Thursday 25th- Wiseapple 7pm
Wiseapple is an acoustic string band originally from Boone, North Carolina proudly continuing in the bluegrass tradition of Bill Monroe, the Stanley Brothers, and Flatt and Scruggs. The band plays a mix of standard classics and original compositions featuring tight vocal harmonies and impressive musicianship. Formed in 1999, the group consists of Jon Hill on mandolin and vocals, Tim Marsh on guitar and vocals, Ben McPherron on bass fiddle, and Brian Swenk on banjo. In addition to bluegrass, the group enjoys arranging numbers by jazz greats such as Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, and Sonny Rollins as well as playing songs by important songwriters like Bob Dylan and Neil Young.
Friday 26th- Ray Bonneville w/ Randy Weeks $5
Purchase Tickets here.
Bonneville is a distinctive artist, a man who cooks up a deep groove, blending a unique percussive electric guitar style, a weathered voice, and soulful rack harmonica into image provoking songs that can be believed. His thumb pulses and thumps, his index finger hooks and brushes out a melody, and his hand slaps the guitar for a snare-like effect. He sometimes uses a slide, always plays through a Fender tube amp, and brings his foot down on an amplified piece of plywood on the floor for added percussion. It is a powerful and visceral sound with a lot of forward momentum.
If critical raves drove the record charts, Randy Weeks would rightfully be top of the pops. After all, consider just some of the evidence: “An amazing songwriter” (Salon.com). “Smart songwriting and a broad palette of pop music influences” (CD Now). “Amazing musician” (Billboard). “Cooler than an Eskimo beer box” (Houston Press).
And Weeks’ admirers are hardly limited to the music press. “Randy Weeks writes amazingly well crafted, beautifully melodic songs and delivers them with his own brand of laid back vocals and surfboard cool, very hip approach” says Lucinda Williams, who included his song “Can’t Let Go” as the sole cover on her Grammy winning album, Car Wheels on a Gravel Road.
