Tommy Castro

Tommy CastroNight after night, Tommy Castro, a fierce and fiery road warrior, fervently delivers his driving, blues-soaked, soul-baring music to fans all over the world. The road is where he honed his guitar playing to a razor’s edge, and it’s where he learned how to captivate an audience with his intensely passionate vocals and his memorable songs, licks, and grooves. It’s where he learned to turn his band into a dynamic, high-performance engine, able to bring down the house with a soulful ballad and then bring fans to their feet with a blistering blues rocker. Over the course of his four-decade career, Castro has played thousands of shows to hundreds of thousands of fans and has always left them screaming for more. Castro is a six-time Blues Music Award winner, including taking home the coveted BB King Entertainer of the Year award twice.

Tommy Castro & The Painkillers (the band currently features bass player Randy McDonald, keyboardist Michael Emerson and drummer Bowen Brown) will be making a visit to Portland for a performance at the Alberta Rose Theatre, 3000 NE Alberta Street, on Friday, February 24 for an 8:00 pm show.  Tickets can be purchased in advance at albertarosetheatre.com for $20.00 or at the door day of show for $25.00. This event is open to minors under 21 when accompanied by a parent or guardian.

 

Hot Tuna

Hot TunaFor the last 50 years, from their days playing together as teenagers, to their time as members of Jefferson Airplane, to their explorations in acoustic and electric blues with Hot Tuna, probably no artists have led American music more consistently than Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady. The pair began playing together while growing up in the Washington D.C. area, where Jorma became enamored of the finger-picking guitar style practiced by the legendary Rev. Gary Davis. Jack, meanwhile, had taken an interest in the electric bass, at the time a controversial instrument in blues, jazz, and folk circles. Moving cross country the pair were a significant mainstay of the Jefferson Airplane while remaining loyal to the blues, jazz, bluegrass, and folk influences of the small clubs and larger venues they had learned from years before. Hot Tuna became a side project from the band, eventually developing into its own force that has been going strong with a devout fan base since its inception five decades ago.

Hot Tuna will be returning to Portland for a date at the Aladdin Theater, 3017 SE Milwaukie Avenue, on Thursday, February 23 at 8:00 pm. Tickets are $39.50 in advance and $42.00 day of show and may be purchased at Ticketfly.com. This is an all ages event.

Ty Curtis Unplugged

Ty Curtis UnpluggedTy Curtis has been frequently splitting his time between Portland and Austin for the past couple years, but if there was one reason to check out one of his shows don’t miss out on Monday, February 13 at The Lake Theater & Café. Ty Curtis Unplugged will be a rare all acoustic showcase, proving that Curtis has a lot more up his sleeve than setting the place on fire with his Gibson electric. The music presented will be all Ty Curtis original material, including selections from all six of his discs, plus some new songs and some blues finger-picked guitar. Joining Ty for this unplugged evening will be his regular drummer Jerry Jacques and a special reunion with bassist Dave Kahl.

Show time for Ty Curtis Unplugged is 7:00 pm. The Lake Theater & Café is located at 106 State Street in Lake Oswego. Tickets can be picked up in advance online at Laketheatercafe.com for $15.00.

Adia Victoria

Adia Victoria is a fresh reference point on the musical landscape. From blood-born howls to idiosyncratic phrasing, she is the big red dot saying “You Are Here.” The Nashville-based artist travels the lands of rock, afro punk, and country, while staying squarely situated in the continent of the Blues.

Adia VictoriaAsk about her artistic goals and the songwriter/vocalist will say, “I want to shine a light on the unseen, and speak the unspeakable.” Adia Victoria is a truth teller. She admits, “I don’t necessarily paint myself in a flattering light. This isn’t the pop version of pretty or the strategically posed pretty-ugly. Sometimes I’m just ugly. There’s a brat in some of these songs, selfish, nave, vengeful, but there’s also a tender eye that just wants the listener to feel seen and understood.”

The Village Voice called her an “eerie, intriguing songwriter, with bone chilling guitar riffs and lyrics topped with candid scorn.” Oxford American calls her as “rich and unpredictable as ever.” Rolling Stone featured Adia Victoria as one of “10 New Artists You Need to Know.” She is soon to be on everybody’s radar as an artist not to miss..

Touring in support of her debut recording, Beyond The Bloodhounds, Adia Victoria will be playing in Portland at Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi Avenue on Monday, February 27. This 21 and over event will start at 9:00 pm. Admission is $14.00 at the door and tickets can be purchased in advance for $12.00 at Ticketfly.com.

Opening the show will be Amenta Abioto, whose music ranges from soul shaking gospel to smooth jazz and then onto hip hop rhythms wrapped in West African beats.

Three of the areas most respected and exciting award-winning blues musicians, Kevin Selfe, Lisa Mann, and Dean Mueller, will be performing together in the intimate setting of the Lake Theater & Café on Monday, January, 23. For this show, the theater will be clearing space up front for dancing, and the music will be geared more for dancers. This is a rare opportunity to see Kevin and Lisa perform together, as they are usually out performing with their bands. This will also be the next to last show that Kevin will be playing in Portland before his hiatus from music, returning to Virginia to help with his family.

Tickets are $10 and can be purchased at laketheatercafe.com, or the day of the show. The Lake Theater & Café is located at 106 N State Street, Lake Oswego. Show time is 7:00 pm.

Mary Flower & The BBQ Boys

Mary Flower & The BBQ BoysGuitarist, singer, and songwriter Mary Flower is that rare breed of American roots artist. Flower is fluent and masterful in the artistically tricky Piedmont style of acoustic guitar that requires a deft touch, intricate picking, and an innate sense of subtle harmonics wrapped in a rousing good time. Yet she is equally rooted and schooled in Mississippi blues, especially when rendered on a vintage lap-slide. Add to this her love of swing, ragtime, folk, and hot jazz, plus a healthy dose of her own song craft, and you have a modern artist with an ear for the traditional who brings an immediate vibrancy and dynamism to any concert hall and stage performance.

The BBQ Boys are a four-piece jazz, blues, and jug band that has performed with many well-known artists such as Jim Kweskin, Geoff Muldaur, Maria Muldaur, John Sebastian, David Grisman, and Dan Hicks. The band consists of Stew Dodge on fiddle and vocal, Spud Siegel on mandolin, mandola and vocals, Doc Stein on dobro, guitar and vocals, and Mark Vehrencamp on sousaphone.  In 2013 they joined forces with Mary Flower as a jazz and blues infected jug band (sans jug) and have created new masterpieces of old standbys and originals by Mary and Spud, adding rich harmonies and searing solos.

Mary Flower and The BBQ Boys will be performing on Monday, February 6 at The Lake Theater & Café in Lake Oswego. Located at 106 N State Street, the show will start at 7:00 pm. Tickets can be purchased at the door or in advance at Laketheatercafe.com for $15.00.

The 44’s are a Los Angeles-based band who play blues-roots-rock music and, over the past several years, have proven themselves to be one the brightest stars rising on the American blues roots scene. Make no mistake about it, the raw, rough and tough sounds generated by these four expert musicians during live performances won’t be ignored. They exhibit a genuine gift for creating blues in the moment while at the same time showing loyalty to a remarkable blues-and-r&b tradition that goes back decades. Playing vintage instruments, the band is led by vocalist and guitarist extraordinaire Johnny Main and has been touring nearly non-stop since 2010.

Highly popular in the Portland area, The 44s return to one of their favorite venues, Duff’s Garage, 2530 NE 82nd Avenue, on Saturday, February 25 for a 9:00 pm show. Admission is $10.00 and tickets are available in advance at TicketTomato.com. This is a Cascade Blues Association co-sponsored event, so show your current membership card at the door to receive a $1.00 discount on admission.

Raphael Wressnig & Igor Prado

The Soul Connection
Pepper Cake

Raphael Wressnig & Igor PradoAustrian-based Hammond B3 organist Raphael Wressnig is an extremely versatile player who was influenced by people like Jimmy Smith, Booker T Jones, Joe Zawinul, Jimmy McGriff, and Jack McDuff. With twenty discs under his belt, he has been capturing the attention of audiences around the world for the past twenty years with a variety of musical approaches that he molds into his own tasty version of funky, soulful and jazzy blues. He recently traveled to Brazil to join forces with Blues Music Award nominated guitarist Igor Prado for one delicious outing of funky instrumentals and soulful R&B numbers for the album The Soul Connection. The disc is a splendid mix of original material alongside great interpretations of classic pieces from artists including the likes of Tyrone Davis, Don Robey, Hugh Masekela, Little Willie John, and Otis Clay.

Both Wressnig and Prado deliver captivating solos throughout the recording, not overdone but tastefully arranged and delivered. They’re backed by Prado’s rhythm section of Rodrigo Mantovani on bass and Yuri Prado on drums, keeping the pace right on track. Horns are perfectly intertwined with trumpeter Sidmar Viera and Blues Music Award nominee Sax” Gordon Beadle on tenor and baritone saxophones.

There are a number of great instrumentals peppered throughout the disc, including several remarkable originals like “No-La-Fun-Ky” which draws to mind the funky sound of The Meters, the jazzy romp of “The Face Slap Swing No. 5” alongside covers of Hugh Masekela’s “Grazing In The Grass” and Southern hymn-like approach on Wayne Raney’s “Why Don’t You Haul Off And Love Me.”

But where the album really shines is with the great vocal guests that they’ve brought into the fold. David Hudson stands tall with his take on Tyrone Davis’ “Turning Point” and Leon Beal also delivers a superb take on Don Robey’s “Don’t Cry No More.” But the true star on this disc aside from Wressnig and Prado is without doubt Wee Willie Walker who handles the singing on five tracks. His take on Otis Clay’s “Trying To Live My Life Without You” opens the disc and he shows that he is a natural foil for the musicians. All of his numbers are highlights and prove that this vocalist who re-emerged on the blues scene in 2015 was one of the most welcome come-backs of the decade.

The Soul Connection is a terrific melding of European, Brazilian and American musicians. It is a prime example of music as a universal language, especially in the hands of pure talent as it is here. Pick up a copy of The Soul Connection, you’re going to find yourself dancing along. The outcome of this recording proved so successful for Wressnig and Prado that they have recently released it as a twin pack including a live performance of the songs on the second disc.

Total Time: 50:22

Trying To Live My Life Without You Baby / Young Girl / Suffering With The Blues / Turning Point / No-La-Fun-Ky / Home At Last / Turnip Greens / My Love Is / The Face Slap Swing No. 5 / Grazing In The Grass / Don’t Cry No More / Heartbreak / Why Don’t You Haul Off And Love Me

Ayron Jones

Ayron JonesSeattle-born and raised vocalist, songwriter, and Hendrix-inspired guitarist Ayron Jones has established himself as one of the top independent rock artists in the Pacific Northwest. Opening for various Grammy award-winning and Rock and Roll Hall-of-Fame members, such as Run DMC, B.B. King, and Jeff Beck, Jones has stunned audiences and gained instant fans with a genre-defying mashup of blues-infused Grunge and West Coast Hip-hop. With a new release on its way, Audio Paint Job, Jones is set to light up Portland on Friday, February 3 at Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi Avenue.

Tickets for this night filled with punk energy and blues honesty are available in advance through Ticketfly.com for $13.00. Admission at the door is $15.00. Northwest acts Foxy Lemon and Redwood Son open the show starting at 9:00 pm. 21 & over only.

Reggie Houston

Reggie HoustonRenowned New Orleans saxophonist Reggie Houston brings a time honored Mardi Gras tradition to Portland as he presents Lundi Gras (Fat Monday) on Monday, February 27 at The Lake Theater & Café, 106 N State Street, Lake Oswego.  Traditional Mardi Gras music featuring a stellar line-up alongside Houston (Fats Domino, Charmaine Neville, Box of Chocolates) on saxophone, with Tyrone Hendrix (Stevie Wonder, Tony Furtado) on drums, Ben Jones (Neville Bros., Anita Baker, Oregon Symphony) on bass, award-winning Peter Dammann on blues guitarist, and Mike Elson on keyboard! In keeping with tradition, Reggie will treat guests to a slice of Mardi Gras King Cake (by Beaverton Bakery), with prizes for lucky audience members! Mardi Gras masks, beads, and costumes are encouraged!

Show time for Reggie Houston – Lundi Gras Celebration is 7:00 pm. Tickets are $20.00 – $25.00, available at laketheatercafe.com.