There are NO turkeys in this lineup o’ live tunes.

Before we get to the main courses for the next couple of weeks, let’s take a gander at a really big show coming to The Columbia in December.

I’ve often dreamed of spending an intimate evening with Erika Wennerstrom… now I’ll get to do it in an old church! Tickets are available here.

OK, now let’s see what’s cooking a bit sooner.

On Thursday:

• 10,000 Maniacs (the non-Natalie version) play Ludlow Garage
• MOTR features Clay Cole (Pavement and Wild Flag) solo with Bridget Battle (Tweens) and Lisa Walker (Wussy)
• NAS does Illmatic live with the Cincinnati Pops at Music Hall

On Friday:

• Whiskey City’s Liberty Theater has a Four Roses tasting 5-8 p.m., followed by Heather Redman & the Reputation
• Draven & the Ravens at MOTR
• You can da-doo-ron-ron to Ludlow Garage to catch former teen heartthrob Shaun Cassidy.

If there are any Shaun Cassidy leftovers, be sure to store them properly.

Saturday shows:

• Rhett Miller (Old 97s) and Bob Schneider at the Madison Theater
• The Steep Canyon Rangers at Memorial Hall
• The Local Honeys and Maria Carrelli at the Liberty Theater in Lawrenceburg
• Kashmir: The Spirit of Led Zeppelin Live! at Ludlow Garage
• KC & the Sunshine Band at the Lawrenceburg Event Center
• The Trans-Siberian Orchestra plays two shows at the Coliseum

On Sunday Black Violin is at the Taft, and Wishbone Ash settles into the Ludlow Garage.

Little Image and Coastal Club are at Madison Live on Tuesday, and Sevendust plays the Ovation with Cory Marks.

Silverstein (not Shel) plays Bogart’s on Wednesday.

Shows on Thursday, GO-vember 20:

• Brett Dennan at Ludlow
• Buffalo Wabs & the Price Hill Hustle at Southgate
• a free Songwriters in the Round at Liberty Theater, with Billy Alletzhauser & Ali Edwards (of Ruby Vileos)
• Kitchen Dwellers and Them Coulee Boys at Madison Live

Gigs on Friday, November 21:

• Molly Tuttle at Memorial Hall, with Birdtalk and Cecilia Castleman
• An Evening with the Trey Anastasio Band at the Greg Brady
• Hunter Root and Harley Day at the Liberty Theater
• Honour Rae plays an album release show at Southgate, with Tracy Walker
• The Taft Theatre has a tribute two-fer: Strangelove: The Depeche Mode Experience with Electric Duke: a Tribute to Bowie
• Madison Theater has Signs of Life: The American Pink Floyd.

Wait, I thought this was the American Pink Floyd:

On Saturday, November 22:

• Pigeons Playing Ping Pong play the Madison Theater, with Dizgo
• Kruger Brothers are at the Liberty Theater
• Domecrusher (feat. list member Todd Q.) plays North Second in Hamilton
• The Jonas Brothers (another generation’s Shaun Cassidy) play the Coliseum
• The Collies (my son is the drummer) play the Valley View Tavern in scenic Williamsburg, OH
• Lauren Ruth Ward plays an Undertow show in the 45202 zip code. Get tickets here.

Here’s an excerpt from Lauren Ruth Ward’s interview on a site called c-heads:

Johnny Gill (of New Edition) plays the Ludlow Garage on Sunday, November 23.

Feast week starts Monday, November 24, with BOTH of my son’s bands (The Collies and Van Winkle) playing The Comet in Northside.

On Wednesday, November 26 (a.k.a. Thanksgiving Eve, a.k.a. the biggest bar night of the year), The Distractions (a.k.a. Cereal Killers) will be doing an all-Elvis (Costello) set, along with Dot.Dot.Dot. doing R.E.M. at The Village Theater in Covington. Be there!

Other shows that same evening:

• The Woodward has An Evening with Ray’s Music Exchange. They will be joined by members of Ernie Johnson from Detroit, who will then play at MOTR starting at 10:30.
• The Liberty Theater features an Adam Wade Gilliam album release show, with The Spectacular Fantastic.
• Southgate’s Revival Room features Shelter from the Storm (Dylan tribute) and the Dead Revival Band (GD tribute)
• List member Keith Neltner has created another cool design for the Maker’s Mark album featuring tunes from The Tillers and Buffalo Wabs & The Price Hill Hustle. The release shows (plural this year!) are at Arnold’s on 11/26 and 11/28:

Friday, November 28 (a.k.a. Black Friday):

• Freekbass plays his Funksgiving show at Urban Artifact (look for a 97X Rumblings podcast interview with Freekbass coming soon)
• Buffalo Wabs & The Price Hill Hustle at Arnold’s
• Mama Said String Band plays the Liberty Theater, with Dave Lacey & Ten Pound Hammer
• Stolen Faces (Grateful Dead tribute band) play the Woodward

On Saturday, November 29:

• Bela Fleck and the Flecktones play a “Jingle all the Way” (not sure if that’s a Christmas reference or a revenue reference) show at the Taft
• Tripping Billies (DMB tribute) at Ludlow
• Last, but certainly not least, The Mynabirds play an Undertow show at The Columbia on Eastern Avenue. Tickets are available here.

If you’re not familiar with The Mynabirds (solo nom-de-stage of Laura Burhenn), check out her new release on Bandcamp.

Bandcamp, not Spotify… here’s the only Mynabirds song selection you’ll find on Spotify:

Right on!

Finally, Stevie Nicks plays a sold-out show at the Coliseum on Sunday, November 30. Resale tix in the cheap seats are going for $350 (and TicketBastard will once again charge exorbitant fees on the resale, even though they already collected fees on the original sale).

A Halloween treat

Katie Crutchfield (Waxahatchee) and her twin sister Allison (Swearin’) teamed up with MJ Lenderman and super-producer Brad Cook to form the band Snocaps, and they dropped a tasty album on 10/31. Read more on Stereogum.

Forever Sounds: forever cool

Lisa Walker and Chuck Cleaver do a weekly show on WAIF-FM called “Forever Sounds” and they’re giving out a digital album of cover songs (GBV, Bill Fay, Joni Mitchell, The Bats, Hüsker Dü and many more) to folks who pledge to support their show.

You’ll find the pledge form and past episodes here.

The full Wussy band also did a couple of songs — including a brand new one — at the new Cincinnati Public Radio studio with former woxy.com Lounge Acts engineer Brian Niecz.

Places (and People) that are gone

Tommy Keene is gone.

We love it live!

The Beths in Nashville: amazing!

Kathleen Edwards and her fantastic band the next night in Louisville: transcendent!

Three nights of Buffalo Tom in Boston – including John Wesley Harding, Moving Targets, and a Pogues tribute band as openers, an acoustic set that included several tasty covers (see setlist below), a band Q&A, and much more: Stupendous!

Wishy at Madison Live last night: not too shabby!

But we don’t always love it live

Rickie Lee Jones played a great set at Memorial Hall.

Patty Griffin? Not so much. I understand the desire to feature several new songs – I expect that from most artists with a new album out. But to completely ignore a large part of your catalog — including the most popular songs — is not my cup of tea. The set was pretty much a snoozefest.

Wright State pitching star on Miami U. turf

Good old Robert Pollard – he can make a cool tune out of city and school district names.

Forget Bitcoin – invest in Lu!

Chuck Prophet can see the future. And the future is pure Lucinda Williams gold!

The full post is here. Chuck’s Substack is worth a subscribe.

Mailbag

In case you missed this fun exchange in the comments section of our last post, list members Lisa Collins and Dan Lewis took issue with my Beatles ranking:

Here’s that Westerberg clip that Lisa Collins sent me:

And Dan Lewis is right about me fitting in with the Goad Family. I certainly have the wardrobe for it:

Speaking of retired Cincinnati Reds superstar salesman Herb Tarlek Dan Lewis, I’m happy to report that he has found another modeling gig that’s perfect for his golden years. He’s the official spokesperson for this product:

“Fall” doesn’t mean the season, it means taking a tumble. Here’s Dan modeling the product:

“Collision to the elderly head” would be a great name for a punk band!

Album Cover(s) of the Week(s): Hair today, gone tomorrow

Her hair took up so much space on the cover that they had to reduce the font size of the type.

Ditto for “Lee Michaels” (we all know it’s really a young Richard Lewis.)