www.roanoke.com

Nov 6 Friday Misspent Youth
Nov 7 Saturday Lil Roger and Cheap Thrills
Nov 13 Friday Surrender Dorothy
Nov 14 Saturday Raw Sugar (dining), Tim Martin(gathering rm)

http://www.pomegranateva.com/

MerleFest has announced its 2010 lineup. Highlights include Elvis Costello, The Lee Boys, Corey Harris, The Avett Brothers, Dailey & Vincent, Jerry Douglas and John Hammond -- and of course, The Waybacks with John Cowan at the Hillside Album Hour. If you saw Cowan with the 'backs at Kirk Avenue Music Hall earlier this month, you know what I mean.

The fest runs April 29 - May 2. www.docsguitar.com.

Full list follows.

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Christian McBride

Jefferson Center, with its capacity recently reconfigured to 924, was mostly empty on Sunday night for Christian McBride & Inside Straight. The show drew 385, and the rest of you missed what was one of the best displays of jazz mastery you're likely to hear in Roanoke.

McBride, though, appreciated what he had, particularly in light of the band's long journey to get here from French Guiana. Read details of that jazz odyssey and more in the print review. He also was impressed that the valley has hosted him three times -- twice as a bandleader (he played Roanoke College a decade ago), and once with Pat Metheny.

There are plenty of big cities in the United States that haven't booked him this many times.

"Roanoke, you deserve your due," he said, to audience applause. "This is a hip, swinging town, baby. Give me Roanoke and Vegas any day, baby."

The McBride show climaxed a great weekend of music in Roanoke. On Friday, Chris Hillman and Herb Pedersen played Kirk Avenue Music Hall. On Saturday, Delbert McClinton headlined the Big Lick Blues Festival, sounding his roadhouse hot best with his rock-solid band, Dick 50 -- more on that show in an upcoming column.

McBride and his band, though, might have been the best band playing *anywhere* this weekend. Amazing.

The Rev. Frank Newsome, who sang brilliantly at FloydFest in July, and Bobby Patterson, a banjo man who is an organizer of The Old Fiddlers Convention, in Galax, are among Virginia-based traditional artists selected for the first-ever round of Virginia Heritage Awards.

The Virginia Commission for the Arts presented the awards, "to honor Virginia masters of the traditional arts for their contributions to the cultural heritage of Virginia, to recognize the preservationists of traditional culture, and to bring public attention to important cultural traditions.

Go to http://www.arts.virginia.gov/news/VHArecipients09.html for the full list of winners.

Read more about Newsome and Patterson below.

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This one is set for Elmwood Park on Oct. 3. More information at http://www.biglickblues.org/.

2 pm – Gates open – vendors open

2:15 pm – Voting begins for U.S. Foods Rib Cook-Off People’s Choice Award

2:30 pm – Mo’ Hippa Band

4 pm – Stacy Brooks

5:25 pm - Martin’s Rib Eating Contest

5:45 pm – Rev. Billy C. Wirtz & Victor Wainwright – The Pianist Envy Show

6 pm - Voting ends for U.S. Foods Rib Cook-Off People’s Choice Award

7:10 pm – U.S. Foods Rib Cook-Off Awards, Martin’s Rib Eating Contest Awards & 50/50 Winner

7:30 pm – Delbert McClinton

9:30 pm – 2:00 am – After Festival Blues Party @ Blue 5

News release is below ...

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For the past couple of years, FloydFest has asked festival-goers to vote for their favorite band on a list of "under the radar" groups. This year's winner is The Mantras, a really energetic jam band. Check out some of the band's music at its MySpace.com page. I did a short review of one of the band's FloydFest sets on this here blog.

The Mantras have played Martin's Downtown Bar & Grill, Roanoke, a couple of times over the past year, but we might not see the band again for a while. It has signed with Perpetual Groove's management company, which is trying to get The Mantras out beyond the mid-South.

Wayne Henderson, Sage and Baruch Wright (and their band, The Wright Kids) were among those who won or placed highly in Galax at last week's Old Fiddler's Convention.

Sage Wright won the youth mandolin competition (she also bows a mean fiddle, or a violin, when the occasion arises). Baruch finished second in the youth guitar contest. In an interesting misspelling, the convention has him listed as "Barack." Baruch Wright also finished second in the folk song competition.

Henderson, who after all these years of picking and guitar building still loves to come out and jam, finished second among guitarists.

Tina Steffey, whose husband Adam Steffey is mandolinist for Dan Tyminski Band, finished third in the clawhammer banjo competition. She is from the Roanoke Valley, and the couple had lived in Salem until recently, before moving down to East Tennessee.

And the winners were:

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Yams after party at Champs | Courtesy Scott Dickens

Back in a past life, I was a drummer who toured around the indie-rock Chitlin' Circuit with a couple of different bands. I used to see flyers for a band called The Yams from Outer Space. Good name, I thought -- can the band back it up with the tunes?

People back home in Johnson City, Tenn., told me "yes!" The Yams played The Casbah, by East Tennessee State University, a few times, and folks raved. I never got to see them, though, because I was always out on a gig of my own.

In my years up here, I've gotten to know and respect bassist Dylan Locke and drumer George Penn, Jr., a couple of guys from that long broken-up band. And recently, we did a podcast with guitarist/singer/bovine costume wearer Mike Kirby. Kirby is a funny, affable dude who just happens to be a smoking guitar player.

Now, finally, I have seen the band, and I have to say that it hasn't lost much, if anything, since its heyday of a decade ago.

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Mike Mitchell Trio turned in a nice set at the acoustic stage. Unfortunately, I had just missed Bebop Hoedown -- again! Seems I always miss these guys. The band's Jeff Maiden and Adam Markham told me it had been a great set. Mitchell, from the stage, said the same thing about the Hoedown guys.

Bassist Chris Luster and multi-instrumentalist Abe Goorskey joined Mitchell, who sang well and played as much guitar as he did violin. They played standards like "Jerusalem Ridge" -- a high-octane number -- and Mitchell's own bluegrass-pop "Young Love On The Mountain."

I headed back across town from Cabo Fish Taco to the Lyric Theater to catch Cream of the Crop Blues Band. I knew it was the right move as I walked down College Street and heard the closing strains of "The Tighten Up," by Archie Bell and the Drells. That's the kind of classic soul and R&B that George Penn Sr. and his band deliver, and Penn's voice is so effortless -- not a lot of range, but right on the money.

The coolest part about that set was that Penn Sr. and his band were second on the bill to his son, George Penn Jr., and The Yams from Outer Space. That set was soon to come.

Red Weather goes back a ways in Roanoke Valley jam-band lore. It's cool that they're getting back out there after a few years off. The music is Dead-ish, as you might expect, but with more than a few Celtic flourishes. In fact, some of the band's music, with double-guitar harmonies, sounded like a Celtic Allman Brothers Band.

Guitarist John McBroom is the only effective singer in the band, but everyone onstage is a good instrumentalist, underpinned by Thomas Wilson on drums.

While the band played a swampy, mid-tempo funk number, a woman of about 60, a green top and olive shorts, danced enthusiastically but all alone. The way she was moving, it was clear that this was the kind of music that fairly sent her 30 or 40 years ago. A couple of times, she looked out toward the audience, a worried look on her face as if to say, "Doesn't anyone feel the way I feel right now?"

Soon, a younger woman, holding a baby, joined her, followed by a small crowd that built during a Santana-like tune. I was glad that the woman didn't have to feel like a spectacle.