Lots going on this weekend so let's get started.
Friday opens with the first Friday Cheers of '08. Friday Cheers takes place down on Brown's Island, shows go from 6:30 - 9:30 and its FREE! Its a big island, always lots of families, the kids can get ice cream, you can have a beer and enjoy the music along the river. The first show is with Easy Star All-Stars with Trumystic. The Easy Star All-Stars are a reggae group best known for doing reggae version of Radiohead's "OK Computer" and Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon".
At the National on Friday, is jam band Perpetual Groove. Show time is 9 PM and tix are $15. The Groove hail from Athens GA and are playing at big festivals this year All Good and Rothbury later in the summer.
At the Tobacco Company, at 9:30 on Friday & Saturday night, you can catch great Johnny Cash cover band, Black Cash & The Bad Trips. This show is FREE!
Grateful Dead cover band, Cosmic Charlie, also from Athens GA, will be at the Canal Club. Show starts at 9:30 and tix are $10. So we have dueling Athens jam bands on Friday night.
Saturday afternoon from 3 - 9:30 an excellent bill for the CitySlickers Bluegrass Festival at the Science Museum in Richmond. Bluegrass legend Dr. Ralph Stanley and His Clinch Mountain Boys are the headliners and will go on at 8 PM. Opening are local bluegrass greats Special Ed & The Short Bus and Jackass Flats. Tix are $15. The web site says "golden beverages" (which I hope means beer) will be served.
Gretchen Wilson plays at Innsbrook on Saturday night. Show starts at 6 PM, tickets are $20 in advance and $25 at the door. I kind of like Gretchen. She's pretty cute and she's not one of those soft, simpering country diva American Idol wanna-bes or American Idol has-beens. She sings about classic country themes like drinkin', cheatin', and more drinkin'.
Sunday night, the master blues man, BB King, plays at the Landmark. Show starts at 7:30 and tix are $45 and $55. The man can still play better than ever and better than just about any blues guitarist that's ever lived. He's influenced them all. Hell, they are opening a museum about this guy in King's hometown of Indianola, Mississippi. The web site for the museum is pretty slick so check it out.
So there you have it, a great music weekend, with free events on two of the three nights. Get out and see some music!
Tony Jordan
Tony, the bluegrass festival was wonderful. Good weather, great music and pretty cool venue. This was the first time for this festival and I think they were really pleased with the turn out and plan to do it again next year and I'm sure it will just get bigger.
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