Making the rounds of the L.A. acoustic scene this weekend…
Instead of Where’s Waldo, where’s Larry going to hear live music this weekend?
I get asked how much live music I really see in the course of a week or a month, and what kind of music that spans. The answer is, acoustic, and a lot. So, when someone asked what was up with me this weekend, and that meant typing it to let them know, it seemed like someone else might be interested, too. If you are and this seems like fun, share your ideas or post-action reports of making the rounds of the music scene where you are!
This weekend is especially filled with music events, festivals, concerts, all kinds of things! (And next weekend is even crazier!) When it gets this filled with wonderful music, it requires attending parts of many events.
Friday at 8 pm is Incendio, the fiery guitar trio, returning to the Coffee Gallery Backstage in Altadena. I didn’t get tix in time for John Prine’s annual L.A. show, Ramblin’ Jack is sold-out (except for the added 10 pm show on Saturday), and Cathie Ryan (Cherish the Ladies) in Ojai is too far away for this particular Friday. The Screaming Earwigs, with the Saubers, is a big temptation for catching the last hour, playing in Pasadena until 11 pm. (They start at 8:30, and it’s a contra dance.)
Saturday is “National Record Store Day,” and there will be many specials and some live performances in various record stores everywhere. At least three are enticing, so we’ll see…
The “Topanga Earth Day Festival” is all weekend, and I hope to get out there for a while on Saturday.
Saturday is when Le Vent du Nord, a wonderful French Canadian Quebecois band, is playing at the L.A. Music Center twice, at 11 am and 12:30 pm. I’m trying to figure if I can get to the early show there. Before going to the shebang in Topanga. I’ll catch a little of the 7 pm Earth Day concert with Phil Christie and emith at the Coffee Gallery Backstage in Altadena, then rush 3 miles down the hill to Caltech in Pasadena, for the 8 pm show with Moira Smiley & VOCO. Gotta see all of that one. Then there’s the “Cans for Comedy” charity benefit back at the Coffee Gallery at 10 pm. (Just can’t cover the distance to Santa Monica for Ramblin’ Jack Elliott’s 10 pm show.) And being that Pasadena and Altadena are on the east edge of things already, I’m thinking of a little late time in West Covina with Pirates of the Black Swan, because they play until 1 am.
Sunday, there’s the monthly Western Music Jam at the Autry Museum, and it just keeps getting better, with a large attendance of audience members and performers in the song circle. The jam is 1-3 pm, and it would be nice to get started early, to first see the museum’s new “Sparkle & Twang” exhibit on the history of country music (that music wasn’t always annoying) and have time for a sandwich at the museum’s café before the jam. I’ll leave early, because there is a good show at 3 pm at the Coffee Gallery Backstage in Altadena, with Steve Noonan, Kenny Edwards, and Julie Christiansen, and I’ll stay to savor all of it. (Be good if I could catch the premiere of Karen Hart’s new chorale work at 4 pm, but she is doing it again.) When the matinee is over in Altadena, it’s time to get to the “Grand Ole Echo” in Echo Park, which will have started at 5.
Got to get out of there in time for an 8 pm show in Santa Monica. That one is Amy Clarke and Genevieve, playing the “Hollowbody” series, in separate sets and together, at TRiP. Both of them are accomplished, amazing, and really going places.
Very complete information on all these shows (and many more), including venue addresses and venue and artist websites, is in the latest Acoustic Americana Music Guide, at http://acousticamericana.blogspot.com
Best,
Larry
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Larry Wines, programmer-producer-host, “Tied to the Tracks” acoustic Americana radio, syndicated from Los Angeles, with live in-studio performance-interviews, included in “The Best of L.A. 2006” radio lineup by Los Angeles Magazine; editor, “Acoustic Americana Music Guide & News” at http://acousticamericana.blogspot.com and http://community.nodepression.com/profile/TiedtotheTracks and additional “TttT” news is on the No Depression page and at www.myspace.com/laacoustic; Larry is a consultant to artists, musicians, songwriters, festivals, and the music biz, and a feature writer and columnist for FolkWorks (www.folkworks.org).
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Check-out Larry’s latest column for FolkWorks at www.folkworks.org/content/view/35858/3176 and the extensive “BEST OF 2008 / TOP TEN” feature for FolkWorks, available at www.folkworks.org/content/view/35788/166
PS – No trees were killed in the sending of this message, but a substantial number of electrons were terribly inconvenienced.
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