Weekend Picks: Richmond Folk Festival, Lucy Dacus, Tea Leaf Green, Jackass Flats, Life on Mars

I'm afraid this blog will not be up to my usual standards. I am not feeling well tonight and need to get some rest for the big weekend ahead. Why is it a big weekend?

Folk Fest! Folk Fest! Folk Fest! It's the Richmond Folk Fest this weekend. It's your chance to see music from all around the world for FREE! It goes down in the Brown's Island/Tredegar Iron Works area Friday (6:30 PM - 10 PM), Saturday (noon to 10 PM) and Sunday (noon to 6 PM). This will be held rain or shine so bring your rain gear Friday and Saturday. Most of the stages are under tents so you'll only need to be out in the rain going from stage to stage or if you go to the Altria Stage. If you come down Friday, stop by and say hello to me as I'll be helping out backstage at the WestRock Foundation Stage. Saturday, I'll be hanging out at the Dominion Dance Pavilion from 6:15 to 10 for Gary U.S. Bonds (will Springsteen show up? Probably not, but we can dream.), L'Orchestra Afrisa International and Maceo Parker. Sunday, I'm just going to roam around and see what I can find. Other recommended acts from me are Beausoliel Trio (Cajun) and Gena Delafose and French Rockin' Boogie (zydeco) because I loves me some New Orleans music. And check out Style Weekly for some of the world music finds. And don't be afraid to follow your ears and see something you never would have thought of seeing. Some of the best acts I've found over the years have been surprises I stumbled upon. I'll leave you with video of Maceo Parker who pretty much invented funk saxophone playing. He was an integral part of James Brown's band from 1964 - 75. Then, he joined Parliament and their many off shoots from '76 - '85. And he played with this guy too. Here he is with Prince:



Now, we are going to dole out the rest of the weekend's shows fast and furious so I can get to bed.

RVA girl made good, Lucy Dacus, returns home for a show at The National Friday night. Tix are $13 advance, $16 day of show. Doors open at 7, show starts at 8 with openers My Darling Fury and Spooky Cool. Here's Lucy's "I Don't Wanna Be Funny Anymore":

David Bowie tribute band, Life on Mars, is at The Broadberry Friday night. Tix are $10 advance, $12 day of show. Doors open at 8, show starts at 9. Prabir will open the show. Here's Life on Mars in March at Strangeways performing one of my favorites, "Stay":

Saturday night at The Broadberry, it's a benefit for Carter Anderson, who you may have seen "dancing to the music, putting stages together, or in the streets picking up litter and doing recycling activities with his Save the Trash recycling bus all over RVA." He's also been homeless. You can read his full story on the event page.  Bluegrass band Jackass Flats and Moroccan band Jouwala Collective are throwing Carter a party to raise money to help him get a home. A suggested donation of $10 - $20 gets you in the door. Doors are at 8, show starts at 9. Here's Jackass Flats a few years ago:



Monday night, jam band Tea Leaf Green is at The Broadberry. Tix are $10 advance, $12 day of show. Doors open at 8, show starts at 9 with Atlas Road Crew. Here's Tea Leaf Green at Wakarusa Festival in 2010:



That'll do it. See you at Folk Fest! I'll leave you with the beautiful and talented Rhiannon Giddens on Austin City Limits:



Have a great weekend!

Tony Jordan

Tea Leaf Green, Last Waltz Ensemble, John Hammond

Everything is green! Covered in tree pollen! We had the windows open today in the house and I just had to clean the computer screen off because it had pollen all over it. The kids were bouncing a ball in the driveway this evening and puffs of pollen were erupting everytime the ball hit the driveway. I've been popping Sudafed like they were candy and the pharmicist thinks I'm cooking meth but my sinuses seem to be through the worst. Hopefully those of you who also have allergies are making it through too and maybe tonight's rain will wash some of it away.

Three shows on Friday night to choose from. I'll be attending Tea Leaf Green at The National, thanks to winning tix from The Weekly Rant. I may tell you about a few shows, but if you want to know everything that is going on in Richmond, check out the Weekly Rant. The Rant's editor, Jon Baliles, didn't ask me to say that in exchange for tix. I check out the Rant every week. Thanks, Jon.

Anyway, back to Tea Leaf Green. Tix are $15 in advance, $17 day of show. Doors open at 8, show starts at 9 with two openers, Silo Effect and Former Champions. Tea Leaf Green is a pretty straightforward blues/classic rock based jam band out of San Francisco in the tradition of the Grateful Dead, The Band, The Jayhawks, Widespread Panic, Blues Traveler, and Hot Tuna. Here's a little ditty called "Cops Took My Weed" from Louisville KY on 3/24/10:


Also on Friday night, the Last Waltz Ensemble will be at The Canal Club. Tix are $12 in advance, $15 at the door. Doors open at 8:30 and no opener is listed on the Canal Club site. As their name implies, the Last Waltz Ensemble play the music of The Band & Dylan. They have a rotating group of musicians in the band from some well established bands and you never know who may show up. Here they are playing "Up On Cripple Creek" in November 2009:


On Friday night at the Capital Ale House Downtown will be blues great John Hammond. The show starts at 9 PM with no opener and tix are $20 in advance, $25 at the door. John was a 2010 Grammy nominee for Best Traditional Blues Album for his album, "Rough & Tough" and his album "Wicked Grin" was named in Blues Revue magazine as one of "The Decade's Best Blues - 25 Great Albums That Defined the Past 10 Years" in their critics' poll. Here's John performing at Peter's Place in Ontario on March 25:


Saturday night, local Americana band, The Atkinsons, will play at Cafe Diem. I caught the tail end of their show at the Church Hill Irish Fest and they sounded great. Show starts at 10 PM with no cover charge. I would call Cafe Diem first because the show is listed on the Cafe Diem site but not The Atkinsons site so be sure before you head out.

More blues Wednesday night at the Canal Club. Local bluesman Terry Garland will team up with Lil' Ronnie to record a live CD and you can be a part of it. Doors open at 8 and tix are just $5. Here they are at The Playing Field here in Richmond on April Fool's Day this year:


I wanted to share this video of my son, Willie, with all of you. Just because I think "My poos is hot" could be the next big catchphrase. For instance, when you see something really cool, say "That poos is hot". Or if you want to brag about yourself: "I just completed a 1/2 marathon and then chugged a bag of Franzia wine. My poos is hot." Here you go:


I hope your poos is hot this weekend.

Tony Jordan

Little Feat & Dirty Dozen Brass Band

Little Feat comes to Innsbrook on Wednesday night. Tix are $15 at the gate and gates open at 6 PM. Any military, police, fire, or emergency medical service personnel will be granted free admission into this concert with a valid ID proving their service. This includes active and non-active members.

They must not have sold too many tickets to this show because I will be going thanks to some tickets given to me by Mike L. He got them as he was leaving the Elliot Yamin show on Saturday. He says his wife made him go see Elliot.

Not sure why tix aren't selling why since Little Feat has always done well at Innsbrook in the past. May be the economy, may be the fact that the Feat haven't had a charting album or song in a while though that's due partially to the fact that its hard to get airplay these days. Anyway, the Feat always put on a great show, they have one of the greatest rhythm sections in rock history (Sam Clayton (percussion), Richie Hayward (drums) and Kenny Gradney (bass)) and "Waiting For Columbus" is in my top five albums of all time so its gonna be a good time.

I did just find out that the female singer, Shaun Murphy, that has been with the band for 16 years just left in February. It looks like it was amicable since she is still on their web site. Email messages from the band and Shaun indicate that the band asked her to leave. So on this tour and going forward it will just be the boys.

Here's the band doing "Feats Don't Fail Me Now" on their European tour earlier this month:



Opening for Little Feat will be Tea Leaf Green. Tea Leaf Green are a blues & classic rock influenced jam band and should be an excellent fit for the Little Feat crowd. What I've seen and heard from them has been good, though they don't have me doing back flips yet. They are certainly worth a look so get there early.
Here they are live in Las Vegas earlier this year:



Over at the Canal Club, the great New Orleans funk/jazz act, Dirty Dozen Brass Band will appear. Local acts The Dirty Truth and Bungalo 6 will open. There is an 8:00 show time and tix are $14.

Hope to see you at Little Feat.

Tony Jordan

Tea Leaf Green & Drive-By Truckers

A couple concerts of note this weekend.

Tea Leaf Green plays a free show at Plan 9 (the greatest music store in Richmond) in Carytown at 5 PM on Thursday. Then they'll play their full show at Toad's Place that night. Doors open at 8. Tickets are $17. TLG is a jam band in the blues/classic rock tradition. If you like bands like The Jayhawks, Widespread Panic, Phish, moe., Disco Biscuits or Hot Tuna, you might dig these guys. I saw them once a couple years ago and thought they would good, definitely good enough to check out again sometime.

The Drive-By Truckers will be at the Charlottesville Pavilion on Saturday with the Avett Brothers opening. Doors open at 6, show at 7, tickets are $30. I've heaped enough praise on the Truckers in past blogs. Check 'em out if you can. If I wasn't leaving for a conference early the next morning, I'd be tempted to head out to C'ville myself.

That's it for this week. Have a great weekend!

Tony Jordan