Rams Head The Blog

Getting to announce a Brian Culbertson show is a special little treat. It’s the chance I get to indulge in watching his youtube performances, and he’s just adorable. I do get the urge to smooth down his hair when I watch him, but with that impish grin and pretty astounding stage presence it’s easy to get forget that when I’m watching him for hours!

Other exciting announces this week include A Subdude stepping out on his own, one of Britan’s founding prog rock bands, the lovely (and very talented) wife of Citizen Cope, a cowboy I’d kiss in the car, the lyrically gifted son of Lonesome Dove’s author, and an impressive lineup paying tribute to the late Pinetop Perkins. But enough of my random trivia… here’s what went on sale today:

04.23
A Tribute to Pinetop Perkins feat. The Nighthawks, Daryl Davis, and Andy Poxon Band

In the mid 1970s, when Pinetop Perkins replaced Otis Spann in the Muddy Waters Band he found himself a frequent visitor to the Washington D.C. area. Since The Nighthawks were the opening act for many of those shows, a great onstage and backstage friendship developed. This April The Nighthawks come together with longtime disciple and right hand man to Perkins, Daryl Davis as well as up-and-coming local blues band Andy Poxon Band for an evening honoring the Blues piano legend Pintop Perkins.

05.23
John Berry

John Berry began his career opening up for some of country music’s biggest stars, including Reba McEntire, Aaron Tippin, and the Mavericks. The Georgia tenor has been recognized by the Grammy Association, the Academy of Country Music, and the Country Music Association as a nominee in the Best Male Vocalist category and has scored hits such as “Your Love Amazes Me,” “Kiss Me in the Car,” and “Standing on the Edge of Goodbye.”

06.15
James McMurtry (Trio)

The son of acclaimed author Larry McMurtry (Lonesome Dove, Terms of Endearment), James grew up on a steady diet of Johnny Cash and Roy Acuff records. His first album, released in 1989, was produced by John Mellencamp and marked the beginning of his gritty roots-rock career. The Washington Post noted McMurtry’s live prowess: “Much attention is paid to James McMurtry’s lyrics, and rightfully so: He creates a novel’s worth of emotion and experience in four minutes of blisteringly stark couplets.”

06.18
Uriah Heep

Uriah Heep is one of a handful of important progressive rock bands to emerge from Britain during the 1970s. They combined the hard, guitar-focused sound of traditional heavy metal bands like Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin with extended jazz-like orchestrations and multi-part vocal harmonies which had great impact on later harmonic bands, such as Queen.

06.24
Alice Smith

Smith is the most promising female singer-songwriter to go her own enrapturing way in a very long time. Her voice, with its four-octave range, is luscious and powerful and nuanced and finely sensitive to rhythm. Yet it never makes a cult of its own abilities; for all its fantastic manners, Smith’s voice gets on down the road. Sometimes she sings with a booming intensity, yet Smith never loses the unlearnable balance and poise that separates good singers from great ones.

08.06
Tommy Malone Of The Subdudes

On stage, standing front and center, Tommy Malone exudes a laid-back, down-to-earth style that epitomizes the subdudes. But his self-assured exterior masks a songwriter who mines heartache and elation, the surreal and the everyday, and who crafts the experiences into instantly memorable tunes. As the subdudes’ lead guitarist, he punctuates soulful, heart-felt vocals with playing that is at turns joyful, incendiary, melancholic. He’s been writing and playing music for more than three decades and knows how to put on a show.

10.08
Brian Culbertson

Brian Culbertson’s steady stream of top albums and hit singles should come as no surprise since he began playing the piano at the age of 8, which he went on to master, along with the trombone, drums and bass. Since his debut album release in 1994, Culbertson has recorded on and/or produced over 25 chart-topping records in musical styles that have moved from R&B throwdowns to New Age lullabies. That rare eclecticism also informs the abundance of styles that animate his latest work, XII. One thing that this multi-talented man’s fans can rest assured of is that, with twelve albums and counting, Brian Culbertson always brings his very best – and the very best out of others – in all of his broad-ranging musical endeavors.