Congrats, you’ve nearly made it through “Dryuary!” Now it’s time for a portmanteau that’s even more cumbersome (but not in the Seven Mary Three way), and not really a portmanteau TBH. But when Febrockuary rolls around, you can put on your concert-going shoes (Doc Martens?) and get out to a gig or three.

On Thursday, the Woodward Theater has Donny Benet with Yusef Quotah. Check out Donny’s promo photo:

It’s giving off some serious “love child of Dom DeLuise and ‘Meathead’ from All in the Family” vibes.

Ludlow Garage hosts “Family Tradition: A Hank Williams Jr. Tribute” on Friday. (I hope they play the Monday Night Football Theme that Junior sang… complete with the Jazzercise background dancers.)

That same evening, CG5 plays the Woodward, and MOTR kicks off the preliminary rounds of the Bockfest Sausage Queen competition. (Eat your heart out, Abe Froman.)

The full Sausage Queen schedule, rules, and judging criteria are here.

Febrockuary kicks off Saturday with a full slate o’shows – although most of them are of the tribute band variety:

• JD Shelburne plays the Liberty Theater, with Jordan Dermody as the opener
• Madison Theater hosts “Tell Me Lies – The Fleetwood Mac Experience” while next door at Madison Live it’s Riddim Fest
• The old Annie’s has “Grunge: The Sounds of Seattle”
• Bogart’s hosts “Cash Unchained: The Ultimate Johnny Cash Experience”
• At Memorial Hall, it’s “Genesis ReTouched” (a tribute to late 80’s to late 2000’s Genesis concerts… quite specific!)

On Sunday, check out the Positively Mainstrasse event at the Village Theater in Covington. It’s a Cincinnati Children’s “Giving Hope to Kids” fundraiser and features dozens of local artists doing Dylan covers. Who knows, maybe Timothée Chalamet will show up…

[Artwork for the poster above by list member Keith Neltner.]

Sunday is Groundhog Day too!

The Chris Comer Trio plays the “Jazz at the Memo” series on Monday, Feb. 3rd, and they’re doing something interesting:

Following last year’s debut at Memorial Hall, The CC3’s (Chris Comer Trio) return engagement will feature a unique inspired arrangement of the landmark ambient piece MUSIC FOR AIRPORTS by Brian Eno. The evening will conclude with an original collaboration by all three CC3 members called MUSIC FOR SPACESHIPS, juxtaposing the styles of the meditative Eno composition and the jazzy groovy “outer space music” of the Comer trio. This concert is in-part a tribute to Cincinnati musician and radio legend Ron Esposito, who has performed MUSIC FOR AIRPORTS and collaborated with The CC3 many times. 

“Music for Spaceships”… far out, man! Almost as far out as this version:

Shows on Wednesday, Feb. 5:

• Cheryl Renee plays the blues at Arnold’s
• The Blue Wisp Big Band is at Caffe Vivace
• The Columbia (see our previous post for more on this event space) has WEEN Wednesday, and the album will be The Pod

Highly Suspect plays the Mike Brady on Thursday, Feb. 6th.

IMHO, Mike Brady IS highly suspect. We never found out how his first wife died… mysterious circumstances, no doubt. And somehow we’re supposed to believe that a guy who mixes up architectural plans with a Yogi Bear poster can afford a luxury home and a live-in housekeeper? Is “Cousin Oliver” really Mike’s love child from an affair that his first wife found out about? And what’s the deal with the AstroTurf yard? Is Mike covering up (literally) a backyard grave? Tune in to my new true crime podcast “Here’s the Untold Story of a Man named Brady…” as we do a deep dive into the clues hidden in plain sight. (Tiger knows a lot more than he’s letting on.)

Plenty o’ shows on Saturday, Feb. 8^th:

• Hot Tuna plays the Ludlow Garage
• H.R. (of Bad Brains) plays Southgate, with Knife the Symphony
• Vanessa Collier headlines the Cincinnati Winter Blues Experience* at Manor House (*not to be confused with the Cincinnati Winter blues experience of having snow and ice on sidewalks for weeks on end…)
• Electric Indigo, Eastwood, and Funky Ducks play a free show at MOTR
• The Woodward Theater hosts “Dark Wave” (a covers show benefitting the Freestore Foodbank). Lots of local bands on the bill, including Wussy, Fairmount Girls, Tweens, Leggy, and Static Falls. The full lineup is here.

Last but certainly not least, when you think of “Hard Rock” your mind no doubt goes right to the titans of that genre: Black Sabbath, Metallica, and Air Supply.

One of those three bands will be at the Hard Rock Casino on 2/8.

On Wednesday, Feb. 12^th, the Redmoor in Mt. Lookout hosts “Forever Simon & Garfunkel.” Have you ever seen the Photoshop version of S&G’s Bridge Over Troubled Water album cover with Paul Simon removed?

It makes Artie look like Donny Benet:

Mdou Moctar plays a special acoustic performance at the Woodward on Thursday, Feb. 13^th.

Friday, February 14^th is Valentine’s Day. I choo-choo-choose you to be my favorite blog post reader.

When love is in the air, our minds naturally turn to thoughts of noted romantic balladeer George Thorogood, with his equally lovestruck band the Delaware Destroyers. They’ll be at the Hard Rock Casino. (When typing this, I nearly transposed the “C” from Casino with the “R” in Rock, by accident. But it made me realize I could do that on purpose and score some promotional ad dollars from Enzyte.)

Where was I before I nearly got in trouble with Citizens for Community Values? Oh, yes, concerts… Other shows of note on Saint Valentine’s Day (I threw in the “Saint” to get ‘em off my case):

• Josh Morningstar & his band play Southgate’s Revival Room
• Liberty Theater has CFG & the Family with Heather Redman & the Reputation
• Unlike the Hard Rock, Ludlow Garage knew the V.D. assignment – they have “Lovesongs: a tribute to The Cure”
• Little Miami Brewing Co. hosts “Captured: The Ultimate Journey Tribute”

On Saturday, Feb. 15^th, the Liberty Theater features the Mama Said String Band with Andrew Hibbard. The Downtowne Listening Room has EG Knight and Maria Carrelli. Also, Valentine’s Day is over.

Joe’s Truck Stop hits Rabbit Hash’s “Music Behind the Stove” series on Sunday, Feb. 16, and Todd Lipscomb plays Arnold’s on Tuesday, 2/18.

R.I.P. Garth Hudson, the mad professor

Now there’s no one left in The Band. Garth was the oldest member, and it seems fitting that he was the last to go, as he was the rock of that group in so many ways.

Quote above is from Rob Sheffield’s lovely tribute to a lovely man.

Amanda Petrusich also paid tribute in The New Yorker.

And now, my favorite Band song… with Garth just coolly crushing it on sax:

Sidebar: Now is probably not the time to get into the petty squabbles and financial dealings of The Band, but reading this in the AP obit made me super-sad, and even more of a Team Levon guy:

In recent years, Hudson struggled financially. He had sold his interest in the Band to Robertson and went bankrupt several times. He lost one home to foreclosure and saw many of his belongings put up for auction in 2013 when he fell behind on payments for storage. Hudson’s wife, the singer “Sister” Maud Hudson, died in 2022.

Joan soldiers on

I’ve always liked Joan Armatrading’s music, and think she deserves a bit more recognition.

I agree! Blurb above is from this interview in The Independent. Her most recent album is How Did This Happen and What Does It Now Mean.

Well, the title of my new album is How Did This Happen and What Does It Now Mean. I have no answers and I haven’t met anybody who has, but I hope we get rebooted to something a bit more balanced. I think we’ve become polarised because when you’re face to face with somebody, things such as body language and eye contact stop us doing certain things. That doesn’t happen on social media, then it spills into the real world. We’re not going to get rid of all wars and disagreements, but the album title is asking how on earth do we get out of this situation that we’re in and get back to a nicer place.

Hot Ticket Alert

More info and a ticket link on the Woodward website.

And this event — a lecture from author Michelle Zauner, who also fronts longtime 97Xbam faves Japanese Breakfast — sold out before I could tout it:

But I can at least mention that the newly refurbished/remodeled Mercantile Library is even more amazing than it was before, and the annual membership is totally worth it to get dibs on great literary events. (Poet Laureate Ada Limón will be there on 8/27.)

That’s Sooo Cincinnati ticket alert

Billy Joel and Rod Stewart are playing the Bengals stadium on Saturday, September 20th. I don’t know when tickets go on sale, but I DO know it’ll cost a gazillion dollars to see two dinosaurs.

Railbird lineup

It skews fairly “mainstream country”:

I’d rather spend $2.49 for this Jelly Roll action:

Music is Medicine

Singer-songwriter Laura Burhenn, who records as The Mynabirds (and does house tours via Undertow!), asked Janine Awan to design two complementary poster for her Bandcamp merch site.

A portion of the proceeds from both posters will go to support the World Central Kitchen’s important work in the US and abroad in areas torn by war and climate disaster.

Meet new singles in your area!

The winter new music freeze is finally thawing out. Check out new singles from The Tubs (loved their last album, they remind me so much of Richard Thompson), Lucy Dacus, Sharon Van Etten, and a posthumous release from The Chills/Martin Phillipps.

Album Covers of the Week(s)

Decca certainly didn’t “sell the sizzle” with the adjective they used to describe Earl. Was “versatile” the best that they could come up with? It feels like the album cover equivalent of a “he’s got a great personality” blind date.

There’s a LOT going on with this cover. Good luck coming up with a coherent narrative based on this imagery. The girls is writing in an album (who writes in an album?) while dreaming of a fur trader who doubles as a malt shoppe owner, and he in turn is dreaming of a photographer from 1872. Also a chef is going overboard with the pepper – so much so that the liquid splashing out of his saucepan is black. And there are two anthropomorphic ink blots who get feature credit…