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I got this facebook comment earlier today, courtesy of local singer Jane Gabrielle:

> HELP! One of the BEST bands I've ever seen played at the Pot Thursday to a few, Friday to a bunch and they are coming back through on Tuesday. Can you blog and help. You will LOVE them. Jumpin' off tables. 6 pc. banjo, upright B, standing drummer, 2 guitars (1 resonator), harmonica....physical, five part harmony HOLY REDEMPTION!

The name of the band is Larry and His Flask, and even on mp3, they sound pretty doggone good, in the Avett Brothers vein. Go hear the band at its MySpace.com page.

Catch the band live and outdoors at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Fork in the City, then at 9 p.m. at the Coffee Pot, with Kelly Mullen.

Thursday, Sept 3rd, Kike and Miquel
Saturday, Sept 5th, Red Weather
Thursday, Sept 10th, Melissa Reaves
Friday, Sept 11th, Bebop Hoedown
Saturday, Sept 12th, Brian Gray
Friday, Sept 18th, Lazy Man Dub Band
Sunday, Sept 20th, Gospel with Brad Taylor 4-7
Friday, Sept 25th, Hoppie Vaughn
Sunday, Sept 27th, Casey and the Moonshine Band
Tuesday, Sept 29th, Steel Wheel Duo

http://forkinthecity.com/

It's vacation time. See you next Monday.

Mad Tea Party, just off of a few FloydFest sets, hits The Sun Music Hall, Floyd, on Saturday.

Last week, the duo's Jason Krekel joined us to talk and stream tunes before the band's Aug. 29 show at The Sun Music Hall, Floyd.

Krekel comes from heavy-duty Nashville, Tenn., mainstream success -- his father, the late Tim Krekel, wrote hit songs for such artists as Crystal Gayle and Patty Loveless. The older Krekel, also a session and touring musician, even played the guitar solo on Jimmy Buffett's "Cheeseburger in Paradise."

Jason Krekel's career has been a lot different. He's been an early or original member of such outfits as Snake Oil Medicine Show, Larry Keel Experience and Firecracker Jazz Band. These days, he spends most of his time working with his girlfriend, songwriter/ukulele banger Ami Worthen, in Mad Tea Party.

We discuss all of that and more in this podcast.

Troy Gatrell's latest project, Way, Shape, or Form, jammed the Roanoke Library on Thursday evening. On the video for below, the band, with Gatrell on drums and keys, comes off like a combination of Steve Khan and Incubus. That is actually a cool combination.

Look for the band's CD, "Trapezoid Campaign."

Aaron Parker is on bass here, and Justin Brown is playing guitar. Video by Hans Moore.

The list includes The Montana Slim String Band, High Street, Poe Mack, Center Hill, The Materia Project, Mighty McFly, TK-421 ...

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Roanoke-based jammers Funk Punch are just getting started, really, but the group is coming up with some decent experimental stuff. At times the band is reminiscent of Perpetual Groove, then it will turn around and lay out something like a heavy metal Marshall Tucker Band mashing up Pearl Jam, The Black Crowes and Bon Jovi (or maybe I had one too many rum and grapefruits last night).

Here's the song "Beat Lab," performed Thursday night at All Sports Cafe, Salem.

From last night at All Sports Cafe, Salem: Allen Thompson played stripped-down versions of tunes from his new record, "26 Years."

I'd love to post his hard-shuffle cover of the Grateful Dead's "Dire Wolf," but I fear the Dead's copyright police. The song featured a Roanoke music-scene newbie -- fiddler Amanda Glover. She sounded good. Thompson said Glover is a great singer, too.

"I'm not sure if she knows it, but she is," he said.

Stay tuned today -- I'll be posting some Funk Punch madness.

Ex-Roanoke guy Allen Thompson lives, writes and performs with Nashville as his home base these days. On Thursday, he came to All Sports Cafe in Salem, to open up for his friends in Funk Punch. Here, with Joe Andrews on lead guitar, he performs "Forgive Me," from his new album, "26 Years."

JOE HENRY
“Blood From Stars” (Anti-)
Reviewing “Blood From Stars” is daunting because Joe Henry has already done so eloquently in a three-page essay included in the liner notes.
Henry’s a marvelous writer of song, too, and “Blood” rivals his best work. It laments a world where “the stars have gone astray,” “true revelation is a thug” and “reason is traded for rhyme.”
Such sentiments are attached to music that mitigates the gloom, the way the blues can. Henry borrows from that genre, and jazz as well. A Grammy-winning producer, he throws in clangs, crashes, squeals and other spasms of odd noise.
The quirky rhythm of the record is crucial, too. Songs punch and jab and run together. Drums thunder. Henry breathes in the middle of vocal phrases. The result is exhilarating.
Helping Henry pull it all together is an excellent supporting cast that includes guitarist Marc Ribot, drummer Jay Bellerose, jazz pianist Jason Moran and Henry’s 17-year-old son, Levon, a precocious saxophonist who shines on the instrumental “Over Her Shoulder.”
Henry’s introductory essay shows he’s of a generation that believes in the album as a form of artistic expression. It’s a form he has mastered.
CHECK THIS OUT: The lovely “Light No Lamp” serves as bookends. Moran plays it as a solo instrumental prelude, and Henry sings it as a coda and hopeful benediction.
— Steven Wine, Associated Press

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