Anita Baker (Photo courtesy Blue Note Records)
Anita Baker is one of few leading R&B acts to garner critical and musical acclaim with a husky ember tone and jazzy tempo, a pleasant contrast with many of her contemporaries. These traits afforded her a 30-year career, which is now its on farewell tour — a tour that visited MGM National Harbor recently.
Gwar performs at 9:30 Club on Dec. 29, 2018. (Photo by Ben Eisendrath/Instagram+Twitter: Insomnigraphic/GrillworksBen)
Gwar stormed 9:30 Club recently, touring in support of their latest album, The Blood of Gods. Ben Eisendrath braved the torrent of thrash metal madness to capture some pictures of the mayhem!
Ricky Skaggs (Photo courtesy Absolute Publicity)
Bluegrass legend Ricky Skaggs is still going strong, entering both the Country Music Hall of Fame and the IBMA Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame last fall. After a performance at the 52nd Annual CMA Awards in November, he’s coming around to The Birchmere for a show on Friday, Jan. 11, 2019. (He’s also there on Saturday, Jan. 12, and that show has sold out.)
Joseph Arthur performs at City Winery on Dec. 29, 2018 (Photo by David LaMason)
Joseph Arthur is one of those songwriters that seems to have an unlimited tap of creativity. He’s an artist both visually in terms of his paintings and also in terms of his poetry and song craft. Oh, and he’s created more than 20 albums with the likes of T-Bone Burnett, Peter Gabriel, Peter Buck, Ben Harper (seriously, I could go on for some time here) and there’s no hint of him slowing anytime soon. He gave us a taste of his new work at DC’s City Winery on Saturday.
The Hackensaw Boys (Photo by John Smith)
It’s not every day that one sees a man wearing a homemade percussion instrument built mostly out of tin cans and a hubcap. But string band the Hackensaw Boys feature just such an instrument, the Charismo, originally created by founding member Fred Neuhardt, who has since left the band. The heavily bearded Beau Dodson, current percussionist for the Hackensaw Boys, used brushes to play the instrument in a lively show at Gypsy Sally’s recently.
Eli Lev performs at Pearl Street Warehouse on Dec. 28, 2018. (Photo by Ari Strauss)
Eli Lev and his band, the Fortunes Found, played to a hometown crowd recently at Pearl Street Warehouse. The show coincided with an album release party for Eli’s second album, Way Out West, which he released independently on Dec. 14.
Scythian (left to right): Larissa Fedoryka, Danylo Fedoryka, Alexander Fedoryka, Nolan Ladewski, Fritz McGirr (Photo by Danielle Lussier and Jim Gavenus)
DC Celtic rock quintet Scythian perform at The Hamilton Live on Saturday, Jan. 5! Kick off 2019 with a spring in your step and go dance with these talented folks.
Lilly Hiatt performs at 9:30 Club on Dec. 27, 2018. (Photo by Matt Ruppert)
If Pearl Jam decided to play country and had a female lead singer from Nashville, they’d have sounded a lot like Lilly Hiatt’s opening set for Margo Price recently at the 9:30 Club.
 Margo Price and Jeremy Ivey perform at the 9:30 Club on Dec. 27, 2018. (Photo by Matt Ruppert)
Two days after Christmas, with DC still twinkling with incandescent and holiday rainbow lights, recently Grammy-nominated Margo Price brought her no-bullshit attitude, incisive lyrical wit, and irrepressible joy to the 9:30 Club stage.
Clutch performs at Rams Head Live in Baltimore on Dec. 27, 2018. (Photo by Shantel Breen)
Clutch performed the first of their annual Holiday Run Tour recently at Rams Head Live in Baltimore. Shantel Breen captured the show!
