Another Thursday

Does it seem like the weekend begins with Thursday night music?

Early choices include The Portland Playboys swinging Duff's (6 pm, $2) and Lewi Longmire rockin' the Laurelthirst (6pm, no cover).

Dan Bern is in town and doing an early show at The Woods. Great opportunity to catch a wonderfully engaging singer/songwriter ... his live shows are a knockout ... 7 pm, $18

As the hands move to the 8 o'clock hour, you can catch Lauren Sheehan with special guest Thad Beckman at the Muddy Rudder. Thad's been touring the world with troubadour Tom Russell ... he and Sheehan will be pickin' some pretty fine acoustic blues ... 8 pm, no cover.

Down at Jimmy Mak's it's Mel Brown's B3 Organ Band, one of the most soulful funky combos in town ... 8 pm, $5

Keeping the funky jazz theme tonight, at the White Eagle it's the danceable grooves of Trio Subtonic .... 8:30 pm, no cover

A couple of the finest retro swing jazz outfits in the Northwest will be at Mississippi Studios - Portland's Midnight Serenaders and Seattle's Casey MacGill's Blue 4 Trio ... 9 pm, $10

Looking for a jammy bluegrass evening .. check out the Sugarcane String Band and the Garcia Birthday Band at The Goodfoot ... 9 pm, $??

... and the Spare Room (4830 NE 42nd) will be rockin' with Brethren Thread and Sweetjuice (highly recommend this one)... 9 pm, $??

And if you're looking for some laughs, tonight starts the four-day Bridgetown Comedy Festival at a number of venues around town.