Don’t let the wonderful weather or your post-Tenacious D buzz cause you to forget about and miss Amy LaVere’s performance in town next week! The lovely and talented Memphis-based singer-songwriter is one of the more adventurous and interesting artists working within the broadly defined roots-music scene these days.
LaVere will play a free show at McMenamins Old St. Francis School on Wednesday. My colleague David Jasper caught up with her and they chatted about her desire to leave behind the drama and difficult circumstances (her producer died, her guitarist left for another band, her boyfriend/drummer split) that surrounded the making of her 2009 breakthrough album “Stranger Me.” Here’s an excerpt:
(Lavere is) ready to move on from the last record’s themes.
“I’m usually tired of talking about the songs after I’ve recorded them,” she said, laughing. “I’m really excited to have a new batch of tunes. I think the whole band is. We’ve worked so hard pushing with ‘Stranger Me’ we’ve been a little stale, I guess. Our material’s, like, rock-solid, and we play it really great, but I think we’re all looking to start playing some of the new challenging ones. That roller coaster’s really fun.”
Elsewhere in this week’s music section: Texas trouabdour Ray Wylie Hubbard, Western swing kings Asleep At The Wheel, indie rockers Little Owl, indie-folders The Marrow, banjo master Bill Evans, pianist Mike Strickland, Carolina bashers Angwish, bass ‘n’ beat makers Jantsen and Papa Skunk, a Last Band Standing update, and a handful of photos of last week’s concerts at Les Schwab Amphitheater. (By the way, here’s my review of the concerts and a bunch more photos from each one.)
Tags: Amy LaVere, Angwish, Asleep at the Wheel, Bill Evans, Jantsen, Little Owl, Mike Strickland, Papa Skunk, Ray Wylie Hubbard, The Marrow
