Tom Rush is a gifted musician and performer whose shows offer a musical celebration — a journey into the traditions of what music has been, the promise of what it can be, and the scope of what it may become. His distinctive guitar style, wry humor, and warm, expressive voice have made him both a legend and a lure to audiences around the world. His shows are filled with the rib-aching laughter of terrific story-telling, the sweet melancholy of ballads, and the passion of gritty blues. Rush’s impact on the American music scene has been profound. During his more than fifty-year career, he’s helped shape the folk revival in the ’60s and the renaissance of the ’80s and ’90s, influencing countless musicians such as Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, Jackson Browne, and Shawn Colvin.
Tom Rush will be performing in Portland at the Alberta Rose Theatre on Tuesday, September 13 at 8:00 pm. This is an all ages event with minors welcome with either a parent or legal guardian. Tickets are $25.00 advance, $30.00 at the door, with preferred seating available for $40.00 (first five rows in the center section – available in advance only), and can be purchased through the venue’s website at albertarosetheatre.com. The Alberta Rose Theatre is located at 3000 NE Alberta Street.
Rock & Roll Hall of Famer, and one of our most beloved blues-based musicians, Bonnie Raitt makes an encore performance in Portland following her recent appearance at the Keller Auditorium last April. Celebrating her twentieth release with Dig In Deep, Raitt will be taking the stage at McMenamin’s Edgefield Concerts on the Lawn series on Saturday, September 17. The new record illustrates the delicate balance of consistency and risk-taking that has defined Raitt’s remarkable career for more than forty-five years. Raised on blues with influences such as Mississippi Fred McDowell, Son House, Muddy Waters, Sippie Wallace, and John Lee Hooker, she has long showcased her deft skills as an extraordinary guitarist with the ability to hold an audience on the edge of their seats.
Mississippi Studios welcomes The Dustbowl Revival to their stage on Thursday, September 22. This is a hot up-and-coming young band that covers a wide range of musical styles, from bluegrass, swing, hot jazz, Pre-War blues, Southern soul, and New Orleans funk. With eight full-time members, they are truly an American roots orchestra and they play it all, mashing the sounds of traditional music into a genre-hopping, time-bending dance party that coaxes fresh fire from familiar coal. But The Dustbowl Revival isn’t a throwback band; it’s a celebration of the sounds that have kept America moving for more than a century, performed with all the flair of a medicine show and rooted in the sweat and swagger of a juke joint song swap. Their latest album, With A Lampshade On shines brightest in that middle ground, the place where jazz, folk, gospel, and blues all intersect. This is a band that is participating in the evolution of American roots music, tipping a hat to what has come before while looking ahead to what’s on the horizon.
he Port of Ilwaco, Washington, and again it’s featuring a spectacular line-up.
Just a couple months removed from its highly praised appearance at the Waterfront Blues Festival last July, the Los-Angeles-based The Record Company will be returning to Portland for a show at Mississippi Studios on Monday, September 26. The Record Company writes and plays raw, sincere rock n’ roll. Influenced by the rough honesty of their heroes: bluesman John Lee Hooker, early punk band The Stooges, and rock royalty The Rolling Stones, their sound incorporates slide guitar, distorted bass, a garage-sale Ludwig drum kit, and the heartland-hued voice of Chris Vos who grew up on a Wisconsin dairy farm. The three-man group started in late 2011, hanging up some old mics and recording live in the bass player’s living room in Los Feliz, CA. Since then they have played concert halls and festivals across North America and into Europe, opening for acts as diverse as B.B. King, Social Distortion, Buddy Guy, Grace Potter, and Trombone Shorty.
Muddy Waters is arguably the most influential bluesman of the twentieth century. Waters was instrumental in bringing the sounds of the Delta north to Chicago, electrifying it in the 1950s, and then tirelessly promoting its popularity. Beyond this, Water’s band was an artistic incubator for the many renowned musicians of the next three decades, such as Otis Spann, Buddy Guy, and Francis Clay, who spent time playing in his bands and recording on his albums. The timeless music he created still stands today among the best of the genre.