Conor Oberst (Photo courtesy Ticketfly)
Conor Oberst released his eighth studio album, Salutations, via Nonesuch Records in March. He’s about to launch a tour this week, and he will arrive in DC for a show at 9:30 Club on Wednesday, July 26. You can win tickets to see him with Parklife DC.
Jill Scott performs at The Theater at MGM National Harbor on Sunday, June 25, 2017. (Photo by Chris Castillo)
Ms. Jill Scott visited MGM National Harbor for two nights on June 24 and 25 as part of a 25-date US tour to serenade audiences with evenings of poetic soul.
Downtown Boys (Photo by Miguel Rosario)
Punk quintet Downtown Boys are making quite a splash with their upcoming third album, Cost of Living, out on Aug. 11 via Sub Pop Records. The band are launching a major US tour that includes a show at DC9 on Monday, Sept. 4.
Al B. Sure! (Photo courtesy Universal Music Group)
Albert Joseph Brown III, better known as Al B. Sure!, will host an intimate evening of music at the Howard Theatre on Wednesday, June 28.
Jack Johnson performs at Merriweather Post Pavilion on June 11, 2017. (Photo by Theresa C. Sanchez)
Jack Johnson Radiates Chill on a Hot June Night
The accordion. That’s right — the box-shaped instrument used by everyone from The Who and R.E.M. to Arcade Fire and Gogol Bordello is something you wouldn’t normally associate with the folk rock singer-songwriter Jack Johnson. A Cole Clark acoustic guitar? Definitely. A Pepe Romero Jr. ukulele? Sure. He’s even auctioned a few off for the Kōkua Hawai’i Foundation he co-founded with his wife Kim in 2003 to support environmental education in schools all over the Aloha State. But a squeeze box?
Andrew Rayel at Webster Hall in New York City on May 12, 2017 (Photo by Roger Semaan)
The 24-year-old Moldovan maestro Andrei Rață, better known as Andrew Rayel, dropped by Echostage on June 9, and I was there to catch the action.
Route 94 (Photo courtesy Paradigm Agency)
Hello everybody! We had the pleasure of listening to and meeting Rowan Jones, the British beat bumper known as Route 94! He was at U Street Music Hall on June 8.
Muse perform at Firefly Music Festival on Sunday, June 18, 2017. (Photo courtesy Live at Firefly/Firefly Music Festival)
Sunday was a big day at Firefly Music Festival in Dover, Delaware, capped by a stunning headline show by English art rock trio Muse to close out the entire festival.
While we were there, I took the time to catch two other favorite acts for a third day of reporting on performances at Firefly 2017, by all measures a smashing success enjoyed by 90,000 people who poured into The Woodlands to watch more than 125 concerts over four days.
The Steel Wheels will headline Red Wing Roots Music Festival (Photo by Chester Simpson)
Black Bear Productions will present the Red Wing Roots Music Festival in Natural Chimneys Park in Mt. Solon, Virginia, on July 14-16, 2017. Tickets for one day or all three days are available.
Celebrants at Firefly on Saturday, June 17 (Photo courtesy Firefly Music Festival/Live at Firefly)
My second day at Firefly Music Festival exposed me to acts both familiar and new as I spent the afternoon treading along well-manicured paths from stage to stage on Saturday, June 17 to investigate the likes of Sunflower Bean, DJ Jazzy Jeff, and Capitol Cities — three acts that quite captured the diversity of the artists performing at Firefly this year!