Hardly Strictly Bluegrass takes over San Francisco's Golden Gate Park with sets from Punch Brothers, Jessica Lea Mayfield, The Low Anthem, Emmylou Harris ... Laurie Anderson performs Delusion in Boston ... Jon Brion launches three-night NYC run ... Wanda Jackson stops by Grimey's in Nashville ... James Farm close out US tour in California ... k.d. lang tours the mid-Atlantic ... Audra McDonald launches her fall tour ... Pat Metheny sells out in Chicago and Pittsburgh ... Sara Watkins joins the Blind Boys of Alabama in California ... and more ...
Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, the free annual outdoor music festival held in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, returns for its 11th run in the park's Speedway Meadow this weekend, featuring four Nonesuch artists.
Punch Brothers, who performed last year, return to play the Rooster Stage Saturday afternoon at 4:15 PM. Later that night, there will be a screening of the new documentary about the group, How to Grow a Band, at San Francisco's Victoria Theatre, featuring a pre-screening reception and a post-screening Q&A with the filmmakers.
Jessica Lea Mayfield, who made her Hardly Strictly debut in 2009, opens the Rooster Stage Sunday at 11 AM. Not long after, The Low Anthem makes its Hardly Strictly debut over on the Star Stage at 11:45 AM. The performance follows their show at the State Room in Salt Lake City tonight, with Sleepy Sun supporting.
Sunday evening, Emmylou Harris makes her perennial return to Hardly Strictly Bluegrass and continues a festival tradition when she closes out the weekend with a Sunday evening on the Banjo Stage.
---
Laurie Anderson continues her six-night residency at the Paramount Center Mainstage in Boston, Massachusetts, performing her performance piece Delusion through Sunday. Anderson spoke with Radio Boston host Anthony Brooks on NPR member station WBUR 90.9 FM about this week's run of Delusion. Listen to the segment here.
---
Jon Brion kicks off a three-night run at (Le) Poisson Rouge in New York City with a sold-out set Sunday night. Brion, whose soundtrack for Paul Thomas Anderson's Punch-Drunk Love, was released on Nonesuch, produced two Nonesuch 2010 releases: Punch Brothers' latest album, Antifogmatic, and Brad Mehldau's Highway Rider.
---
Shawn Colvin performs at The Center for the Arts in Natick, Massachusetts, Saturday night. The concert is a benefit event celebrating the organization's 14th year of arts programming.
---
Richard Goode performs two concerts in New England this weekend: at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, tonight, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Olin Arts Center with a program of works by Mozart and Chopin; and at the Shalin Liu Performing Arts Center in Rockport, Massachusetts, Sunday night, with works by Schumann and Chopin.
---
Wanda Jackson has a busy weekend ahead with three events to come: performances at the Workplay Theatre in Birmingham, Alabama, tonight, and at Robert's Western World in Nashville on Sunday. While in Nashville, Jackson will make a free in-store appearance at Grimey's Saturday afternoon. Stop by, say hi, and support your local record store!
---
James Farm—the collaborative band featuring saxophonist Joshua Redman, pianist Aaron Parks, bassist Matt Penman, and drummer Eric Harland—close out their tour with two performances in California this weekend: at The Broad Stage in Santa Monica on Saturday and Anthology in San Diego on Sunday.
---
k.d. lang and the Siss Boom Bang continue their US tour with support from Teddy Thompson at two shows this weekend: at the Strand-Capitol Performing Arts Center in York, Pennsylvania, tonight, and at the Ferguson Center for the Arts in Newport News, Virginia, on Saturday.
lang spoke with the Virginian-Pilot about Sing it Loud, her new album with the band, in advance of Saturday's shows. Read the interview at hamptonroads.com.
---
As noted earlier today in the Nonesuch Journal, Audra McDonald, who has wowed Boston-area audiences and critics alike as Bess in the A.R.T. production of The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess this month, launches her own North American fall concert tour this weekend. The two-month tour begins with a performance at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia tomorrow night, followed by a stops at Boston's Symphony Hall on Sunday. Update: Saturday's Kimmel Center performance has been rescheduled to November 30.
---
Pat Metheny continues his US tour with bassist (and Brad Mehldau Trio member) Larry Grenadier with two nights of two sold-out sets each night—the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago tonight and Manchester Craftsmen's Guild in Pittsburgh on Saturday—followed by a set at the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor on Sunday.
"The idyllic concept of angels plucking on harps in heaven is overdue for an overhaul," writes Bill Brownlee in his review of last night's show for the Kansas City Star. "One possible update is the image of Pat Metheny bent over a guitar. As an audience of about 700 were reminded Thursday at Liberty Hall, Metheny creates extraordinarily celestial sounds." Brownlee goes on to describe it as "exceptionally rapturous even by his standards ... Metheny remains endlessly inventive." Read the review at kansascity.com.
In advance of Saturday's shows, Metheny spoke with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette about the tour with Grenadier and what to expect at the shows. Read the interview at post-gazette.com.
---
Sara Watkins and her brother Sean join the Blind Boys of Alabama for two shows in California this weekend: at the Fox Theater in Visalia, tonight, and the Garrison Theater for Performing Arts in Claremont on Saturday. The shows follow the performers' special benefit event at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles earlier this week and give a taste of what's to come in their forthcoming tour, which begins in November.
- Log in to post comments
