Briefs

Alabama Delta Blues Festival

Date: April 14-15, 2007 with gates at 1 p.m. on April 14 and 12:30 p.m. on April 15

Venue: 5 Rivers Delta Resource Center, 30945 5 Rivers Blvd., 625-0814

Tickets: Free on April 14, $12 on April 15 through www.frontgatetickets.com or at the gate

Blues lovers will have a chance to get down and dirty on the Causeway at the first ever Alabama Delta Blues Festival at 5 Rivers Delta Center on Alabama State lands in Spanish Fort.

On Saturday, legendary Richard Johnston takes the stage for a free show. Johnston placed first at the 2001 International Blues Challenge and earned the Albert King Award for most promising blues guitarist. The PBS documentary “Richard Johnston: Hill Country Troubadour” will be shown in the days prior to the festival at the 90-seat, state-of-the-art Tensaw Theater at 5 Rivers.

Sunday brings two superb artists. Shemekia Copeland broke out when she was only 18 years old with the release of “Turn up the Heat” which led to a Grammy nomination in 2000 for “Wicked.”

Also performing Sunday will be Tab Benoit. Benoit won the 2006 Blues Music Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album for his release on Telarc “Brother to the Blues.” There is also an Imax documentary on Benoit in the works called “Hurricane on the Bayou 2007,” which presents his life as an up and coming blues legend.

Sound Tribe Sector 9

Date: Wednesday, April 18, 2007 with doors at 8 p.m.

Venue: Soul Kitchen, 219 Dauphin St., 433-5958, www.soulkitchenmobile.com

Tickets: $17 in advance, $20 day of show with $1 of each ticket going to charity, tickets available at Soul Kitchen, on their website and Mellow Mushroom

With roots reaching deep into the South, STS9 made their way to California to establish a presence on the jam scene. Schooled in the new sounds of jam, STS9 mixes rock, electronica, funk, jazz and hip-hop to create a sound heavy on improvisation.

This band is a prime example of the evolution of their genre by accepting no boundaries to instrumentation and presentation. Each of their live performances is a unique experience. Their set-lists may change dramatically from show to show featuring “remixes” of their songs at any moment. This makes every STS9 performance one of a kind.

This characteristic has made them golden boys of festivals like Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza and Coachella. They even earned the respect of Perry Farrell (Jane’s Addiction) who thought that STS9 “speaks to the future.”

STS9 doesn’t rely exclusively on the CD releases to satisfy their fans. Currently, they have two live albums and six studio releases. With their unique style of improvisation, they have released two remixed versions (one only available on iTunes) of their 2005 release “Artifact.”

STS9 has an abundance of DVD releases that feature their live performances. These visual representations are just as popular with their fans as their studio releases.

The Mobile music scene is pumping out some new sounds in the form of Dream Journal. This roots rock outfit features a diversity of instrumentation with Neil Weisman (guitar, flute, keyboards, harp, lead vocals), Roy Clark of American Suicide and Hush Hush Revolution fame (guitar, harp, lead and backing vocals), Billy Hays (bass, sax and vocals) and Chuck Boenisch (drums and percussion). All are accomplished musicians, and Dream Journal has been playing for a year. So, why hasn’t the public got a taste of these guys yet?

“We have been concentrating on our album rather than gigging because we have all done the ‘cover’ thing long enough, and it’s time to see what the world has to offer rather than being another Mobile cover band,” Boenisch explains. Their debut album is set to hit the streets in the coming months. Until then, you can catch them at the American Heart Association Benefit concert Friday, April 20 at 5 p.m. at Springhill Medical Center.

Hot duo in the Kitchen

Soul Kitchen in association with Wagatail Productions plans on packing the house with two confirmed stellar concerts that everyone will be talking about. Tickets are on sale now for a performance from none other than George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic. When the Godfather of Funk and his cronies take the stage, it’s a non-stop funkalistic party that only stops when its psychedelic master says it’s time. Their Bayfest performance drew a multitude of funky disciples and kept them movin’ and groovin’ long after the other bands had wrapped up their sets.

Soul Kitchen and Wagatail will do it again on June 12 when underground rockers Clutch arrives in the Port City. Some people are under the impression that improvisation is only for jam bands. Clutch is proving those people wrong with their sound that has earned classifications ranging from stoner rock to hardcore punk. They are touring in support of their latest album “From Beale Street to Oblivion.” Joining them will be The Tossers and Year Long Disaster. The Tossers are guaranteed to be a crowd favorite with a mix of Irish Folk and punk reminiscent of Flogging Molly and the Dropkick Murphy’s.

Yes, yes, baby

Rumor has it Vanilla Ice is planning on making a stop at Cell Block in the near future. Despite stories of his street cred embellished with physical threats from Suge Knight, Vanilla Ice as made his way back into a limelight of sorts with his stint on VH1’s “The Surreal Life.” He has also continued making music with his release “Platinum Underground” available to the public on CDBaby.com.

“Wanderlusty” star in OGD

Americana Folk superstar Abi Tapia will be making a stop at Callaghan’s before heading back into the studio to record her third album, a follow-up to the widely popular release “One Foot out the Door” that spent four weeks in the Top 40 of the American Airplay Chart. True to its title, “One Foot out the Door” is a collection of original music dealing with love and its demise.

Her upcoming album was written during her travels across the nation and Tapia plans to focus it on her youth.

Stephen Centanni is Lagniappe music editor. Contact him at scentanni@lagniappemobile.com.

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