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Upcoming Live Music in April

By Paul Moffett

If it's April, it must be nearly Derby. The musicians are coming to down in droves, booking themselves into every nook and cranny, large and small. The closer to May, the heavier the schedule. Just keep in mind that it will all be over on May 4, leaving you lots of month to rest up. Take out a loan and prepare yourself for Derby Mania and music.

Americana

• At the Twice Told Coffeehouse in April will be a pretty good cross-section of what the the Triple A market has to offer. Alejandro Escovedo returns to Louisville on April 3 for two shows at the Twice Told Coffeehouse, with a new CD on Bloodshot Records, More Miles Than Money: Live 1994-1996. Since Escovedo last played in Louisville at the Phoenix Hill Tavern, the two shows are necessary to let in all his fans. Spotlight Productions' Billy Hardison noted that Escovedo tends to drink until dawn and has adopted Louisville as a second home, in no small part due to 4 a.m. bar times here. He'll be alcohol-free while at the TTC.

Tix and info: 361-3100

Jennifer Kimble will be there the day before, on April 1, for a solo show, while Tim Krekel's show on the 11th has Carter Wood opening. Don't know Carter Wood but Krekel gets a standing "Go See" rating. TTC owner Rick Towles likes Carter.

You've heard him on NPR's "World Cafe,"now go see him. Fred Eaglesmith alights in town on April 19 for a 7 p.m. show at the TTC. The LMN cover band from last month, L'Woo, will shake those snaky grooves at the Twice Told on the 24th. Since Bloomington's Carrie Newcomer got her record deal, she doesn't come to town as much as she used to. Newcomer will play an April 26 show in the Guitar Emporium, sponsored by the Twice Told Coffeehouse. Texas cult songwriter Ray Wiley Hubbard and Rounder Records' Slaid Cleaves will be at the TTC on April 25.

Phew!

• There will be Leftover Salmon at the Brewery on April 17. With a name like that, their press kit tends to be stinky with fishy food puns. The ticket price isn't fishy, however: $15 gets you in for some psychedelic slam grass.

Tix and info: 583-3420

• Could you go for some free solo acoustic guitar music by a virtuoso on a Sunday afternoon? Richard Gilewitz will be at Music Warehouse on Bardstown Road on April 26 from 2 - 4 p.m. Gilewitz is a composer, guitarist and storyteller who has been drawing praise around the country for his efforts to promote the acoustic guitar. One of his tunes was covered by Leo Kottke on A Shout Toward Noon.

Tix and info: 456-4730

Big Band

• The Tommy Dorsey Orchestra will swing into the Ogle Center at Indiana University Southereast in New Albany for two shows, 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. on April 4. Trombonist Buddy Morrow will conduct and Walt Andrus will cover the vocal parts. You could take your parents to this show and see what it was that got them cranked up as kids.

Tix and info: 584-7777

Blues

• It's as blues as it blues can get on April 7, when B. B. King brings Lucille to the Palace Theater. The thrill may be gone for B. B. but not for the rest of us blues fans. Bobby "Blue" Bland will open, if that gives you any indication of the rank of this show.

Tix and info: 361-3100

• Dallas blues act Mike Morgan and the Crawl will do the hands and knees routine into Stevie Ray's on April 22, promoting their brand-new CD The Road. They're calling it a CD release party, so take a couple of extra twenties.

Tix and info: 582-9945

Contemporary Christian

• The annual Ichthus Fest in Wilmore, Kentucky, is set for April 24-26 (??????). Appearing on April 24 will be Robert Gruber's favorites, Fold Zandura and Stavesacre. Fold Zandura's BEC debut CD Ultraforever has been doing well. Stavesacre continues to promote Absolutes.

Country

• Danville, Ky. native John Michael Montgomery will croon for fans at the Louisville Gardens on April 17. He's working on selling his "Greatest Hits" album.

Tix and info: 574-0060

• Coyote's is cranking up for Spring and Derby like the rest of us. They're bringing back some favorites in April. John Berry will be there on April 2, making "Faces." Aaron Tippin hits the big hall two weeks later and on April 28, WAMZ will let you in for free to a David Kersh show.

Tix and info: 589-3866

Experimental

• The KCA's "Thursday Sessions" will wrap on April 16 at 8 p.m. with a bang. Literally. The group is called Bang on a Can All-Stars, and they are noted for bridging the most diverse elements of the new music community. Their PR calls them "unstoppable, sexy and loud." They seem to evade all classification by incorporating all styles. Only the adventurous listener need apply.

Tix and info: 584-7777

Louisville Artswatch and the Arts Council of Switzerland will bring in the Swizz jazz trio Day & Taxi on April 12 for an 8 p.m. show at the Twice Told Coffeehouse.

Gospel

The McKameys have been singing gospel music for forty years. If that doesn't meet your requirements for authenticity in your artists, then you're just too picky. They'll be Renfro Valley April 11.

Tix and info: 800-765-7464

Medieval

• It's not everyday that the opportunity comes around to hear some real, live medieval music but such an opportunity will be available to you at the Cathedral of the Assumption on April 19. The Anonymous 4 will conclude the 1997-98 Bingham Concerts with a presentation of plainchant, motets and conductus. The program is called 11,000 Virgins – The Legend of St. Ursula.

Tix and info: 584-7777

Musical

• Should you be one of those adventuresome folks who likes a musical challenge, take note of several Sunday performances of "Final Rehearsal: Johnny Penn's Notes from the Edege, A Drama in Rock 'n' Roll" at the Veggie Vault. Gordon Gramham has contributed four tunes to the project. The 8p show will run April 5, 12 and 19.

Tix and info: 897-3612

Orchestral

Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg will headline the April 7 Bingham Concert in Whitney Hall at the KCA. Salerno-Sonnenberg, known as the "Bad Girl of the Violin," has established herself as a powerful and compelling violinist.

Tix and info: 584-7777

• The Louisville Orchestra is not the only classical group to think of combining popular popular music with orchestral works. The Jewish Community Center Orchestra is bring jazz trumpeter and educator Vince DiMartino to town for a concert on April 5 at the Jewish Community Center. DiMartino won't have to drive far, as he is currently at Centre College in Danville fulfilling an appointment as a Distinguished Artist in Residence.

The concert will include works by Dvorak, Prokofieff, Beethoven, Handel and Rimsky Korsakov.

Tix and info: 459-0660

• Just to demonstate that not all classical music is multi-centurial in age, the Louisville Orchestra's New Dimensions concert on April 9 at U of L's North Recital Hall will feature contemporary music by composers Fred Speck, David Froom and Marc Satterwhite.

Tix and info: 568-1111

R&B/ Soul

Lou Rawls will smoothly slide into Louisville Gardens on April 26, as a kick-off to Derby Week. Rawls has been a fixture in the R&B scene for many years, with a long string of recordings to his credit.

Tix and info: 574-0060

Ray Charles is coming the Palace Theatre on April 11 for a Louisville Pops show with the Louisville Orchestra and all I can think about is Joan Osborne's "Spiderweb." (P. S. For those folks confused by the labeling of these shows as "Pops" when Ray Charles is Granddaddy Soul, note that from the point of view of orchestral types, any popular music is "pop" music. Sort of a non-discriminatory categorization, don't'cha know.)

Tix and info: 568-1111

Rock et al

• Is this a joke? Nope, Louisville's latest band with a big hit, Days of the New, will play at Hooter's in St. Matthews on April 27 at an outdoor event. Better hurry and get tickets.

• When you say rock 'n' roll, bunky, you're sayin' "Bo knows," and we're not talkin' sports heroes here. Nope, it's Bo Diddly hisself, yep, and he'll be at Jim Porter's Good Time Emporium on April 16. Take those No-Doz and go forth for some real rock 'n' roll. Boogie, chillun.

Tix and info: Ticketmaster

Dave Peveritt and Foghat still qualify as a rock act, even if they haven't had a hit since about when you were in diapers, but don't let that deter you. They'll be at Coytoes on April 14 for a FREE WQMF show. You still need to score a ticket frpm 'QMF or Coyote's.

Tix and info: 589-3866

Billy Joe Royal used to make Flaherty's III a regular stop, back before Garland Flaherty left the planet. Now he'll do a Sunday show at Coyote's on April 19. That's definitely not down in the boondocks.

Tix and info: 589-3866

• Interscope artists Limp Bizkit will drape themselves over the stage at the Brewery on April 7 during their "Ladies Night in Cambodia" tour. Sounds too heavy for words, but that doesn't keep them from resurrecting a variation on the old nightclub trick of letting women in free. In this case, the first 200 females after 7 p.m. get in free. They don't specify what kind of females. Touring with LB are Atlantic Records' Clutch and TVT Records seven dust.

Tix and info: 361-3100

• Just to add to the difficulty of your choices for April 7, take note that the Violent Femmes will make at stop at Knight's Hall on the Bellarmine College campus on that day. Tickets are $17.50 for non-Bellarmine student types.

Tix and info: 452-8150

• Okay, the band is called the Deftones and we hope that their name is a joke, har, har. Not that it necessarily matters these days, of course, but considering their publicity photo, tastefulness is not an important item to this band. In the Thunderdome at the Brewery on April 12.

Tix and info:

Cinderella will probably not fit into the glass slipper at the Toy Tiger on April 10, as this Cinderella is the heavy metal rock band. Some of you might even recall their hit.

Tix and info: 456-1137

Urban

• The Midnite Ramble series at the Kentucky Center for the Arts will offer the Walnut Street Revue, a live stage show honoring Louisville's historic Walnut Street district, the African-American part of Walnut Street subsequently eradicated by Urban Renewal. Attenders are advised to dress in the style of the era: double-breasted pinstripe suits, hats, vintage costume jewelry and such.

Tix and info: 584-7777

• Hiphop queen Mary J. Blige makes it to Louisville Gardens on April 16. Blige's tune on the "Waiting to Exhale" soundtrack has sold a whole lotta copies of that CD over the past year or so, so expect a crowd.

Tix and info: 574-0060

World Music

• Is a French Canadian band playing Celtic, salsa, big band and Cajun music properly classified as world music? Go determine that yourself at an April 1 show featuring La Bottine Souriante, in the Bomhard Theater at the KCA. It's a Lonesome Pine Special show.

Tix and info: 584-7777.

Misha Feigin's music qualifies on several grounds as "world music;" he labels it "Jazz-World-Folk." A native Muscovite now living in Louisville, Feigin travels the world performing and jamming with 'avante garde' musicians whenever possible. He has a new CD, Dreams, coming out, so he's holding a "CD Release Party Jam Extravaganza" at the Twice Told Coffeehouse on April 22 at 9 p.m. and again at the Rudyard Kipling Restaurant on April 28 at 8:30 p.m.

Besdides playing material from the CD, Feigin will be improvising with Splatch's Tony McDaniel and Sam Gray; Todd Hildreth of the Java Men; L'Woo's Danny Kiely; Sam Harris, drummer for Caribbean Conspiracy; Ben Andrews of Swing 39; Ut Gret leader Joee Conroy; Mike Sary of French TV, plus Sonny Stephens, Pete Peterson and Steve Good.