BLACK STONE CHERRY
5:30 p.m., Riverfest Amphitheater. Free.

On their way to becoming Central Arkansas regulars, Kentucky's Black Stone Cherry return to play Music in the Park, the Riverfest Amphitheater free concert series that Chesapeake Energy, your friendly neighborhood natural gas driller, is bankrolling. Blending post-grunge sensibilities with big Southern rock riffs, BSC comes to town behind its new album, “Folklore and Superstition.” Louisiana-based post-grunge act 12 Stones opens with American Bang, a rock group whose song “Move to the Music” was recently selected as a theme song for WWE Wrestling.

 

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Eddie Griffin, scheduled to do stand-up at Robinson on Saturday, has canceled. There's no indication of a make-up date.

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Have you seen this man?

Word around the Little Rock fashion community is that Tim Gunn was in town earlier this week to check on Korto Momolu, leading to speculation that she's made the final  cut on "Project Runway," which airs on Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on Bravo. Momolu's also said to be steadily buying fabric, which might suggest that she's working on a collection for Fashion Week in New York, Sept. 5-12, where the final three contestants face off. Or she could simply be readying a new collection for the fashion show at Hillcrest HarvestFest, in which she’s committed to participating.

Maybe another clue for tonight's episode: There's a watch party tonight at Creegen's. Last time the Irish pub hosted, Momolu won that night's challenge. Might she go two for two?

HarvestFest is Saturday, Sept. 27. I've been roped into emceeing even though I sound kind of like Steven Wright.

Here's the line-up:

3 p.m.: The Salty Dogs
4 p.m.: Rob and Tyndall
5 p.m.: Kevin Kerby
6 p.m.: The Boondogs
7 p.m.: Fashion show (thankfully, I'm not emceeing it)
8 p.m.: Kyoto Boom
9 p.m.: Winston Family Orchestra

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Wolf Parade.

Downtown venue Revolution has updated its website to add an impressively diverse upcoming slate. Here's the cream of the crop: Leon Russell on Sept. 21, Paul Thorn on Sept. 25, Junior Brown on Oct. 19,  Wolf Parade on Nov. 16 and Tim Reynolds on Nov. 21.

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Earlier flamboyance. Anyone secret a picture from last night?

Dressed like a gay Confederate general — pencil mustache, powder blue waist-coast, flat-brimmed hat, tight pants with racing stripes — Bob Dylan spent the first 1/8th of his show clearing his throat in song. Which was not awesome. But perhaps to be expected from a 67-year-old, who’s spent most of his life on the road and the last 20 years on a tour that’s gone on so long fans call it the “Never Ending Tour.”

By the third song, he was mumbling and speak-singing, still phlegmatically, but in a way that wasn’t defined by hacking and almost sounded sonorous compared to the openers. Some boomers sitting near me looked on with curled-lips, but most everyone else seemed to know the score: Annunciation is not a hallmark of modern touring Dylan. Nor is playing familiar songs straight. But his band, including long-time bassist Tony Garnier and four other crack improvisers, always makes everything swing.

The set list, available online at bobdylan.com (awesomely with streaming snippets), was split mostly between songs from the last two albums, “Love and Theft” and “Modern Times,” and ’60 era classics. You’d only know by looking online, but early on, he did “John Brown,” an impassioned anti-war protest from 1963 not released on album until “Unplugged," and, a few songs later, “Wheels on Fire,” which he and Rick Danko wrote together back when the Band was his band.

The highlight of the night, unquestionably, was an emphatic, stripped-down version of “Masters of War.” The rhythm section took the lead — George Receli issued out cannonball blasts from his kick-drum. And somehow, perhaps as sign of the song's importance, Dylan sang clearly. “Come masters of war / You build all the guns…”

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I've got a little ways to go in Photoshop.

The Arkansas delegation to the Democratic National Convention will be treated to the singular warble of North Little Rock's own Chris Denny and his crack backing band, the Old Soles, tonight in Denver. They're playing a delegate party at the Tavern Downtown. Their MySpace page says they're scheduled to start at 8 p.m., right around the time Hillary Clinton will probably start speaking. But concerts never start on time.

 

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Similarly outfitted, but less rockin'.

Ideally, this kind of thing would come early in the day, but today's been full with paper-related duties, so better late than never:

Damn fine: Friday, I caught the tail end of the Thomas Jones Duo at White Water. Jones is an Arkansas native, a big defensive lineman of a man who used to play guitar with Cedell Davis. He's still playing dirty blues, working a slide like a champ and roaring out standards about shaking, women trouble and the like. I'll be showing up early next time he's through. The headliners, Jack Oblivian and the Tennessee Tearjerkers, lived up to their reputation. Their garage-rock could get good and grimy — there was lots of quick head-nodding and foot-pounding — but it was really tuneful, too, incorporating all sorts of disparate, weirdo Memphis culture. Guitar whiz Travis Wammack got a shout out and, late in the set, the band did an impressive version of Booker T. and the M.G.'s "Time is Tight."

Glad I missed it: At Cool Shoes at Downtown Music on Friday, a friend waiting in line for the bathroom reports seeing a pool of blood and soon thereafter being politely asked by a young dude, "Can I go first? My friend lost part of his finger." Apparently, the finger came off in an inadvertent door slam. Yikes! No word if the tip came back.

The best concert I've seen all year: Marty Stuart played the Old State House on Saturday.  Like the best televangelists, he looked like someone who deserved to be up front, which is to say fairly outrageous. But when he spoke, in the deep, dulcet twang of someone from Mississippi, his aw-shucks charisma made us forget that he was wearing black leather pants, more foundation than Joan Rivers and a mullet-pompadour combo that looked less styled than shocked.

Continue reading "The Weekend in review: Oblivian, Stuart and fingertips" »

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Imagine this, but cloudy.

Movies have been good to Kenny Loggins. Whether “and vice versa” should finish that sentence depends on one’s tastes. The couple of thousand of fans who enjoyed $10 tickets and comfortable weather to see him Aug. 21 at Riverfest Amphitheatre didn’t get as many chances to weigh in on that issue as they expected.

Technical problems sent huge burst of distorted white noise through the PA system late in the show and canceled an encore that surely would have included “Danger Zone,” from “Top Gun,” and “Footloose.” The boisterous “I’m Alright,” from “Caddyshack,” did make its lively appearance and was among the highlights of the 80-minute set.

Loggins began with two of his acoustic bombshells, “Danny’s Song” and “House at Pooh Corner” before cranking up the band – and his own guitar – for a show that rocked harder than most would have expected and some seemed to enjoy. “Angry Eyes,” a true “anthem” for Loggins and Messina, was a metal meltdown of the finest sort. And the two songs Loggins played from his new “How About Now” album, to be released next month, were rockers.

“Celebrate Me Home” got an extended play, with Loggins strolling through the crowd in the blue, reserved seats, which were filled primarily with lawn sitters whom Loggins early on invited to come down and take seats they hadn’t paid for, to the chagrin of the ushers and the properly ticketed. “Your Mama Don’t Dance (And Your Daddy Don’t Rock ‘n’ Roll)” was the biggest disappointment, as vanilla and boring as it comes. “This Is It” offered counterbalancing, creative fun.

—Kelley Bass

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MARTY STUART
8 p.m., Old State House. $35.

Marty Stuart is a stylistic vulture, scooping up bits of bluegrass, rockabilly, rock 'n' roll and traditional honky-tonk and selling them to Nashville as country music. Born in Philadelphia, Miss., he learned violin and mandolin as a child; by the time he was a teen-ager, he'd joined bluegrass legend Lester Flatt's band. After that band petered out, he kept pickin' and grinnin' with the greats, playing with Vassar Clements and Doc Watson and later joining Johnny Cash's band. At 24, he had a lifetime of experience, a solo album and a formidable mullet. A weaker man would be content to hang it up, but Stuart has only broadened those early accomplishments: He's become a first-rate country music scholar and collector (his collection “Sparkle & Twang” on exhibit at the Old Statehouse is the reason for the performance). He's released 13 more solo albums, most recently a live album recorded at the Ryman in Nashville. And his mullet's endured, though his pompadour looks more and more like Tina Turner's '80s wig every day. You might want to practice surreptitious dancing pre-concert. Anything beyond a foot-tap is strictly prohibited in the Old State House's historic 1885 House Chamber.

POP! IN THE PARK
6 p.m., History Pavilion, Riverfront Park. Free.

The penultimate Pop! in the Park continues along the same path of the first two: A diverse, four-act local bill provides a nice excuse for families and folks of all ages to commune and head nod for free. The line-up includes 4X4 Crew, a young hip-hop crew who always make sure to involve the audience; Suga City, a slow-roll duo from Stuttgart and Pine Bluff, who seem to be one of Arkansas's best chances at national rap stardom; Browningham, a one-man-band who channels Prince and Michael McDonald and Kyoto Boom, a post-punk/new wave band that sounds like it should be headlining arena stages. Coolers and lawn chairs are welcome.

MORRIS DAY AND THE TIME
8 p.m., Timberwood Amphitheater, Hot Springs. $45.99.

Morris Day's career will always be inextricably tied to Prince. Day wrote “Partyup,” an anti-war, pro-party song Prince covered on “Dirty Mind.” You'll remember it for lyrics like “fightin' war is such a fuckin' bore/party up.” He played the antagonist in the film version of “Purple Rain.” And, of course, he led the Time, a side-project for the Purple One. It's long been speculated that all of the material on the band's first three albums was written and composed by Prince and sung by Day. Still, Day's no shill. He's always had a confident, comic charisma — think of a modern day Rufus Thomas — which he's infused into timeless jams like “Gigolos Get Lonely Too” and “Jungle Love.” Day and the Time are the penultimate concert of the season at the Timberwood Amphitheater. The Spin Doctors close out the season on Aug. 30. The ticket price is park admission.

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10 Years.

Continue reading "The Weekend: 10 Years, Cool Shoes, Sean West and more" »

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Photo by Aaron Sarlo.

Six-inch stage? PBR and PBR loyalists? The homey cocktail of smoke and mildew-infused wood? A canoe wrapped in Christmas lights? You're at White Water! And after all these years it's still a great place to see a live band. Shows there somehow stride that elusive line between watching your friend and witnessing a demi-god. You bask in the immediacy of the moment, up close and personal, and then, because of something inherent to White Water, you drink your beer, laugh with your friends and shrug it all off. And so it was last night.

It is a definite misnomer to call Sideshow Tramps a 'sideshow,' though they do reasonably resemble tramps (the Depression-era kind). Scruffy and unkempt, the band proves that shiny packaging, more often than not, lies. These dudes make their own instruments (yes that is a cigar box and that other thing is a trash can) and then belt out what is best described as klezmery, jug-band, trash-grass with two fingers of Tom Waits poured on top. Drunken and gravelly yet melodious, worn and comfortable yet brilliantly brand-new, Sideshow Tramps' viscerally rocked the hizzy, and their full length record, Medicine Show, will perfectly season that indecisive jambalaya you call a playlist.

Exemplary music-making.

—Aaron Sarlo

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JACK OBLIVIAN AND THE TENNESSEE TEARJERKERS
9 p.m., White Water Tavern. $5.

Finally! Or at least, for the first time in a while! One of Memphis' greatest garage rockers makes the short trip to Little Rock. Oblivian, born Jack Yarber in Corinth, Miss., might be the most important figure in Bluff City's vibrant '90s garage-rock revival. He set the tone in the Compulsive Gamblers, a raw but knowing trio co-founded by Greg Cartwright (who'd go on to found the hugely influential Reigning Sound) that borrowed liberally from '50s pop conventions and Memphis roots. When that group broke up in 1995, Yarber and Cartwright formed the Oblivians, a band that only expanded the duo's garage-punk sound. The Compulsive Gamblers later re-emerged, but for most of the aughts, Oblivian's toured as Jack O and the Tennessee Tearjerkers, which has meant everything from Oblivian and a full band with a horn section to just Oblivian. Expect less visceral and more sing-along garage rock this time through, and look out for new music; Oblivian is apparently at work on a new album. The Thomas Jones Duo and Coach open.

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‘SOUTHERN BAPTIST SISSIES'
7:30 p.m., Weekend Theater. $10-$14.

Never one to shy away from controversy, the Weekend Theater takes aim at the Huck and them — that is, Southern Baptist fundamentalists, particularly of the fire-and-brimstone variety. Del Shores' tragicomedy centers around four teen-age choirboys in a Southern Baptist church struggling (or not) with their homosexuality. One, a military brat, doesn't consider himself gay; another suffers in the closet; another loves the military brat and narrates the play with a solid helping of snark, and yet another rails against his upbringing and becomes a drag queen. The play follows them to adulthood, interweaving Bible verses that support and contradict the Baptists' teachings about homosexuality. The satire continues through Sept. 6.

 

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Sideshow Tramps.

From Houston, Sideshow Tramps draw from bluegrass, blues, Gypsy music, punk, old time and rock. In other words, they worship at the church of Tom Waits. The Tramps headline at White Water, 9 p.m., $5. The Front Porch Freedom Fighters opens.

As usual, Ted Ludwig starts his night out with bassist Joe Cripps at the Capital Bar and Grill, 5 p.m., free, then teams up with his jazz trio at the Afterthought, 8 p.m., $5.

This time, it's joined by singer and multi-instrumentalist Tonya Leeks.

Hot 96.5 FM returns to Juanita's with a ladies' night, DJ'ed by Dr. Feelgood, 9 p.m.

The Football 101 class provides an introduction to the finer points of the game for the fairer sex at the Village. The likes of Tommy Smith, Clint Stoerner and David Bazzel host, 6:30 p.m., $25.

 

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Spooner Oldham and Dan Penn.

"I like a good groove," Dan Penn told NPR in 2006. "I'm not looking for a big mental statement. Just give me a groove and tell me a little something I like."

What a philosophy from the architect of some of the greatest soul songs of all time. The man behind "Do Right Woman Do Right Man," "I'm Your Puppet" and, maybe my favorite song of all time, "The Dark End of the Street." A white man from tiny Vernon, Alabama, who started out by selling "Is a Bluebird Blue" to Conway Twitty, but made his name crafting soul songs for mostly black artists like James and Bobby Purify, Aretha Franklin and Percy Sldege, writing spare, conversational lyrics for them that almost seem simple, but that always lend themselves to deep, deep emotion.

He's well into his 60s, but still going strong. A couple months back, he released a new album, "Junkyard Junky," and on Tuesday, Sept. 16, he plays a free show at the Cabe Theater at Hendrix. Even though he's known more for his songwriting, he's no slouch as a singer. His warm country-soul tenor — not far from Charlie Rich's voice during his Hi Records days — advances the cause of blue-eyed soul men everywhere. The live album he cut with longtime writing partner and organist Spooner Oldham in 1999 is essential.

Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham "Do Right Woman"

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I think the Clinton School announced he was coming a while back, but now they've set a date: Chuck D will speak at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 25, at Robinson. The bio the Clinton Foundation released describes him as "a prominent supporter of music on the Internet" and the founder of rapstation.com, "a site dedicated to empowering rap artists with the knowledge to turn their craft into a viable living." That might be a hint at what he'll talk about.

Damn! He's 48, according to his MySpace page. Here we come gray-haired rappers.

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THE EFFECTS
10 p.m., Sticky Fingerz, $3.

The Effects have been praised as an “eight-legged groove machine of the highest order” by MTV's Buzzworthy. It's a surprisingly accurate description, especially coming from a soulless corporate cog machine. For the curious or doubtful, a taste of the audio/video offerings at the band's website could whet the appetite for an economical Thursday outing. Think 1970s ass-shaking sweat rock. The Effects' songs invoke a T-Rex-White Stripes-Neil Young-ish vibe, with a splash of the Black Crowes at their heaviest. And featuring a lead vocalist whose pipes range from simply carrying melodies to delivering solid primal screams. The Effects are independently seasoned road warriors to boot, claiming 200 gigs in '06 alone in the U.S. and Canada. They've shared bills with the likes of Kings of Leon, Cowboy Mouth and Velvet Revolver, and have played festivals such as Austin's South By Southwest and the ever-so-aptly-named Mobfest in Chicago. Special guest Anxiety opens the show.

—Paul Peterson

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