Robert Earl Keen, Lynyrd Skynyrd, No BS! Brass Band, 808, Three Sheets to the Wind

Kind of a slow weekend as the national bands are taking time off after festival season and before fall tours. We do get Austin alt-country master songsmith Robert Earl Keen at The National on Wednesday night. Doors open at 7 and show starts at 8 with local outlaw country band Barstool Heroes so get there early. Tix are $30 Reserved Orchestra 1, $25 Reserved Orchestra 2, $20 Reserved Balcony, & $17.50 GA Standing Floor. The Dallas Observer voted REK's "Feeling Good Again" the #1 Best Texas Country/Red Dirt/Whatever I'ts Called song of the last 15 years. REK stopped by Southern Living to talk about biscuits and play the song recently:



Lynyrd Skynyrd comes to Innsbrook, supposedly for the last time, on Wednesday night. Gates open at 6 PM with an opener TBA. General admission tickets are Advance priced at $16.50, at the Gate $20; Gold Circle Seating tickets: Advance only: $45. Just an FYI, if you aren't a red stater, Lynyrd Skynyrd very much is now. They've recently played on Fox News, played Sean Hannity's Freedom Concert and will be appearing at the Republican National Convention. Here they are back in the day (1976 at Knebworth) playing their anti-gun song "Saturday Night Special". Wonder if they still play it.



If you are home Wednesday night, check out Jesse Malin on a webcast from TRI Studios starting at 9:30 PM ET. Jesse is an indie rock singer-songwriter and you might dig him if you like Neil Young, Tom Waits and Steve Earle. Ryan Adams, Bruce Springsteen, Jakob Dylan and Billie Joe Armstrong (Green Day) are all fans and have all helped him out with his albums.

A few local bands playing Thursday and Friday.

Thursday at The Republic, yacht rock cover band Three Sheets to the Wind will not harsh your mellow. The show starts at 9:30 and it's free to get in. Here's the title song from the poster above by the original artists

Also, Thursday night, No BS! Brass Band will be at Balliceaux. Show starts at 10 PM and it's FREE.

Friday night at The National, 808 will play. Doors open at 7, show starts at 8 with opener Craig Honeycutt of Everything. Tix are $12.50. Here's the press blurb for 808: "The idea behind the formation of 808 was to perform original arrangements of popular songs in a reggae and ska style alongside resurrected originals from Chris Leitch (vocals, keyboards, trombone) & David Triano (guitar), two of the principal songwriters from nineties rock mainstays Fighting Gravity. The band is filled out by Richmond jazz mainstay John Winn (vocals, saxophone, flute and just about any other instrument he can get his hands on) and the rock-steady rhythm section of Greg Hill (bass, vocals) and Keith Cable (drums, percussion). John and Chris front the band with powerful harmonies and "super-hero" horn lines while Dave, Greg, and Keith key the reggae feel of the band's music.

Members of the band have previously been a part of regionally successful bands such as Fighting Gravity, Groove Spot, The Fredds, Headstone Circus and Junkfood Buddha. The band's name -- 808 -- is a tribute to Bob Marley. Triano says that "in the middle of trying to name the band at rehearsal one night, we noticed the time on an old block-style digital clock: 8:08 or 'BOB,' and immediately knew that we had a name."

That's it for the weekend. If anything else comes up, stay tuned to Handful of Brains and I'll let you know. Have a great weekend!

Tony Jordan