, moment. We, at least fleetingly, clean the slate before the inevitable assault returns.

There are some great opportunities for slate cleaning this week, starting with the long overdue return to Portland of Kevin Gordon. He'll be at the White Eagle on Wednesday and at a house concert (full disclosure - mine) on Thursday. The White Eagle show is with The Grahams, another cool roots act I think you'll enjoy. I wrote about Kevin Gordon in my last post, so I won't go into much, other than if you're a fan of twangy roots blues and literate songwriting (he's a published poet too), don't miss him ... 8 pm, $10

Others on Wednesday?

My Morning Jacket's Jim James is that the Roseland ... 8 pm, $30

It's An Evening with Kim Richey at the Doug Fir ... 9 pm, $20

Holidazed? How about the Storm Large Holiday Ordeal at Revolution Hall ... 8 pm, $36/$50 (Thursday's performance is sold out).

Speaking of the holidays, a number of Portland holiday music traditions happen this week, including the Trail Band Christmas show at the Aladdin and the White Album Christmas at the Alberta Rose. Way different, other than both will have you forgetting the world outside the theater for a few hours. The latter is sold out, but there are still tickets to some of the Trail Band shows.

More for the weekend ... we'll see if I get out another post!