One of the perks of my job is I get to copy-edit Inside Out the day before it's published each week. This week, while perusing the music listings, I counted 22 musical acts among the Roanoke-area nightclub advertisements. When I added in the bands, duos and singers from the entertainment calendar, that number exceeded 40 acts playing somewhere this weekend between Roanoke and Blacksburg.
Hey, it's almost like live music, and certainly cooler than "American Idol."
Check out the Star City Roller Girls tonight at 8 p.m. They'll be at Awful Arthur's, Towers, singing their hearts and lungs out.
Pay a buck to vote on the best singer among those elbow-throwing, knee-sliding Derby Babes.
When we started up this thing, I asked for user-submitted music videos. We've got some now.
Hit the "continue reading" link to see this cat, who goes by the name Alec Baldwin. He can play some funk guitar.
Li'l Rodger and the Cheap Thrills are headed to Memphis for the International Blues Challenge.
L'il Rodger, aka Roger Crowder (it's complicated), and his group won the Roanoke-based Blue Ridge Blues Society's contest in July, giving them a shot at the Memphis contest.
The James River Blues Society, based in Sedalia, is sending Washington, D.C.'s Clarence "The Blues Man" Turner to Memphis.
Lots of music in town this week. roanoke.com's ExtraCast previews a good bit of it. Hip-hop ambassador Toni Blackmon comes to the Jeff Center. Rockabilly wrecker Wrenn Mangum is at Martin's. Kusun Emsemble brings the African dance and music to the Jeff. And swamp-soul man Eric Lindell plays 202 Market.
See video and hear audio on the ExtraCast. Bonus: Host Lindsey Nair shows you how to set up a Super Bowl food bar for your own place.
Road trip alert: If you're into the hard rock, check out Chevelle at Cattle Annie's, Lynchburg, on March 12.
The band has spent the past couple of years five years running up and down Billboard's modern rock chart. It's latest single, "I Get It," peaked at No. 4. That cut comes from the band's April 2007 release, Vena Sera.
The past few weeks, multimedia editor Seth Gitner and I met, interviewed and videotaped several area guitarists who were influenced by Eric Clapton.
The story I wrote is scheduled to run on Sunday. But the videos we shot are already available on roanoke.com's video page. Check them out ...
Blues and didgeridoo. Turns out, it’s like peanut butter and chocolate.
Harper, a blues musician from Australia, can jam the didgeridoo and the harmonica, too. Here's proof. He and the Blue Ridge Blues Society and Blue 5 Restaurant are giving you a chance to learn how to play the indigenous Aussie instrument, too.
Looks like Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page wants the band to get out there and tour. Link.
I never got to see the Zep live, and have only old concert footage on VH1 classic to rely on. But it's clear from seeing that old stuff that the band was adventurous, always willing to stretch the boundaries of even its biggest hits. I think you could even say it was a jam band.
By most accounts, the band was very good at its reunion show.
Jump in here, gentle blog readers, and tell me if you wanna see the Zep get back together.
How does a fight start? What leads to someone getting knocked on his rumpus -- as they might say, with some self-censorship.
The whole thing materialized right next to me. I had not been paying attention to my right side at the bar, but it was apparent that someone was being overpowered at Martin's Downtown, in Roanoke, on Monday morning.
It happens all the time in nightspots, but this one was different. The guy on the down side had a serious leg-break.
