But I do love pie. Except for the Shepherd’s kind.
You can’t spell February without “F-U.”
Let’s warm up our weary bones with some hot live tunes.
Tomorrow night (2/20):
Robert Ellis plays Southgate
Young Heirlooms, Mol Sullivan, and Annie D are at the Northside Tavern
Liberty Theater has a Songwriters in the Round free show with Anthony Ray Wright and Andrew Hibbard
Kim Deal (Pixies, Breeders, Huber Heights, OH) plays a sold-out show at the Woodward Theater on Friday night. I’ll be there, along with list members Mighty Joe, Deuce, Lobby Boy, Matty V, Jarrod, Shay-Shay, and a cavalcade of stars. It’ll be like the greatest episode ever of The Love Boat
Other Friday shows:
Justin Wells has an album release show at Southgate, with Casey Campbell and Adam Lee also on the bill
Susto and Rose Hotel are at Ludlow Garage
Cincy Brass plays a free show at MOTR (9:30)
Jim Trace & the Makers (featuring two of my co-workers) play an album release show at Northside Tavern, with The Electric Indigo and The Laurelys
On Saturday, the Cabin Fever Festival takes over historic Ludlow, KY. I went last year and loved it – it’s a great showcase for the amazing roots/Americana/bluegrass talent in this area, in some really cool venues (including a Funeral Parlor!).
Needless to say, I’m going again this year. (I just hope the funeral home folks don’t try to stick me in a coffin.)
Join me, won’t you? (At the festival, not in the coffin.) Tickets are dirt cheap too – get ’em here.
Other Saturday shows:
Nicholas Jamerson plays Southgate, with Jonathan Peyton as the opener (I really like Jonathan’s latest release)
Mike Detmer has an album release show at Liberty Theater, with Rob L. Ford, and Adam Gilliam
Annie’s hosts Fillmore on the River 2 with the Almond Butter Band and Scarlet Fire
The HercuLeons (feat. Bluegrass Hall of Famer John Cowan and fiddler/vocalist Andrea Zonn) play Ludlow Garage
Memorial Hall has The Drowsy Lads
On Sunday, Mike Oberst and Justine Cefalu play the Rabbit Hash “Music Behind the Stove” series and Tinfoil Hat Cowboys play MOTR.
The Nasty Nati Brass Band is at Memorial Hall on Monday.
On Tuesday, Bronwyn Keith-Hynes (fiddler from Molly Tuttle’s band) is at Southgate, and the Mercantile Library’s Memoir Lecture is from Michelle Zauner, author of Crying in H Mart and also lead singer of Japanese Breakfast. (That appearance is sold-out.)
Taft Theatre has An Evening with Drew and Ellie Holcomb next Wednesday (2/26).
The Joe Stamm Band plays Whiskey City’s Liberty Theater on Thursday, Feb. 27th, with Clint Park as the opener.
The Noah Smith Band is at Liberty Theater on Friday, 2/28, and Southgate has a couple of shows going on that evening:
Eddie Spaghetti and “Metal” Marty Chandler from Supersuckers play the main room (Skunkdog opens)
Logan Ledger plays the Revival Room, with Mason Via.
Lydia Shae, Amy Jo, and Stone & Snow play Southgate’s Revival Room
Helles Belles (all-female AC/DC cover band) play Ludlow
The Blue Note in Harrison hosts Crown Watts: An Evening of Rush
Shows on Sunday, March 2nd:
Burning Caravan plays Rabbit Hash (2pm)
Tommy Castro & the Painkillers are in Southgate’s main Sanctuary
Flamy Grant and Heather Mae play the Southgate Revival Room
Dropkick Murphys are at the Bobby Brady
Comedian John Caparulo plays a 6:30 show at the Woodward
Gigs on Wednesday, March 5th:
Jordan Tice plays the Liberty Theater
Crumbsnatchers play Southgate (bio description: “Hailing from Nashville, Crumbsnatchers’ catchy songs echo the wit of Pixies and Talking Heads, backed by the fervent force of Beastie Boys.”)
It’s WEEN Wednesday at the Columbia – the album featured will be Pure Guava
Life is a carnival. Summer is a festival (or seven).
Bourbon & Beyond has crammed about five festival’s worth of artists into their lineup:
Nelsonville hasn’t announced their full lineup yet, but they had me at Waxahatchee, MJ Lenderman, Dehd, and Low Cut Connie.
Hear, here!
The new album from Ex-Vöid is great!
One of the principals in Ex-Vöid is Owen Williams from The Tubs. I’m obsessed.
Waxahatchee has a new non-album track out (with M.J. Lenderman on guitar and backing vocals). It’s delightful.
And Katie Crutchfield harmonizes with Patterson Hood (Drive-by Truckers) on a track from his upcoming solo release. As list member Mighty Joe Sampson says, “This is the good stuff. Harmonies to melt your ears on a cold winter day.”
“There were a lot of radio stations that had been around. College stations, and then stations like WLIR in New York. So, that was all part of building the firmament, as well. It was a long process. It didn’t just happen out of thin air. And WBCN, and Matt was DJing down in South Jersey. So, that late ’80s through ’91/’92, all of that was critical infrastructure, as well. It’s just funny – you know this and I know this – but there’s sort of a ‘mainstream history,’ like, ‘There was all this hair metal, and then Nevermind came, and it changed.’ There was a lot of people who did a lot of work to get to that point.”
Amen, Brother Bob! Here’s the title track from his upcoming album:
Album Cover of the Week
I picked up this gem of an album, in this condition, note and all, at the Mt. Washington St. Vincent de Paul store. (On “Senior Sunday” when I get a 25% discount!) My best guess is that the two-time owner of the album found someone who DIDN’T like piña coladas and getting caught in the rain.
Congrats, you’ve nearly made it through “Dryuary!” Now it’s time for a portmanteau that’s even more cumbersome (but not in the Seven Mary Three way), and not really a portmanteau TBH. But when Febrockuary rolls around, you can put on your concert-going shoes (Doc Martens?) and get out to a gig or three.
On Thursday, the Woodward Theater has Donny Benet with Yusef Quotah. Check out Donny’s promo photo:
It’s giving off some serious “love child of Dom DeLuise and ‘Meathead’ from All in the Family” vibes.
Ludlow Garage hosts “Family Tradition: A Hank Williams Jr. Tribute” on Friday. (I hope they play the Monday Night Football Theme that Junior sang… complete with the Jazzercise background dancers.)
That same evening, CG5 plays the Woodward, and MOTR kicks off the preliminary rounds of the Bockfest Sausage Queen competition. (Eat your heart out, Abe Froman.)
The full Sausage Queen schedule, rules, and judging criteria are here.
Febrockuary kicks off Saturday with a full slate o’shows – although most of them are of the tribute band variety:
JD Shelburne plays the Liberty Theater, with Jordan Dermody as the opener
Madison Theater hosts “Tell Me Lies – The Fleetwood Mac Experience” while next door at Madison Live it’s Riddim Fest
The old Annie’s has “Grunge: The Sounds of Seattle”
Bogart’s hosts “Cash Unchained: The Ultimate Johnny Cash Experience”
At Memorial Hall, it’s “Genesis ReTouched” (a tribute to late 80’s to late 2000’s Genesis concerts… quite specific!)
On Sunday, check out the Positively Mainstrasse event at the Village Theater in Covington. It’s a Cincinnati Children’s “Giving Hope to Kids” fundraiser and features dozens of local artists doing Dylan covers. Who knows, maybe Timothée Chalamet will show up…
[Artwork for the poster above by list member Keith Neltner.]
Sunday is Groundhog Day too!
The Chris Comer Trio plays the “Jazz at the Memo” series on Monday, Feb. 3rd, and they’re doing something interesting:
Following last year’s debut at Memorial Hall, The CC3’s (Chris Comer Trio) return engagement will feature a unique inspired arrangement of the landmark ambient piece MUSIC FOR AIRPORTS by Brian Eno. The evening will conclude with an original collaboration by all three CC3 members called MUSIC FOR SPACESHIPS, juxtaposing the styles of the meditative Eno composition and the jazzy groovy “outer space music” of the Comer trio. This concert is in-part a tribute to Cincinnati musician and radio legend Ron Esposito, who has performed MUSIC FOR AIRPORTS and collaborated with The CC3 many times.
“Music for Spaceships”… far out, man! Almost as far out as this version:
Shows on Wednesday, Feb. 5:
Cheryl Renee plays the blues at Arnold’s
The Blue Wisp Big Band is at Caffe Vivace
The Columbia (see our previous post for more on this event space) has WEEN Wednesday, and the album will be The Pod
Highly Suspect plays the Mike Brady on Thursday, Feb. 6th.
IMHO, Mike Brady IS highly suspect. We never found out how his first wife died… mysterious circumstances, no doubt. And somehow we’re supposed to believe that a guy who mixes up architectural plans with a Yogi Bear poster can afford a luxury home and a live-in housekeeper? Is “Cousin Oliver” really Mike’s love child from an affair that his first wife found out about? And what’s the deal with the AstroTurf yard? Is Mike covering up (literally) a backyard grave? Tune in to my new true crime podcast “Here’s the Untold Story of a Man named Brady…” as we do a deep dive into the clues hidden in plain sight. (Tiger knows a lot more than he’s letting on.)
Plenty o’ shows on Saturday, Feb. 8th:
Hot Tuna plays the Ludlow Garage
H.R. (of Bad Brains) plays Southgate, with Knife the Symphony
Vanessa Collier headlines the Cincinnati Winter Blues Experience* at Manor House (*not to be confused with the Cincinnati Winter blues experience of having snow and ice on sidewalks for weeks on end…)
Electric Indigo, Eastwood, and Funky Ducks play a free show at MOTR
The Woodward Theater hosts “Dark Wave” (a covers show benefitting the Freestore Foodbank). Lots of local bands on the bill, including Wussy, Fairmount Girls, Tweens, Leggy, and Static Falls. The full lineup is here.
Last but certainly not least, when you think of “Hard Rock” your mind no doubt goes right to the titans of that genre: Black Sabbath, Metallica, and Air Supply.
One of those three bands will be at the Hard Rock Casino on 2/8.
On Wednesday, Feb. 12th, the Redmoor in Mt. Lookout hosts “Forever Simon & Garfunkel.” Have you ever seen the Photoshop version of S&G’s Bridge Over Troubled Water album cover with Paul Simon removed?
It makes Artie look like Donny Benet:
Mdou Moctar plays a special acoustic performance at the Woodward on Thursday, Feb. 13th.
Friday, February 14th is Valentine’s Day. I choo-choo-choose you to be my favorite blog post reader.
When love is in the air, our minds naturally turn to thoughts of noted romantic balladeer George Thorogood, with his equally lovestruck band the Delaware Destroyers. They’ll be at the Hard Rock Casino. (When typing this, I nearly transposed the “C” from Casino with the “R” in Rock, by accident. But it made me realize I could do that on purpose and score some promotional ad dollars from Enzyte.)
Where was I before I nearly got in trouble with Citizens for Community Values? Oh, yes, concerts… Other shows of note on Saint Valentine’s Day (I threw in the “Saint” to get ‘em off my case):
Josh Morningstar & his band play Southgate’s Revival Room
Liberty Theater has CFG & the Family with Heather Redman & the Reputation
Unlike the Hard Rock, Ludlow Garage knew the V.D. assignment – they have “Lovesongs: a tribute to The Cure”
Little Miami Brewing Co. hosts “Captured: The Ultimate Journey Tribute”
On Saturday, Feb. 15th, the Liberty Theater features the Mama Said String Band with Andrew Hibbard. The Downtowne Listening Room has EG Knight and Maria Carrelli. Also, Valentine’s Day is over.
Joe’s Truck Stop hits Rabbit Hash’s “Music Behind the Stove” series on Sunday, Feb. 16, and Todd Lipscomb plays Arnold’s on Tuesday, 2/18.
R.I.P. Garth Hudson, the mad professor
Now there’s no one left in The Band. Garth was the oldest member, and it seems fitting that he was the last to go, as he was the rock of that group in so many ways.
Amanda Petrusich also paid tribute in The New Yorker.
And now, my favorite Band song… with Garth just coolly crushing it on sax:
Sidebar: Now is probably not the time to get into the petty squabbles and financial dealings of The Band, but reading this in the AP obit made me super-sad, and even more of a Team Levon guy:
In recent years, Hudson struggled financially. He had sold his interest in the Band to Robertson and went bankrupt several times. He lost one home to foreclosure and saw many of his belongings put up for auction in 2013 when he fell behind on payments for storage. Hudson’s wife, the singer “Sister” Maud Hudson, died in 2022.
Joan soldiers on
I’ve always liked Joan Armatrading’s music, and think she deserves a bit more recognition.
I agree! Blurb above is from this interview in The Independent. Her most recent album is How Did This Happen and What Does It Now Mean.
Well, the title of my new album is How Did This Happen and What Does It Now Mean. I have no answers and I haven’t met anybody who has, but I hope we get rebooted to something a bit more balanced. I think we’ve become polarised because when you’re face to face with somebody, things such as body language and eye contact stop us doing certain things. That doesn’t happen on social media, then it spills into the real world. We’re not going to get rid of all wars and disagreements, but the album title is asking how on earth do we get out of this situation that we’re in and get back to a nicer place.
Hot Ticket Alert
More info and a ticket link on the Woodward website.
And this event — a lecture from author Michelle Zauner, who also fronts longtime 97Xbam faves Japanese Breakfast — sold out before I could tout it:
But I can at least mention that the newly refurbished/remodeled Mercantile Library is even more amazing than it was before, and the annual membership is totally worth it to get dibs on great literary events. (Poet Laureate Ada Limón will be there on 8/27.)
That’s Sooo Cincinnati ticket alert
Billy Joel and Rod Stewart are playing the Bengals stadium on Saturday, September 20th. I don’t know when tickets go on sale, but I DO know it’ll cost a gazillion dollars to see two dinosaurs.
Railbird lineup
It skews fairly “mainstream country”:
I’d rather spend $2.49 for this Jelly Roll action:
Music is Medicine
Singer-songwriter Laura Burhenn, who records as The Mynabirds (and does house tours via Undertow!), asked Janine Awan to design two complementary poster for her Bandcamp merch site.
A portion of the proceeds from both posters will go to support the World Central Kitchen’s important work in the US and abroad in areas torn by war and climate disaster.
Meet new singles in your area!
The winter new music freeze is finally thawing out. Check out new singles from The Tubs (loved their last album, they remind me so much of Richard Thompson), Lucy Dacus, Sharon Van Etten, and a posthumous release from The Chills/Martin Phillipps.
Album Covers of the Week(s)
Decca certainly didn’t “sell the sizzle” with the adjective they used to describe Earl. Was “versatile” the best that they could come up with? It feels like the album cover equivalent of a “he’s got a great personality” blind date.
There’s a LOT going on with this cover. Good luck coming up with a coherent narrative based on this imagery. The girls is writing in an album (who writes in an album?) while dreaming of a fur trader who doubles as a malt shoppe owner, and he in turn is dreaming of a photographer from 1872. Also a chef is going overboard with the pepper – so much so that the liquid splashing out of his saucepan is black. And there are two anthropomorphic ink blots who get feature credit…
