Four folky singer-songwriters performing in the round.

Comments(0)

Celebrated local indie-folk duo. Also featuring Nelly Kate and Tickley Feather.

Birdlips - Tire Chains
Birdlips - Some Kind Of Death
Nelly Kate - Sounding3
Nelly Kate - Soft Things
Nelly Kate - Often To Cry Yourself
Nelly Kate - Compassion
Nelly Kate - Found Sounds
Nelly Kate - Dink
Tickley Feather - Trashy Boys

Comments(0)

Instrumental rock and R&B from the local guitar wizard and drummin’ madman Will Coles.

Jamal Millner’s Comrades - Break Out

Comments(0)

“Afrolachian” performance of wild solos with Americana backdrops

Comments(0)

Alt-folk duo. With pianist and songwriter Shannon Curtis.

Carleigh Nesbit and Carl Anderson - Three Steps Out The Door [live]
Carleigh Nesbit and Carl Anderson - Passing Through
Carleigh Nesbit and Carl Anderson - Train Song

Carleigh Nesbit - Three Steps Out The Door
Carleigh Nesbit - River Run Dry
Carleigh Nesbit - Turn On The Heat
Carleigh Nesbit - Your City Skies

Comments(0)

Buzzed-about glam-rock youngsters powered by brothers Daniel and Kevin Hivick, who use their keys and vocals to build up 70’s aesthetics and punk-rock theatrics, respectively.

Red Satellites - Dancing [demo]

With openers James Wallace and the Naked Light, we’re mostly just talking about indie folk-rock in the vein of Richmond faves The Great White Jenkins — at least aside from the storytelling elements, that is. Sharper eyes might even catch a Jenkin or three as guest performers.

James Wallace and the Naked Light - Killing The Dog
James Wallace and the Naked Light - Dancing Star No Naked Light
James Wallace and the Naked Light - Colors

Local newcomers Pompadour also help get things started by trying to make you dance, which is a pretty good idea, and you should cooperate — it’s far more sensible than naming a band Pompadour, for example.

Comments(3)

Fuzzed-out and thoroughly surreal dream-pop family band. Local trio Manorlady opens with guitar and keyboard parts synchronized to video.

A Sunny Day In Glasgow - Failure
A Sunny Day In Glasgow - Ashes Grammar/Ashes Maths
Manorlady - Boy and Flippers [demo]
Manorlady - Red Juice [demo]

Comments(0)

Local songwriter David Sickmen, now four years removed from his run with the Hackensaw Boys, premieres some of the songs he’s been working on since as well as a new band of youngsters to play them called the Bell Weather States. Also featuring local alt-country songstress Sarah White.

Sarah White - Apple In B Major
Sarah White - Half A Smile
Sarah White - Ply Me
Sarah White - Sweetheart
Sarah White - Where You’re Going

Comments(0)

Fellini’s celebrates their five-year anniversary with their favorite junkyard rockers

Comments(0)

Hot new Knoxville Americana quintet featuring mandolin player Cruz Contreras of Robinella.

Comments(0)

Folk and country singer-songwriter

Comments(0)

Long-locked local singer with the piano standby.

John Carden - Dreamcatcher

Comments(0)

Local folk duo

The Honey Dewdrops - Nowhere To Stand
The Honey Dewdrops - Fly Away Free

Comments(0)

Contemporary bluegrass singer and fiddler. Grammy nominated progressive bluegrass ensemble the Seldom Scene open.

Comments(0)

Folk-rock and swing quartet, alternately Gypsy and Carnie, which is built around a husband-and-wife acoustic guitar duo, all sans percussion but with a hyperactive bouncing bass (no relation) which more than makes up for it.

Caravan Of Thieves - Rattlesnake

Comments(0)

Since exploding to prominence on the jamband circuit a decade or so ago with their Grammy-nominated debut, Bruce and Luther Dickinson have led their bluesy roots-rock trio to team up with the likes of songwriter John Hiatt and MMW keyboard wizard John Medeski, sometimes with explosive results, and Luther has recently been doing double-duty with the Black Crowes (ever since that album which the late Blender famously trashed without actually hearing). Blazing guitars alone can’t bury a folk-blues heart, but they can come pretty close.

Comments(0)

Acclaimed hip hop DJ and producer

Comments(0)

The zany gypsy-punk band led by unquestionably certifiable nutjob/mustache model Eugene Hutz, famously called “an insurance nightmare” in our pages a few years back by noted local music critic Damani Harrison, will most definitely bring the house down here one way or another with their distorted guitars and eastern European melodic lines. Hope the brand-new Jefferson’s policies are up to date and the paperwork is in order, because something’s likely to explode when the clock strikes midnight.

Comments(0)

Tribute bands are the only way you can get your dose of Michael Jackson now. A harsh realization, maybe, but someone has to say it: THIS IS IT.

Comments(0)

San Francisco rock quartet Tea Leaf Green’s straightforward (arguably unremarkable) keyboard-centric take on the jamband scene started by Phish quickly caught the attention of noodle-king guitarist Trey Anastasio, who had taken them under his wing by the time their album Taught To Be Proud blew up and started winning them Jammy awards back in 2005. More recently, their latest album Raise Up The Tent was crafted in Richmond under the watchful eye of former Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven frontman David Lowery.

Tea Leaf Green - Crackers and Cheese
Tea Leaf Green - Earth and Sky

Get there early — starting things off will be bluesy folk-tinged Brooklyn rockers Alberta Cross, both a Red Light Management project and critically acclaimed rising stars.

Comments(0)

Blah blah blah, Amy Winehouse — these would be the guys who made her retro-soul thing happen a couple years back by serving as her backing band. And we shouldn’t have to sell you on Sharon at this point, either — she’d be the formidable 50-something diva who fronts this band — unless you really haven’t been paying attention, so instead you can chalk those excited jitters up to the iron-clad horn arrangements of producer Gabe Roth or the precision jangle of guitarist Binky Griptite. This is the kind of band that performs so well in their suits and sunglasses that they manage to sell you vinyl even though you don’t own a record player.

Nevertheless, a gross MP3:
Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings - 100 Days, 100 Nights

Comments(0)

Raucous rockers and self-professed lords of Meridian Street which emerged a few years back from a short run as a Ween cover band called “Peen;” that project will play an opening set, as will Charlottesville’s favorite indie-pop outfit testicle-smashers, Straight Punch To The Crotch.

The Kings Of Belmont - The Jerk Store [demo]
The Kings Of Belmont - Git R Done
The Kings Of Belmont - South Bound
The Kings Of Belmont - Beg For More
The Kings Of Belmont - Sway
The Kings Of Belmont - Talking To Myself

Straight Punch To The Crotch - Robot Baby
Straight Punch To The Crotch - When Animals Attack
Straight Punch To The Crotch - Summer Sun and Firecrackers

Comments(0)

Jammy local rock quintet with various unexpected influences for your ears, prevailing eco-consciences for your heart, and music degrees all around for your head. They’ll be playing with a string section — appropriately grandiose for the Jeff’s maiden voyage, no doubt — as well as debuting new songs from a new LP they’re aiming to release in early 2010.

Trees On Fire - In The Middle [via WXJM Live!]

Space-obsessed local indie rockers Astronomers open, still riding high from the recent release of their debut EP, and if that’s still not enough for you, you’d better show up to catch guitar wizard Brian Chenault’s guest spot with Lance Brenner’s organic ambient goo-rock band Thrum; each says he’s more excited about it than the other.

Astronomers - Or Maybe It’s Nothing
Astronomers - Perpetual Emotion
Astronomers - Stratagem
Astronomers - The Singularity
Astronomers - Shoes
Astronomers - My Hologram
Astronomers - Fermata

Comments(0)

Formerly the guitarist and third-banana songwriter for roots-rock titans Drive-By Truckers, now-solo alt-country singer Jason Isbell steps further into his own territory with February’s eponymous album — Trucker head Patterson Hood served as producer on Isbell’s first record after the amicable split two years back, but no longer. This inspired split bill — also, notably, opening night for the revamped Jefferson Theater — pairs him with wonderful home-grown country-rock bros Sons Of Bill, who deserve an audience at least as large as his.

Hybrid bluegrass songwriter Peyton Tochterman opens.

Peyton Tochterman - Mamma’s Genes

Comments(0)

As a member of harmonizing-heavy 2008 indie-folk mega-smash Fleet Foxes, fuzzy-faced drummer J. Tillman seemingly had quite a lot to do with setting in motion indie rock’s current well-documented predilection toward beards. And everyone was all “WTF” when he dropped a solo album, precisely the sort of moody and sometimes-depressed singer-songwriter deal that probably all too often results from trying to be creative under the gloomy grey skies of the Pacific Northwest. Thing is, it’s his eighth — he’s been at it for years, since even before the Foxes, spurred on in the earliest days by fellow Seattle folk singer and 2006 flavor-du-jour Damien Jurado. This should probably end with a Nick Drake comparison or something, but that’s mostly a foregone conclusion these days.

J. Tillman - Though I Have Wronged You

Pearly Gate opens, by which we mean that there’s a band by that name performing, and certainly not that your entrance to heaven is assured.

Check out Stephanie Garcia’s interview with Tillman and Tillman’s subsequent response

Comments(3)