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Pricing note: All prices listed below are prices at the door evening of
the show. Since many shows do sell-out
in advance, advance tickets are recommended. All tickets bought
in advance at outlets are subject to added box office
service charges.
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Friday,
October 23
8:30pm |
$20 |
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Dirk Hamilton
Band |
www.dirkhamilton.com
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We have always thought singer songwriter Dirk
Hamilton is a truly amazing performer who successfully combines a sweet optimism
and hopefulness, a great sense of humor, with an uncompromising, unwavering, and
stance that at the end of the day is all about celebrating our humanity and
beauty, not being phony, and being true to oneself. Musically and vocally,
comparisons have been made to Van Morrison or John Hiatt, while lyrically his
words take on the poet’s touch of a Dylan, but when it’s all said and done,
there’s really no one like Dirk Hamilton. To us he’s a one-of-a-kind performer-
at 6’ 4” he’s a big presence on stage- and the strength of his singing and
guitar playing just carry the rapt listener along…and yet he’s able to temper
this strong stance with a vulnerability and innocence that is disarming,
endearing and very real. In our view, one of the greats. His new cd is called
More Songs From My Cool Life and this evening Dirk is joined by the band from
the cd, guitarist Don Evans, Bassist Eric Westphal and drummer Tim Siefert.
" Brilliant songwriting and
goose-bump-inducing singing. Hamilton's writing can't really be compared to
anyone else; maybe a shot of Hiatt, a double shot of Van Morrison, and a kiss
from the angels will suffice as a description." – Jackson Griffith Sac News
& Review
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Saturday,
October 24
8pm |
$20 |
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Those Darn
Accordions |
www.thosedarnaccordions.com |
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Celebrating their 20th year, Those Darn Accordions,
San Francisco's accordion-fueled rock 'n' roll band pumps out quirky, catchy
originals chronicling life in the weird lane. The six-piece group -- fronted by
lead singer/squeezebox wizard Paul Rogers and bellows-pumping babes Carri
Abrahms, Susie Davis and Suzanne Garramone -- promises to forever rearrange your
understanding of the accordion. TDA's four extreme squeezeboxers mix solid
keyboard chops with a groundbreaking use of guitar effects pedals and amps to
produce a super-cool sound like nothing you've ever heard emanating from an
accordion.
Behind the amazing wall of wheeze, drummer
Michael Messer and bass player Lewis Wallace anchor the band, providing a firm
foundation upon which the manic TDA accordionists can layer huge slabs of sonic
mayhem.
With sterling vocal harmonies and a sense of
humor that just won't quit, the one-of-a-kind band blazes through a variety of
musical genres -- from rock and funk to polka and even swing -- and torches
timeless classic rock tunes along the way. You won't believe your ears.
Sexy, raw and diabolically funny. Right up
there with NRBQ as a band with a real point of view. -TELLER of Penn &
Teller
“TDA pushes the boundaries of what respectable
folks expect from the accordion.” - whatzup
“...suggested the result of putting David
Byrne and Frankie Yankovic in a blender.” Washington Post
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Sunday,
October 25
7:30pm |
$15 |
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Boulder Acoustic
Society |
boulderacousticsociety.net |
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Old school but never old, Boulder Acoustic Society
is the new wave of American roots music. It’s what happens when four songwriters
get together to mash up blues, folk, gospel, indie and world music to soothe
their musical curiosity. Whether it’s a festival stage, performing arts center,
dive bar or a late night campground set, B.A.S. delivers musical diversity
throughout their set as if it’s normal.
B.A.S.'s music is intense and exciting for
listeners, with something new and interesting at every turn. The unique lineup
of violin, accordion, bass and percussion support sharp vocal hooks and powerful
grooves. All of this comes from four guys who wear vintage clothes, savor small
batch bourbon and rock the ukulele.
“Here… is the future of String Band Music on a
silver platter (assuming you buy the CD!). A multi-national, multicultural,
symphonic, swingin’ band of young monsters that will bring you to the rocky
mountain where they live and show you around the place… and you will like this
place.” - -Darol Anger
"Experimental, but not pretentious. Fun and
serious in all the right places. Weird, but not in a ‘look at how weird I am’
way." -Dale Bridges, Boulder Weekly
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Friday,
October 30
8:30pm |
$17 |
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Chris Cain
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www.chriscain.cc |
Bluesman Chris Cain has long been one of the more
inspiring blues artists we’ve encountered. Both his voice and guitar playing are
near perfect -a voice that recalls B.B. King and a jazz-tinged, blues soaked
thick toned Gibson guitar sound reminiscent of Albert King. But Cain is no
simple copy cat- he’s forges a unique style. With his own highly personalized
songwriting, Cain has developed into one of the most compelling bluesmen on
today's scene."
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Wednesday,
November 4
8pm |
$15 |
Chip Taylor
w/ special guest Kendall Carson
“Yonkers New York”
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Artist Website
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Chip Taylor, The master songwriter,
singer, guitarist and storyteller is best known for writing such
indelible classics as “Wild Thing” and “Angel of the Morning,”
He’s also written tons of other songs that have made entries
onto the pop charts including, I Can't Let Go (performed by The
Hollies), Make Me Belong to You, I Can Make It With You (Jackie
De Shannon), Any Way You Want Me (The Troggs), Step Out of Your
Mind, Country Girl City Man, I'll Hold Out My Hand, and Try
(Just a Little Bit Harder) (Janis Joplin). Country hits written
by Taylor include Sweet Dream Woman (Waylon Jennings), and Son
of a Rotten Gambler (Emmylou Harris, the Hollies and Anne
Murray). But his notable artistic achievements and fascinating
musical story extend far beyond his many classic songs. He
helped spearhead the 1970s progressive country movement, and
then after a 15-year hiatus from music as a professional
gambler, returned to recording and performing to become an
eminence grise of the Americana movement and create some of the
most vital music of his already storied career.
"Chip Taylor is making some of
the most distinctive acoustic music around today,” says The
New York Times.
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Thursday,
November 5
8pm |
$20 |
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Jimmy Thackery |
www.jimmythackery.com
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Jimmy Thackery is one the premier guitar
pyrotechnician on the blues scene today. Thackery became widely known as the
innovative guitarist with the Nighthawks, one of the hardest-working and most
popular blues bands of the '70's and '80's. Starting in 1974, the group recorded
over twenty albums and constantly toured the U.S., Europe, Canada and Japan.
Jimmy was the heart, soul, and adrenaline of the Nighthawks sound during his
fourteen year tenure with the Washington, D.C.-based band, creating a
distinctively raw, powerful guitar style and establishing a reputation as a
spectacular soloist. Thackery has been acclaimed as one of the hottest live acts
around, with his jaw-dropping performances becoming the stuff of legend.
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Friday,
November 6
8:30pm |
$15 |
Chuck Prophet
and the Mission Express
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chuckprophet.com |
We think San Francisco’s Chuck Prophet is one of the
greatest and creative of modern day musicians. Prophet’s music covers the
terrain of rock, indy rock, Americana, folk troubadour, psychedelic and
experimental. And he does it all great. He’s a great tunesmith, a monster
guitarist, an intriguing poet/lyricist, and a creative arranger. His new cd is
called “Let Freedom Ring”, an ambitious project recorded in Mexico City.
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Saturday,
November 7
8pm |
$20 |
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Bill Kirchen
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billkirchen.com
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Bill Kirchen has become widely known
for the trademark big-rig guitar riffs that powered the
Commander Cody hit “Hot Rod Lincoln” into the Top 10 in 1972.
Since 1993, he has recorded seven critically acclaimed albums of
his own that have made him one of the musical elder statesmen of
today’s Americana music, which in truth was pioneered by acts
like Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen back in the ‘70s. On his
last recording called Hammer of the Honky Tonk Gods, the man
known as “The King of Dieselbilly” and “A Titan of the
Telecaster” visits most every sonic landmark along the
proverbial Route 66 of American music that he’s traveled for
decades now as a player, songwriter and singer, and serves up a
blue-plate special of such tasty and nourishing stylistic
flavors as rock ‘n’ roll, honky-tonk, soul, rockabilly, Western
swing, country, blues, boogie-woogie and more. You can expect
all this this evening as Kirchen shows you how it is that the
King of Dieselbilly truly is The Hammer of the Honky Tonk Gods.
"Bill Kirchen rules. It's just
that simple. [His] no-nonsense diesel guitar attack, powered by
great booming, bottom-heavy licks still covered with axle
grease, is undoubtedly the real thing, scattering scorching
guitar runs in all directions, it's all immediate, in your face
and more than a little dangerous.”--Austin
American-Statesman
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Tuesday,
November 10
8pm |
$17 |
The Duhks
Jace Everett
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www.duhks.com/
jaceeverett.com |
Canada’s folk-music award-winning group The Duhks,
are a band of five skilled, high-energy, acoustic musicians from Winnipeg,
Manitoba. Their brand new recording is called Fast Paced World. Their blend of
soul, gospel, North American folk, Brazilian samba, old time country string
band, zydeco, and Irish dance music, and the attack they bring to these
interwoven acoustic styles—which might as well be called sheer rock and roll.
Their unique sound has also earned them a Grammy Award nomination in the Best
Country Vocal Performance by a Group or Duo category, one Juno Award, two
additional Juno nominations, two Folk Alliance awards, and an Americana Music
Association nomination for Best Emerging Artists. Opening is Jace Everett, a
country and roots artist whose song "Bad Things" was chosen as the theme for the
HBO series True Blood.
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Thursday,
November 12
8pm |
$15 |
Cliff Eberhardt
David Jacobs Strain |
www.cliffeberhardt.net/
www.davidjacobs-strain.com
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Tonight we bring two great acoustic singer
songwriter talents who work within both the folk music and acoustic blues world.
Cliff Eberhardt has been playing the national folk circuit for many years and is
an acclaimed songwriter as well as one of the most accomplished players as well.
He cut his teeth listening to the likes of James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, Bruce
Springsteen, Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, Bonnie Raitt, and Mississippi John Hurt
- receiving an early and impressive tutorial in acoustic music, whole also
listening to great pop songwriters like Cole Porter, the Gershwins, and Rodgers
and Hart, explaining his penchant for great melodies and clever lyrical twists.
His new cd is 500 Miles: The Blue Rock Sessions, which he describes as “a deeply
personal album”, following his critically acclaimed The High Above and the Down
Below, which was named the #5 album of the year by USA Today. This new album was
recorded in the Texas Hill Country near Austin, and is flavored by the many
sounds of Texas-Americana blues, Tex-Mex, and soulful roadhouse ballads. A
driving force of the Greenwich Village New Folk movement and well known among
his peers, Eberhardt’s songs have been covered by Richie Havens, Buffy St.
Marie, Erasure, Lucy Kaplansky and the folk superstar band "Cry, Cry, Cry" (Dar
Williams, Richard Shindell, Lucy Kaplansky). David Jacobs-Strain, plays in the
blues tradition but isn't from it. You'll hear echoes of Skip James, Charlie
Patton, Tommy Johnson, and a song by
Fred McDowell or Robert Johnson in his solo
performances. But as a modern roots musician, singer, and songwriter, "I come
from the language of the country blues, but it's important not to silence other
influences," he says. Upon listening to Jacobs-Strain's latest CD, Liar's Day,
you can imagine him inviting his touchstone, American bluesman Taj Mahal, on a
musical walkabout. You can imagine them conferring with Salif Keita, Afro-pop
songster of Mali; conversing with Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, Indian slide guitarist;
and even conjuring the spirit of John Lennon while tramping in the Siskiyou
Mountains of Oregon. The traces of these musical excursions interweave with the
fat sounds of a rock rhythm section. The results cohere into a genre-defying
journal of Jacob-Strain's pursuit to honor both the roots of American country
blues and the possibilities that grow from them.
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Friday,
November 13
8:30pm |
$12 |
The Painkillers
Joe Getty and the Dead Flowers
|
Getty on
myspace.com
Painkillers on myspace.com |
Regional radio celebrities Jack Armstrong and Joe
Getty each bring their respective bands, The Painkillers and Joe Getty and the
Dead Flowers to The Palms for a great evening of Americana, roots and classic
rock, honky tonk and a bit of twang. Featuring a heavy dose of drinking songs
and breakup ballads, The Painkillers live up to their name. A band that plays
honky-tonk, Americana, cow punk, and good old country rock, they round it out
with harmonicas and slide guitar. Hailing from Kansas, singer/songwriter Jack
Armstrong, better known for his daytime gig on Talk 650/ KSTE-AM's Armstrong &
Getty Show, spins tales about love gone wrong, drunken debauchery, and losing
everything. The Painkillers are new to the scene, but were featured at the 2007
Best of Sacramento and are frequently played on Nevada City’s KVMR “Ragged but
Right” show. Joe Getty and The Dead Flowers play original songs built from
traditional American music, just a little twisted, louder and nastier. Lots of
guitar, vocal harmonies and a bit of twang with the bang...take a listen when
you get a chance. The debut album, "LOW EXPECTATIONS", released March 2009 on
itunes, features a number of great NorCal musicians, including the members of
the live band.
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Saturday,
November 14
8:30pm |
$12 |
Dave Gleason
and the Golden Cadillacs
The Bottom Dwellers
|
www.dave-gleason.com/
www.bottomdwellersmusic.com |
It’s a great evening of high octane honky tonk from
two of California’s great roots Country bands. One of LA’s top honky tonk and
Country bands, Dave Gleason and the Golden Cadillacs definitely deliver the goods big
time. With three strong albums already to his credit, Dave has proven himself a
strong singer, a solid, tradition-savvy songwriter, and a guitarist of nearly
unsurpassable gifts. Woodland’s The Bottom Dwellers play a blistering twang-fest
of face melting Telecaster, to the swampy dirt sounds of traditional murder
ballads (and everything in between), the Bottom Dwellers deliver REAL Americana,
hillbilly swing, and truck driving classics with the vigor of 100 Jerry Reeds.
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Thursday,
November 19
8pm |
$17 |
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King Wilkie
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www.kingwilkie.com |
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Experimentation and reinvention has always been a
thread in the fabric of King Wilkie. First founded as a furiously hard-driving bluegrass
band in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2003, the band was hailed by bluegrass
purists as the music’s great young hope. They riveted festival audiences across
the country and picked up the International Bluegrass Music Association’s
coveted Emerging Artist of the Year award in 2004, the year they released their
national debut album Broke. As Broke reached number one on the bluegrass charts,
King Wilkie put in appearances at the Grand Ole Opry and at all of the major
North American folk and bluegrass festivals. They opened for the likes of Ralph
Stanley and Jerry Lee Lewis, served as Peter Rowan’s backing band, and toured
with David Bromberg and Tony Rice.
All the while their music was mutating. Drawing
equally on pre-bluegrass American forms and more contemporary influences, the
band recast their bluegrass instrumentation into increasingly more orchestral
textures for their second album, Low Country Suite, which was released in 2007
and recorded with producer/engineer Jim Scott (Tom Petty, Dixie Chicks, Red Hot
Chili Peppers). Their latest recording, The Wilkie Family Singers, is a bit of
concept album in which a fictional world of musical siblings and other
characters serve as a backdrop for the album
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Friday,
November 20
8:30pm |
$20 |
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Lavay Smith & Her
Red Hot Skillet Lickers |
www.lavaysmith.com |
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The Bay Area’s Lavay Smith is internationally
recognized as The Queen of classic Jazz & Blues in the authentic style of the
1940's and 1950's. Lavay, who’s become something of a San Francisco landmark,
incorporates a variety of classic American musical styles, including swing,
bebop, salsa, jump blues, and New Orleans R&B. She has become an internationally
recognized Diva of Jazz and Blues, with a singing style influenced by Billie
Holiday, Dinah Washington, Bessie Smith, Little Esther Phillips and other
legendary greats.
This sultry chanteuse evokes a sensuous era of
Jazz queens and sexy pinups and adds a modern, feminist twist. Lavay first
performed in 1989 and immediately began attracting crowds thanks to her big,
bluesy voice, exciting stage personality, and glamorous approach.. Lavay
approaches her material from the standpoint of an independent woman, combining
world-class singing and musicianship with hilarious, provocative lyrics. Lavay's
last album received a prestigious 4 & 1/2 Star review in Downbeat magazine and
reached the top 10 on the National Billboard Jazz Charts.
“The San Francisco-based Lavay Smith & Her Red
Hot Skillet Lickers …actually know the difference between jump music and bland
R&B in corny suits. They have been a working unit since 1989 and sound as tight
as the legendary musicians they choose to emulate.”
---Bob Blumenthal, Boston Globe
“A lush vocal style recalling both Bessie
Smith and Dinah Washington.” ---Don
Heckman, Los Angeles Times
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Saturday,
November 28
8pm |
$17 |
Mumbo Gumbo
CANCELED |
www.mumbogumbo.com |
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The danceable music of Mumbo Gumbo is legendary
around these parts. With much of it based in the Louisiana sound that was so
prominent in their earliest years, their music has broadened to include Latin,
African, reggae grooves, country and jazz style ballads as well as good old
fashion pop/rock. Singer Tracy Walton takes on the lead vocals singing with both
strength and beauty, while Chris Webster has returned to The songwriting is
shared by many members of the band while the musicianship is taken on by the top
level playing of drummer Rick Lotter, bassist Mike Palmer, sax player Reggy
Marks, accordionist, pianist Steve Stizzo, and guitarist Jon Wood.
The dance floor will be open and seating will be
limited.
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Sunday,
November 29
7pm |
$20 |
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Maria Muldaur &
Her Garden of Joy |
www.mariamuldaur.com
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This will be an exciting show for us a legendary
blues/ r&B singer Maria Muldaur returns to her very earliest roots- the jug band
music she as she sang with The Jim Kweskin Jug Band back in the late 60’s.
Maria’s new album, Maria Muldaur & Her Garden of Joy presents this old time
style of music in such a way that only Maria can. Her touring Garden of Joy Jug
Band will feature the funky, syncopatin' guitar work of Kit Stovepipe. Also
joining her are the multi-talented Gallus Brothers, Devin Champlin & Lucas Hicks
from the Crow Quill Night Owls on multiple acoustic instruments - mandolins,
fiddles, banjos, jugs, tubs, kazoos, harmonicas - you name it! Last but not
least, laying down that solid jug band groove will be Kurt Jensen on the bass
and washtub.
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