Friday music picks

Yesterday I recommended the Les McCann/Javon Jackson show at Jimmy Mak's - 2nd of two shows is tonight ... 8 PM, $25 .... Good story about Les here at Oregon Music News.

For happy hour you might want to find your way over to the Secret Society Ballroom for Rob Stroup and the Blame ... 6 PM, no cover

My pick show for tonight is at Duff's Garage.  Eilen Jewell has been compared to artists like Lucinda Williams and Gillian Welch and has garnered a tremendous amount of critical acclaim with her first three CDs (Boundary County , Letters from Sinners and Strangers & Sea of Tears). She's touring in support of her latest recording, Butcher Holler - A Tribute to Loretta Lynn.

Jewell's music has the languorous quietude of (Gillian) Welch or Norah Jones, but there is something more direct, almost in your face, about her stark, neo traditional melodies, subdued vocals, and confident, slow-swaying groove. It's as if she's daring us to say we miss the bells and whistles of pop...Jewell’s songs are achingly good, twanged-out elegies to a world of barbed wire, rusty trucks, and a frontier that no longer exists.  - Boston Globe

But she also can rock out with the best. Eilen is someone I've wanted to check out for a while and highly recommend - should be a really fun show. Maybe see ya there! ... 9:30 PM, $10