Red Bike serves up rock and funk
Greg Timmons and the Austin House will play a free show at Red Bicycle Bistro at 9:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 23.
Timmons and his band play an original blend of funk, rock and blues, combining big guitars, funky grooves and hook-driven melodies. The band draws on more than 35 years of playing and performing.
Timmons’ tagline quote is “the bottom line, it’s party time,” and his band reflects that spirit. Timmons has studied and worked with artists as diverse as jazz legend Gene Leis, blues-rock virtuoso Robben Ford, prog-rock master John Petrucci and country super-picker Albert Lee.
The band also includes Tommy Wall on bass and Wade Reeves on drums.
Salem, a band from Boulder, Colo., will take the Bike’s stage at 9:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 24.
The group, which melds funk, jazz and hip-hop, has been on a year-long CD release tour that has covered the states of Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Montana, Washington, Oregon, Wyoming and Alaska. Salem headlined the Seattle Hempfest for 10,000 people in August.
Katy Niner, a music critic for Jackson Hole News and Guide, wrote in March, “Blending jazz, funk, spoken word and some Afro-Cuban beats, (Salem) makes crowds dance and think.”
Another critic, Jason Blevins, praised the group’s bandleader in the Denver Post, writing, “Todd Anders Johnson can pound out mad beats while culling some tight lyrics, reaching that percussive nirvana of five-part independence. Salem is certainly a band on the rise.”
Café Luna’s stage is full
The True Margrit Trio, a group based in San Francisco, will return to Café Luna for a free concert at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 23. Tipping is encouraged.
True Margrit is fronted by singer/songwriter/piano-player Margrit Eichler. Gary Hobish plays bass, and Andrew Bacon is the group’s drummer.
The group has just released its fifth album, “The Juggler’s Progress,” a recording it claims was influenced by Shakespeare, mountaineering and evolutionary destiny.
“The Juggler’s Progress” also features Bay Area musicians, including virtuoso violinist Gloria Justen, backing vocals by Pam Delgado and guitar by Jeri Jones.
Critic Alan Haber, of radio station WEBR, said, “Eichler tickles the ivories and stomps on them, often at the same time. … Sweet at one turn and elasticized the next, Eichler’s voice is somewhat reminiscent of Aimee Mann and Andrea Perry; she bends the notes when it’s appropriate and sings them straight ahead when it’s not.”
Seattle’s Stanislaw Chalicki, who goes by the name “Stanislove,” will sing and play in a free concert at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 24, at Café Luna.
Stanislove, who has decades of professional music experience, performs a mix of acoustic blues, ragtime, swing and folk music as well as original songs with a decidedly political bent.
Stanislove discovered his interest in music in Germany, where he was born in the early 1950s, when his mother turned him on to American pop playing on the Armed Forces Network.
He said recently, “In America I took up the guitar during the folk-music revival of the ’60s, influenced by artists as diverse as Lead Belly, Woody Guthrie, Sarah Vaughn, Cisco Houston, Rev. Gary Davis, Elvis Presley, Bukka White, Doc Watson, Bob Dylan, Sam Cooke and Chuck Berry, not to mention every fellow musician from whom I’ve ever stolen a lick. Still learning, you know.”
Christopher Overstreet performs
Celebrating nearly 20 years of showcasing Island talent, VAA New Works Series 2009 will continue in October with “Impromptu 4 Laser Piano,” a multimedia performance by artist/classical and modern improvisational pianist Christopher Overstreet.
Overstreet will merge his performance and composition skills with self-designed computer software to create a spectacle of piano, movement and computer-generated sound and light.
Abby Enson will offer a movement element to the performance.
The show will be performed one night only, at 8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 24. Tickets are $12 and $14.
Call 463-5131 to purchase by phone.
Some tickets may also be available at the door on the night of the show.
