Award-winning fingerstyle Bluegrass guitarist. Reservations required; email sngwrtr525@hotmail.com if you want to get in on the last show of the season.

Local indie songwriter kicks off the North American tour in support of his debut album with an intimate acoustic show full of syrupy sweet… no? Too obvious? OK, sorry.

Folk-jazz fusion from the young Berklee-educated local harpist and bassist Aidan O’Donnell, who incorporate Latin influences as readily as they do anything from their Scottish roots.

All-day concert featuring Shannon Worrell , The Naughty Dynamic and the Design, The Lost Souls, The Grey Matter, and Vindaloo.

Shannon Worrell - Drivin’ In The Dark

Ex-Hackensaw Boy. The Free Radicals open.

Shostakovich, Beethoven, the “Superman” theme, and more

Bluegrass multi-instrumentalist from Galax (where they really know how to do that sort of thing, or so we hear).

Award-winning young local organist

For local “mountain rockers” 6 Day Bender, it all started “with a dream,” according to frontman Luke Nutting. Well, perhaps not. The real story behind the bluegrass-infused rock of the Benders could be one of convenience– after graduating from UVA, the members decided to move in together to save money and have an accessible practice space– although we’d prefer to think of it as savvy.

Don’t dare confuse Bender with any of the previous Fridays After Five headliners. They may be a former college band and they may live together– but their sound and style is uniquely their own. After breaking into the C’ville scene as a bluegrass band– conveniently, after Nutting was left with only a banjo when his guitars were stolen– the guys of Bender have spent the past two years blending their signature roots style with the plugged-in energy of rock ‘n roll. Their version of folk-influenced rock has found a perfect niche in the local music arena.

“We’re rock n’ roll with a C’ville influence,” guitarist Clayton Avent says.

Drummer Corey Gross agrees. “Labels are tricky. We used to concern ourselves (more)

Kansas City flavored jazz and blues from the Richmond harmonica player

DC songwriter Justin Jones and his five-piece band The Driving Rain play soulful alt-country and Americana.

Justin Jones and the Driving Rain - Seminole Town
Justin Jones and the Driving Rain - Long Way Down
Justin Jones - All Our Noise [live]

Rolling Stone rock critic guru David Fricke just recently lauded the “range-war guitar fire and Southern-gothic turmoil” of the new Bloodkin record Baby, They Told Us We Would Rise Again, but the most compelling vote of confidence in the band’s 20-year career probably comes from Widespread Panic, who has been covering their tunes since 1994.

Bloodkin - The Viper
Bloodkin - Easter Eggs

Former Bloodkin member Bentley Rhodes opens with his new Southern-flavored guitar-driven rock quartet Earl Knox.

Earl Knox - Pretty Little Thief
Earl Knox - Accounting

Also featuring Justin Jones and the Driving Rain.

Justin Jones and the Driving Rain - Seminole Town
Justin Jones and the Driving Rain - Long Way Down
Justin Jones - All Our Noise [live]

Nashville indie rock quartet. Show up early, though, because the openers are far more interesting: Notoriously hard-hitting Southern garage rock band The Dexateens, buddies of Drive By Trucker Patterson Hood, perform the day after their new album Singlewide comes out, and the three ladies in Those Darlins will drag their poor male drummer along for a sloppy Tennessee country-punk hayride which Pitchfork likened to “Vivian Girls’ hillbilly cousins.”

The Dexateens - Down Low
The Dexateens - Caption
Those Darlins - Wild One

Local blues genius

Corey Harris - Heathen Rage
Corey Harris - Sista Rose [live]
Corey Harris - A Blues

The DOWNbeat Project opens.

The DOWNbeat Project - Simple Life [live]
The DOWNbeat Project - Heaven

Hip hop

The raucous backwoods acoustic tunes of Austin roots-music ensemble The Asylum Street Spankers are equal parts washboard percussion and razor-sharp wit, all rooted in early proto-blues and spearheaded by a hilarious mountain of a man named Wammo.

The Asylum Street Spankers - Leaf Blower
The Asylum Street Spankers - My Baby In The CIA
The Asylum Street Spankers - Be My Husband

Breast cancer benefit show featuring singer-songwriters and Travis Elliott, Southern-styled bar band Sweetbriar, pop-rockers Monticello Road, and blues and rock from The Ryalls Brothers, The Grey Matter, and Bluzonia.

Sweetbriar - Long Time Since
Sweetbriar - Line ‘Em Up
Sweetbriar - Baby, Don’t Say Goodnight

Fastball may have been two-hit wonders, but what hits they were — “Out Of My Head” had some of the the best chord changes anywhere on pop radio in 1998, and their breakout single “The Way” the preceding year was still pretty cool even if it just bit the progression from Pachelbel’s Canon. Get your quarterly dose of 90’s alt-rock nostalgia here, since the probability of catching a set from a Dolores O’Riordan or a Brian Vander Ark just took a steep nose-dive when Gravity Lounge closed last month.

Fastball - Little White Lies

British rock covers from the 60’s and 70’s.

Two Kings open.

Two Kings - In Your Heart
Two Kings - Janey Omph
Two Kings - Pieces

The Easy Star All Stars are the reggae band best known for the reinventions which turned Pink Floyd into Dub Side Of The Moon and Radiohead into Radiodread. Both are just as absurd as they sound, but the latter still famously earned them some onstage props from Thom himself; now, they have a new tribute project: The Beatles. Easy Star’s Lonely Hearts Dub Band was released April 14 and features special guest vocalists like Black Uhuru singer Michael Rose and fellow reggae WTF Matisyahu; this show will feature tunes from all three albums.

The Easy Star All-Stars - Lovely Rita

Longtime Easy Star collaborative partner Kirsty Rock’s band Trumystic opens.

Experimental indie-punk trio from Brooklyn which draws inspiration from the kinetics of film to create crashing tunes with big riffs and even bigger drums.

Cinema, Cinema - Hope Dies Last

Former In Tenebris guitarist Jdavyd Williams splits the difference between bhajans and Goa trance, delivering Kirtan devotional chants from India using modern electronic instrumentation.

Jdavyd Williams - Govinda Jaya
Jdavyd Williams - Hare Ram (Jay Jay Hanuman)
Jdavyd Williams - Ma Durga
Jdavyd Williams - Nataraja

Funk, pop, country, rock, etc

Shad Dart - Flyin’
Shad Dart - You Make Me Crawl
Shad Dart - Why Don’t We
Shad Dart - How Do You Know

Explosive jazz, funk, and reggae trio led by guitarist Matthew Willner

The twisted humor of foul-mouthed and generally subversive local guitar/cello duo Barling and Collins is right at home on the dark and grimy stage at Miller’s, but Applebee’s? More venues for local musicians to perform in are always welcome, but this wasn’t quite what we had in mind. In an attempt to ratchet up the absurdity level here, we’ve decided to commemorate these occasions with haikus dedicated to the soulless corporate restaurant chain.

Off we go, then:

Boneless chicken wings?
What GMO trick is this?
Most chickens have bones.

See you next week, folks!

Barling and Collins - (That’s Right) I’m Looking At Your Girlfriend

The twisted humor of foul-mouthed and generally subversive local guitar/cello duo Barling and Collins is right at home on the dark and grimy stage at Miller’s, but Applebee’s? More venues for local musicians to perform in are always welcome, but this wasn’t quite what we had in mind. In an attempt to ratchet up the absurdity level here, we’ve decided to commemorate these occasions with haikus dedicated to the soulless corporate restaurant chain.

Off we go, then:

Swallowing your pride –
does that count as eating good
in the neighborhood?

See you next week, folks!

Barling and Collins - (That’s Right) I’m Looking At Your Girlfriend

The twisted humor of foul-mouthed and generally subversive B.C., a longstanding duo project from local guitarist Stephen Barling and cellist Brandon Collins, is right at home on the dark and grimy stage at Miller’s, but Applebee’s? More venues for local musicians to perform in are always welcome, but this wasn’t quite what we had in mind. In an attempt to ratchet up the absurdity level here, we’ve decided to commemorate these occasions with haikus dedicated to the soulless corporate restaurant chain.

Off we go, then:

Stephen and Brandon,
Our Pick ‘N Pair Lunch Combo
would be you two dudes.

See you next week, folks!

Barling and Collins - (That’s Right) I’m Looking At Your Girlfriend

The twisted humor of foul-mouthed and generally subversive local guitar/cello duo Barling and Collins is right at home on the dark and grimy stage at Miller’s, but Applebee’s? More venues for local musicians to perform in are always welcome, but this wasn’t quite what we had in mind. In an attempt to ratchet up the absurdity level here, we’ve decided to commemorate these occasions with haikus dedicated to the soulless corporate restaurant chain.

Off we go, then:

Would you please shut up?
I can’t hear my fajitas
sizzle in the pan.

See you next week, folks!

Barling and Collins - (That’s Right) I’m Looking At Your Girlfriend

Local alt-country songwriter Megan Huddleston’s original tunes have found an enviable home with this band, which includes Hackensaw Boys Jesse Fiske and Ferd Moyse, and here she’ll be releasing a big blob of new ones on their debut album, Lucky You.

Fellow post-Hacks Americana rock outfit Pantherburn, who recently wrote a song dedicated to Megan’s band, kick things off.

Pantherburn - The Octopus
Pantherburn - Mister Baby [demo]

Also featuring appearances by Sally Rose Monnes and Koda Q. Kerl.

Alt-country songwriter

The local songwriter and her band perform as a tribute to her late brother at the UVA North Grounds park as part of a fundraiser called (seriously) “Melanoma Mayhem.” Skin cancer, it seems, had better be ready to rumble.

Terri Allard - Heroes

Guitarist + songwriter

Jamband covers and originals with socially conscious lyrics

The local singer-songwriter plays a quiet show at Lovingston’s favorite treasure trove.

Mariana Bell - Book

Young musicians perform pieces by young composers from the UVA music department

Lo-fi indie folk-rock

N’goni player from Mali

Organist

Soprano singer

Harpsichord

Medieval music

Beleza Brasil’s guitarist plays solo classical guitar pieces from Spain and Latin America.

Under new management: Andy Gems and Lauren McRaven take over the space formerly known as Gravity Lounge.
PHOTO BY LISA PROVENCE

The popular Gravity Lounge is gone, but the acoustic/indie-friendly space remains and will continue as a musical venue under the management of a duo who met working at Gravity last year. When they heard the space might be available, Andy Gems and Lauren McRaven jumped on it.

Gems also has worked at another defunct music venue, the Satellite Ballrooom, and McRaven is the proprietress of downtown creperie The Flat who last year planned a menu for Gravity.

“It just didn’t work out,” says McRaven, declining to reveal what cuisine will be offered at the space that was long run by Bill Baldwin. “It’s what can be done in a minimal kitchen.”

The new establishment will not be called Gravity Lounge. “That belongs to Bill,” explains Gems, and the partners say they are still working on a new name.

The other biggest difference: “Having a cafe and bar that’s open regular hours regardless of what’s going on in the venue,” says Gems. The space is actually two separate buildings and addresses. “We plan to use that more,” explains Gems. “We’ll close the space off so we can have a bar scene going on.”

While Gravity has always seemed like a spacious venue, its nooks and crannies held an abundance of odds and ends that were left when landlord Ludwig Kuttner changed the locks following two years of alleged nonpayment of rent capped by fire marshal safety violations.

Boxes now cram the space waiting for dispersal. Gems predicts a late June, early July opening.

The Sometime Favorites are, from left, Ray Szwabowski, James East, Adam Long, and Matt Chick.
PUBLICITY PHOTO

If one band knows the hardships associated with breaking out of the college-band groove and into the larger Charlottesville music scene, it’s local indie-rockers The Sometime Favorites. Formed while three of the four members were undergraduates at UVA, the students-turned-townies have managed to overcome any stigma associated with beer-chugging college rockers (been there, done that is how their story goes) and make a name for themselves amongst the established local repertoire.

“UVA is like a bubble,” says guitarist Adam Long. “When you’re a band there, it’s so hard to break out and get your name in the C’ville scene. We paid our dues as a UVA band, but it was definitely a battle to break into the C’ville music scene– there’s a lot of respect to be earned.”

After graduating from UVA, TSF simultaneously graduated from being a mere bar band– in a town where a variety of musical genres can be heard on any night of the week, the quartet knew it had to prove itself with an album. But for a civil engineer, a Spanish translator and political blogger, a “cancer-curer,” and a telescope designer, hard work wasn’t much of a deterrence.

“Charlottesville is just a mecca of great musicians,” says Long. “We all like our jobs, but we much prefer to be musicians– that alone will create inspiration to go out and do what little extra you can.”

Their debut album, All Along, garnered the kind of respect (more)

Philly indie rock quartet. Also featuring State Trooper’s Ford and Tyger and the Lamb.

Sitar player Ravi Shankar is such a titan of his sport that it’s hard to know where to begin. Suffice to say he’s one of the most important living musicians in the world today, the figurehead not just for his instrument, but for the entire classical music tradition of the second-most populous nation in the world.

Ravi’s daughter Anoushka, also appearing, is one lucky lady. Not only is her dad the greatest sitar teacher she could hope to have, he’s also willing to acknowledge her existence; not all his spawn are so lucky.

But man, he’s got some amazing genes there.

Bluesy folk-rock and Americana from New York City. Also featuring The Raquellos.

Kill Rock Stars artist Jeff Hanson is an acoustic indie-pop singer-songwriter with a killer falsetto. Chris Koza opens.

Experimental pop, at least insofar as one doesn’t preclude the other. The Takeover UK and An American Tourist open.

Local rock wunderkind Adam Smith. Also featuring Whatever Brains and The Super Vacations.

Adam Smith and the Invisible Hand - There’s Room In My Will

Absurdist rock. Soraia opens.

The Falsies - Are You Sexually Available

Metal. Also featuring In Death I Become.

Punk band from Norfolk with glam-rock influences. Also featuring Book Of Kills.

Metal

Horsefang - River Of Dead Horses
Horsefang - We Will Use Your Dead As Vessels
Horsefang - Plaguebreaker
Horsefang - Genesis In The Retort

\m/ + :( = Goth rock

Bella Morte - Fades Like A Song
Bella Morte - On The Edge

Stoner rock grooves and metal from three vocalists from a band recently nominated for Metal Hammer’s Golden Gods Awards (we think they’re for real) and just wrapped up a tour with Mastodon. More metal fromSuzukiton and Blackholicus.

Theatrical murder ballads from a New York Goth musician who is also responsible for publishing written work with titles like Oh My Goth and A Guide To Gothic Homemaking

Blues guitar

Harp

Raucous Cajun tunes all twisted up with punk

Jolie Fille - Lake Arthur Stomp

8-piece ensemble which plays throwback 1920’s swing with the occasional blues number thrown in for good measure

ACME Swing Mfg. Co. - Everybody Loves ACME

Explosive jazz, funk, and reggae trio led by guitarist Matthew Willner

We might have enthusiastically recommended this show by D.C. alt-rock trio The Moderate, but using superlatives just seems wholly inappropriate given their name. DCist and the Washingtonian sure dig ‘em, though; the latter likened them to “the bare simplicity of the Black Keys paired with the looseness of the Grateful Dead.”

The Moderate - Ex-Lovers, Enemies
The Moderate - Your Favorite Too
The Moderate - Lost Boy
The Moderate - Chapel Hill

The Great Eastern opens.

This renowned alt-country and bluegrass quintet from Austin is definitely worth a look even if Fridays isn’t usually your scene.

The Gourds - Fossil Contender

Like so many other folk-rockers of his generation, Jesse Colin Young got his start in Greenwich Village in the 60’s alongside Bob Dylan and Judy Collins. By ‘67, he was tearing his way up the charts with the song “Get Together,” which proved to be a remarkable hit single for his new band the Youngbloods when it was released over the summer. The band broke up a few short years later, but their legacy was already assured — to this day, the song is still the quintessential ode to widespread irrational friendship and would prove to be the template for many of the hippy-dippy anthems to come.

Acoustic pop

Samba and Latin jazz for Cinco de Mayo.

Beleza Brasil - Water To Drink
Beleza Brasil - Fever

Party like it’s 1986 with this band of rockers best known for their roles in Charlottesville’s 1980’s music scene at a fundraiser for Children Youth and Family Services.

Backwoods rock.

UVA’s leading trombone player fires up for some jazz.

Crazy keyboard improvisations with equally crazy accompanying video. Also featuring Myceum and DJ Humminbird Feeder.

Flute and harp duo

A new band led by local pianist Joseph Mills, and the uncannily Parachutey band led by Sparky’s frontman Will Anderson’s younger brother John. Local teenager Nicole Alexandra opens.

Salsa

Acid jazz and experimental tunes with touches of harmonica from the loop-happy Chicago bass soloist. Country-folk duo The Don’t Tell Darlings and D.B.B. Plays Cups open.

C.J. Boyd - Peradora
The Don’t Tell Darlings - Single Girls

The local 18-piece early music ensemble presents Songs Of Wisdom and Divine Inspiration.

Children’s music festival sponsored by the Virginia Discover Museum. Entirely unlikely performers: songwriter Shannon Worrell, 6 Day Bender, and Jim Waive. Totally obvious performers: In Technicolor.

Americana-rock from members of Las Gitanas and the Hackensaw Boys.

Pantherburn - The Octopus
Pantherburn - Mister Baby [demo]

Matthew Bain opens.

Explosive jazz, funk, and reggae band led by guitarist Matthew Willner

Local rock band

Classic C-ville Americana. Raw Dawg opens.

Raw Dawg - Alibi
Raw Dawg - Dig
Raw Dawg - HOI

Local rock quintet

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

Earl Knox opens.

Earl Knox - Pretty Little Thief

Jazz and world beat from the extraordinary local drummer

Robert Jospé and Inner Rhythm - Blue Blaze
Robert Jospé and Inner Rhythm - Blue Rumba

Inner Rhythm and Heather Maxwell - Malado
Heather Maxwell - African Women
Heather Maxwell - Ashanti Boy
Heather Maxwell - Boloci
Heather Maxwell - Can’t Take My Man
Heather Maxwell - Orphan’s Lullaby
Heather Maxwell - Surrender

Jazz youngsters Shades Of Blue open.

Pop-rock. The Hill and Wood opens.

The Sometime Favorites - All Along
The Sometime Favorites - What You Wanted
The Sometime Favorites - We Are
The Sometime Favorites - Can’t Stop Fighting It

Terrible, horrible, no-good, so-bad-it’s-a-religious-experience funk cover band. Ultraviolet Ballet opens, thank God.

Bluegrass and country-folk

The ‘ginny Pigdogs - Who Walks In
The ‘ginny Pigdogs - Live and Let Live
The ‘ginny Pigdogs - Stealin’
The ‘ginny Pigdogs - Salt Creek
The ‘ginny Pigdogs - Kiss Your Love Goodbye
The ‘ginny Pigdogs - Blueridge Mountain Home

The Don’t Tell Darlings - Single Girls