Mark & Maggie O’Connor
An Evening with Mark & Maggie O’Connor Mark and Maggie have been existing in an uninterrupted musical collaboration since the day they met eight years ago in 2014. As they were perfecting the finer points of Mark’s American Classical violin duos, it got so good that they decided to get married. The next stage of their musical journey turned into a larger family collaboration for which they each took home a Grammy for playing bluegrass in the O’Connor Band. Now, they have turned yet another musical corner. With a year-and-a-half of isolation from touring during the world-wide pandemic, they dedicated their days and nights towards further musical growth together. The couple workshopped new songs during seventy weekly online concerts from home; Mondays with Mark and Maggie. A group of dedicated viewers watched as they made their musical experiments, some fans tuning in for all of them. What came out of this exploration is an Americana album project of mostly original vocal songs they sing together, other popular songs reimagined, and all of them supported by a small universe of acoustic instruments they’ve brushed up on in the time off the road. The album reveals the pair’s most sincere and deeply personal work yet. “The album has really turned out beautiful for us,” says the former seven-time CMA Musician Of The Year, an artist who had recently turned 60 but has never shrunk from any musical idea he ever set out to accomplish, from national fiddle, guitar and mandolin championships to the composer of a dozen full scale concertos and symphonies, and, toss in a million sales of his “Appalachia Waltz” played with Yo-Yo Ma. After playing on 450 albums in Nashville during the 1980s, Mark returns here as songwriter, guitar-picker, singer and musical producer, not just the fiddler that changed how Nashville thought of the instrument for the better. The evolution was made possible by the compelling performances, musical talents and encouragement of his wife, Maggie.
An Evening With The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band
The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band Three time BMA nominee’s The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band are “the greatest front-porch blues band in the world”. They are led by Reverend Peyton, who most consider to be the premier finger picker playing today. He has earned a reputation as both a singularly compelling performer and a persuasive evangelist for the rootsy, country blues styles that captured his imagination early in life and inspired him and his band to make pilgrimages to Clarksdale, Mississippi to study under such blues masters as T-Model Ford, Robert Belfour and David “Honeyboy” Edwards. Their latest record Dance Songs For Hard Times went #1 on the Billboard, iTunes and Sirius XM Blues Charts and was produced by Grammy winner Vance Powell (Jack White, Chris Stapleton). The record is critically acclaimed by Rolling Stone, Relix, Popmatters, Guitar World, American Songwriter, No Depression, Glide, Wide Open Country, Paste, American Blues Scene and many more!
An Evening with Jake Shimabukuro
An Evening with Jake Shimabukuro Over the past two decades, Jake Shimabukuro has proved that there isn’t a style of music that he can’t play. While versatility for any musician is impressive, what’s remarkable about Shimabukuro’s transcendent skills is how he explores his seemingly limitless vocabulary – whether it’s jazz, rock, blues, bluegrass, folk or even classical – on perhaps the unlikeliest of instruments: the ‘ukulele. Responding to the urgent calls of his fervent imagination, the Hawai’i-born virtuoso has taken the ‘ukulele to points previously thought impossible, and in the process he’s reinvented the applications for this tiny, heretofore underappreciated four-string instrument, causing many to call him “the Jimi Hendrix of the ‘ukulele.”
An Evening With The Empty Pockets – Holiday Concert
Saturday December 7, 2024 The Kent Stage The Empty Pockets Holiday Show Fill the holidays with rock and modern blues! Chicago’s Billboard chart-topping quartet The Empty Pockets are bringing their ‘MistleTunes’ Holiday Concert to town. Seasonal classics like “Silent Night” and “Run Run Rudolph” are given new life through this band’s joyful energy. Plus, fresh and fun original songs like “Party at the North Pole” and “Snow Day” are a welcome change from the same-old-songs, year after year. Join The Empty Pockets, as they ignite a bright flame by harnessing a joyful friction between Americana, folk, and rock ‘n’ roll spiked with roots soul.
ROBERT EARL KEEN & Special Guest Cory Grinder
“I always wanted to play music, and I always knew that you had to get some recognition in order to continue to play music,” Keen says. “But I never thought in terms of getting to be a big star. I thought in terms of having a really, really good career writing good songs, and getting onstage to share a really good time.” Now with 21 records to his name, a band of stellar musicians, and thousands of shows under his belt, there is no end in sight to the road ahead. “Americana” style was officially recognized by the music industry in 1998. Robert Earl Keen was the genre’s first artist to be featured on the Americana Music Chart and on the debut cover of the radio trade magazine The Gavin Report featuring Americana. Keen continues to blaze a trail for other artists with Producer, Clara Rose, and their Americana Podcast. In 2019 Americana Podcast launched with the inaugural episode featuring Jamestown Revival and Lucero. The Americana Podcast has furthered the interest in artists Billy Strings, Lori McKenna, Drew Holcomb and I’m With Her. A Houston native, REK has for three decades been regarded as one of the Lone Star State’s finest true singer-songwriters. He enjoyed a homecoming at the 2019 Houston Rodeo when he performed with college friend, Lyle Lovett, ahead of George Strait to the record-breaking audience of over 80,000 attendees. Keen was weaned on classic rock and Willie Nelson records. By the time he entered Texas A&M University, he was teaching himself guitar playing Bluegrass and setting his poetic musings to song. These early days are captured in spirit on the Keen/Lyle Lovett co-write, “The Front Porch Song,” which both artists recorded on their respective debut albums, and in Happy Prisoner, REK’s bluegrass recording. After his debut’s release, he eventually moved to Nashville. While in Nashville Keen worked at the well-known Hatch Show Print as a pressman. After Keen’s stint in Nashville, he returned to Texas with a publishing deal, a new label, and a national booking agent. He proceeded to release The Live Album and West Textures, the album that marked the debut of “The Road Goes on Forever” and kicked his career into high gear. Keen had no idea that his song about a couple of ill-fated lovers running afoul of the law would have the legs it has, but he credits DJ Steve Kaufman of San Antonio radio station KRIO for helping to start the fire. “With an organic boost from Kaufman, I went from playing the front room at Gruene Hall for a max of 150 people to playing a show in San Antonio for 1,500 people. That was a moment that kept me going; because before that, I’d been working for 10 years and had a lot of rejection but very little success.” When Keen’s third studio album, West Textures, was released, fellow Texas icon Joe Ely recorded both “The Road Goes on Forever” and “Whenever Kindness Fails” on Ely’s album, Love and Danger, the secret was out on Keen’s credentials as a songwriter’s songwriter Robert Earl Keen’s contribution to his craft gained him induction into the Texas Heritage Songwriters’ Hall of Fame and The Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame. Two more albums, A Bigger Piece of Sky and Gringo Honeymoon, brimmed with more instant classics like “Corpus Christi Bay,” “Gringo Honeymoon,” “Dreadful Selfish Crime,” and “Merry Christmas From the Family.” Keen and his band hit the road, going out 180 days a year, to play dance halls, roadhouses, theaters, and festival grounds with diverse crowds of college kids, serious singer-songwriter fans, and plenty of true believers in authentic tales of life. Every music fan should see Robert Earl Keen.
An Evening with PAT TRAVERS
Pat Travers Band returns to The Kent Stage – BUT this time as the headliner! When he broke out in 1979 he was an instant sensation. Pat Travers, guitarist Pat Thrall, drummer Tommy Aldridge and bass player Peter “Mars” Cowling – were unarguably one of the most talented rock quartets ever to perform. They were also responsible for a pair of bona fide studio classics – their 1978 guitar rock debut “Heat in the Street,.” The band’s next release was a live album entitled Live! Go for What You Know, which charted in the Top 40 in the United States and included the tune “Boom Boom (Out Go The Lights)” (originally recorded by Little Walter, credited to Stan Lewis), which climbed even higher on the charts, entering the Top 20. “Snortin’ Whiskey” was a major American radio hit from 1980’s Crash and Burn. “Go for What You Know” was the musical meat in that sonic sandwich. Thrall’s fusion was the perfect foil for Travers, who has always put the melodic tone, and feel of his solos before any fret burning. Aldridge was one of the most noted and flamboyant stickmen of the era. Cowling was the inspiration, driving the rhythm through his ever solid, yet extremely flexible, four-string work Toronto born Patrick Henry Travers had already delivered a tasty trio of releases before the formation of that formidable four-piece, and would go on to deliver classy melodic eighties rock before a blues period in the nineties, but it’s that famous foursome that set standards, kicked your ass, and made such a musical mark. “My name is Pat Travers, and this is my band…” It’s early 2009, and the “Pat Travers Band” has just been recorded live by Rockline Radio. On playback, Rockline’s Bob Coburn turns to bass player Rodney O’Quinn and comments: “I think we caught lightning in a bottle tonight.” To have that happen once in a career is special. To repeat that feat thirty years later may be unique. The line up responsible for that electrical discharge – Travers, O’Quinn, guitarist Kirk McKim and drummer Sean “The Cannon” Shannon – have been performing together since 2008. Kirk, who has toured with Pat since 2006, is the perfect sparring partner for Travers and a great guitarist in his own right, while Rodney’s four-string work compliments the band in a way not seen or heard since the departure of Mars Cowling. When you add Sean’s ridiculously powerful but controlled drumming that is the engine room of this unit, you have a Pat Travers Band that is being favorably compared to their famous predecessors of thirty years ago. And deservedly so. But Pat isn’t looking to the past for his musical future, and proof that future was in (eight) safe hands, courtesy of Messrs, Travers, McKim, Shannon and O’Quinn, came as the second decade of the Millennium dawned… “Fidelis”, backed by Alexus Records, was released in 2010, and is quite simply is one of the best Pat Travers releases of any era, by any line-up. The opener, the hot and rockin’ ‘Ask Me Baby’ and the following number, the slower but no less raunchy ‘Edge of Darkness’ set the tone early, with the albums rock edge superbly tempered by the lighter tracks such as the excellent ‘Stay’, and ‘When I’m With You’. “We’re the Pat Travers Band and we’re here to kick your ass!”
RICK WAKEMAN – The Final Solo Tour
FINAL SOLO TOUR As a much sought after session musician in the late sixties and early seventies, he played on more than 2,000 records, including such hits as Cat Stevens’ Morning Has Broken and David Bowie’s Space Oddity and Life on Mars, and worked with a real eclectic mixture of other notable artistes, such as Donovan, Cilla Black, Marc Bolan, Black Sabbath, Lou Reed, Mary Hopkin, Dana, Al Stewart, Elton John and John Williams. In March 1970, he joined Strawbs. His first album with them, Just a Collection of Antiques and Curios, paved the way for ‘folk-rock’ and reviews from their concert at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall on July 11th of that year did much to take Rick’s career to a new level. He joined YES in August of 1971 and has been in and out of that band on quite a few occasions! Both as a solo artist and with YES, he has sold more than 50,000,000 albums, although he says that only past management would be able to tell you where the royalties went! He has written two film scores for Ken Russell, (Lisztomania and Crimes of Passion), two scores for Harry Palmer films starring Michael Caine, (Bullet to Beijing and Midnight in St Petersburg), and the award-winning White Rock, as well as Gole, Hero, A Day After The Fair and two horror films, Creepshow 2 and The Burning. He has also carved out quite a television career, appearing on every single episode of the Grumpy Old Men series and on Countdown just under 100 times. He has also accepted numerous invites for Never Mind The Buzzcocks and Have I Got News For You, and is now in his fifth year as a regular presenter on Watchdog. On Radio 4, he can be regularly heard on The News Quiz, Just a Minute and It’s Your Round. He has two books currently available – Grumpy Old Rockstar and Further Adventures of a Grumpy Old Rockstar – both of which made the bestsellers list. The third in the series is due for release shortly. Rick still finds time each year to perform concerts around the world, which can range from his extremely popular one-man show to extravaganzas with symphony orchestras and choirs. In 2019, Rick celebrated his 70th birthday with two sold out performances of his epic Journey To The Centre Of The Earth at London’s Royal Festival Hall, complete with band, choir and orchestra, as well as embarking on his first solo tour of the USA in 13 years in September. In June 2020, he returned to his prog roots, releasing The Red Planet, which was recorded with his touring band The English Rock Ensemble, but embryonic plans for some live shows to accompany it were scuppered due to lockdown. However, Rick had an additional special reason to celebrate the easing of Covid restrictions in June 2021 when his outstanding career in music was recognized by Queen Elizabeth II, who named him a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for his services to music. At the start of 2023, Rick released a new album, The Gallery of The Imagination, and also performed with the English Rock Ensemble and the English Chamber Choir at the prestigious London Palladium theatre over two nights: The Six Wives of Henry VIII and Myths and Legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table (Weds 22 Feb) and Classic YES and Journey To The Centre Of The Earth (Thur 23 Feb). The works were performed in brand new concert arrangements for band and choir, and captured for his Live At The London Palladium 4-CD set. The album and sold-out concerts were so well-received that the band toured the UK in February 2024, reprising the second concert, and Rick hopes to do the same with the first night repertoire in 2025.
Albert Lee & Jeremy Clyde – An Evening of Stories & Songs
Albert Lee & Jeremy Clyde As one half of Chad & Jeremy, Jeremy Clyde “fell into the slipstream of the Beatles” and burst through all barriers to success in America as part of the 1964 British Invasion, while Albert Lee has been called “the ultimate virtuoso” by Eric Clapton. Influenced from their earliest days as musicians and performers by great American artists like Buddy Holly and The Everly Brothers, Albert Lee and Jeremy Clyde bring those influences to the fore in their first series of “storytellers” style shows together as an acoustic duo. Albert Lee began his career as a touring musician in the early sixties, and soon catapulted onto the stage with the likes of Joe Cocker, Eric Clapton, and Emmylou Harris. A 25-year run as Music Director of his beloved Everly Brothers coincided with studio and stage work with Vince Gill, Roseanne Cash, and also Paul McCartney & Ringo Starr (“The Concert for George”). Even with all this, he found the time for over 10 solo and band albums under his own monniker. His numerous studio sessions have led to four Grammy Awards nominations and two Grammy awards. We came to know Jeremy Clyde via seven Top 40 hits with Chad & Jeremy, whose debut “Yesterday’s Gone” quickly established them as a force on American radio and television. Jeremy regales us with tales from Chad & Jeremy’s sixties era TV appearances on Batman and the Dick Van Dyke show, and more recently his own acting roles in “The Iron Lady” alongside Meryl Streep as Maragaret Thatcher, as well as “Downton Abbey”. Perhaps influenced by such work, Jeremy’s songwriting has a cinematic quality which is highlighted in songs from his” Bottom Drawer Sessions” releases. It all starts with a song, and these duo shows will reflect that. From the Chad & Jeremy catalog, Albert Lee and Jeremy Clyde will harmonize on “Distant Shores”, “Yesterday’s Gone”, “Summer Song”, and more. From Albert Lee’s back pages, expect the Jimmy Webb-penned , “The Highwayman”, Glenn Campbell’s ” A Better Place”, and the Jimmy Jones/Otis Blackwell classic “Handy Man”. Inspirations to both artists such as the Everly Brothers provide “Crying in the Rain” and “Bye Bye Love”, while from Buddy Holly comes ” Well, All Right” and “It Doesn’t Matter Anymore”. As Albert and Jeremy tell us stories of the travels that brought them to so many of the intersections of cultural history, the two legends bring these timeless songs to life.
Iris DeMent
Iris DeMent On her transcendent new record, Workin’ On A World, Iris DeMent faces the modern world — as it is right now — with its climate catastrophe, pandemic illness, and epidemic of violence and social injustice — and not only asks us how we can keep working towards a better world, but implores us to love each other, despite our very different ways of seeing. Her songs are her way of healing our broken inner and outer spaces. With an inimitable voice as John Prine described, “like you’ve heard, but not really,” and unforgettable melodies rooted in hymns, gospel, and old country music, she’s simply one of the finest singer-songwriters in America as well as one of our fiercest advocates for human rights. Her debut record Infamous Angel, which just celebrated its 30th anniversary, was recently named one of the “greatest country albums of all time” by Rolling Stone, and the two albums that followed, My Life and The Way I Should, were both nominated for GRAMMYs. From there, DeMent released three records on her own label, Flariella Records, the most recent of which, The Trackless Woods (2015), was hailed as “a quietly powerful triumph” by The Guardian. DeMent’s songs have also been featured in film (True Grit) and television (The Leftovers) and recorded by numerous artists. Fittingly, she received the Americana Music Trailblazer Award in 2017. Ana Egge Ana Egge is a singer-songwriter and apprentice luthier from Brooklyn, NY. She has released 13 studio albums, playing her homemade guitar. Egge’s music has been praised by critics for its honesty, vulnerability, and beauty. She was born in Canada, and raised in North Dakota, and has toured extensively throughout North America and Europe. Egge is the subject of a 2015 documentary film, Bright Shadow. She has been featured in Billboard, Rolling Stone, and on NPR to name a few. Lucinda Williams calls her “the folk Nina Simone.”
Pete Best – The Beatles’ original drummer & The Cyrkle
PETE BEST and The Pete Best Band PLUS – The Cyrkle VIP Meet & Greet available – Info below Pete Best & the Pete Best Band In 1988, original drummer of The Beatles, Pete Best formed The Pete Best Band. The band delivers the raw, thumping intensity of the Beatles’ savage sound during the early sixties. The band are proud of their authentic sound and energy. Right from the first beat, you’ll be immersed in nostalgia, listening to ‘the BEST years’ of the Beatles, 1960-62. www.petebest.com The Cyrkle The story of the band’s meteoric mid-’60s rise is a heady one even by the halcyon standards of the era: they shared stages (and manager Brian Epstein) during The Beatles USA Tour as the opening act, with The Beatles – whose John Lennon coined the spelling of their name – and scored two major hits in the Paul Simon/Bruce Woodley-written “Red Rubber Ball” and the culture-defining “Turn-Down Day”. Then in 2017, DANNEMANN (vocals and guitar) and LOSEKAMP (vocals and keyboards) joined forces with some of Ohio’s top performing musicians – including OHIO EXPRESS bassist Dean Kastran as well as Pat McLoughlin (vocals, guitar), Don White (lead guitar, vocals) and Scott Langley (drums, vocals) — to recreate the original Cyrkle sound onstage VIP Meet & Greet – This is a true meet & greet – photos are OK – no autographs Starts at approx. 5PM Only 50 spaces available & You must also have a concert ticket. $65.00 upgrade available at check-out