Weekend Picks Part 2: Noam Pikelny, Mack Avenue SuperBand, No BS! Brass Band, Lucy Dacus

On to Saturday night, or more accurately, Saturday afternoon when Hardywood's  Raspberry Stout release happens. That's a chocolate stout brewed with local red raspberries. Mmmmmmm. That starts at 2 PM. Bands start at 5 PM with Samantha Pearl, Horsehead, Andrew Leahy and the Homestead, and one of Rolling Stone magazine's 20 Acts You Must Know for February, Lucy Dacus. It's FREE to get in and there will be food trucks if you get the munchies. But don't forget to eat. I was having so much fun playing pinball and video games at Hardywood last weekend, by the time I made it the food trucks, only was left open and they only had tater tots left. They were delicious. Lucy was also featured on NPR's All Songs Considered New Mix the other day. If you missed Lucy at the WRIR fest the night before, or want to see her again, now is your chance, while you enjoy delicious beer. Buy Lucy a beer. I bet she'll appreciate it. Here's Lucy when she was at Hardywood in November:



Modlin Center for the Arts at U of R features the Mack Avenue SuperBand Saturday night. Who's in the Super Band you ask? "Mack Avenue SuperBand musical director and bassist Christian McBride and his trio of pianist Christian Sands and drummer Carl Allen will be joined by legendary seven-time GRAMMY® Award-winning vibraphonist Gary Burton, Saxophonist and member of Beyoncé’s superstar band Tia Fuller, and trumpet virtuoso Dominick Farinacci." The show starts at 7:30. Tix range from $10 to $40 depending on who and what you are. Here's a slightly different incarnation of the SuperBand playing at the Detroit Jazz Festival in 2015:

Banjo player Noam Pikelny (of the Punch Brothers) is at Ashland Coffee & Tea Saturday. Show starts at 8, tix are $20 advance, $23 day of show. Here's the press blurb on Noam:

NOAM PIKELNY has emerged as the preeminent banjoist of his generation, and the greatest color-blind banjoist of all-time. Hailed by the Chicago Tribune as the “pros’ top banjo picker,” Noam is a founding member of Punch Brothers, a string ensemble which The Boston Globe calls “a virtuosic revelation” and The New Yorker describes as “wide- ranging and restlessly imaginative.” In September of 2010, Pikelny was awarded the first annual Steve Martin Prize for Excellence in Banjo and Bluegrass. Pikelny is a 3-time Grammy Award Nominee and his most recent release, Noam Pikelny Plays Kenny Baker Plays Bill Monroe, was described by the New York Times as “a token of reverence, a feat of translation and a show of dominion”. The album is widely considered a landmark recording in acoustic music, and was named “Album of the Year” at the 2014 International Bluegrass Music Association Awards. While he has been recognized internationally for his immense musical skill, Pikelny’s greatest talent is perhaps his ability to insert, without fail, into almost all conversations that he was the first member of Punch Brothers to become a homeowner.

 Here's a short documentary about the making of his second album, courtesy of Funny or Die. It features fellow banjo players Steve Martin, Ed Helms, Bela Fleck and Earl Scruggs.



Over at Broadberry on Saturday, No BS! Brass Band will get crazy. Tix are $12 advance, $15 day of show. Show starts at 9 and Flashlight Tag opens the show. No BS will be at the Lava Music Fest in Suffolk VA in May. Here's some live No BS from November:



Have a great weekend! I'll leave you with an hour long set from Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble.



Tony Jordan