Open to all. Signup begins at 7:30pm, show starts at 8pm.

Dallas Wesley has been creating a lot of buzz lately with his Hank Williams performance in the Live Arts production of Lost Highway. If you’ve seen him as Hank, you know what a consumate musician and singer he is…and now’s your chance to see Dallas Wesley as Dallas Wesley. Soulful, melodic, with a voice that knows no limitations and and ear for a tune that will keep you humming for days-that is the real Dallas Wesley. Guest musicians back him up for an evening of folk, pop, and americana music. The show starts at 8pm/$5.

www.myspace.com/johndallaswesley.

Dr. Levine and The Dreaded Blues Lady is comprised of Lorie Strother on vocals and Stephen Levine on guitar. This energetic duo performs a diverse selection of acoustic blues music styles primarily from the 1920s and 1930s with a sprinkling of contemporary blues.

Lorie Strother can’t remember a time when she wasn’t singing because it came so naturally, but she does remember when she decided she would be a performer. It was when she received her first standing ovation after singing at a school PTA function when she was nine years old. Strother has been performing and recording her interpretation of acoustic blues since the early 1990s. Strother’s blues influences include artists such as Bessie Smith, Memphis Minnie, and Sippie Wallace. Corey Harris has called Strother “a real blues woman [who's] got soul,” Living Blues Magazine described her singing as “assertive, expressive and sensitive,” Carl Larsen of the Daily News Leader states that Lorie “sings the real true bluesâ�¦with a big booming, bluesy voice.”

Stephen Levine is a historian at the University of Virginia who studies and teaches about the evolution and cultural significance of blues music. Levine started playing the guitar when he was eleven years old focusing primarily on folk and classic rock. After his first listen to Robert Johnson’s Crossroad Blues in the mid 1990s he became obsessed with classic pre-war blues. Levine’s blues influences include artists such as Charley Patton, Son House, John Hurt, and Robert Johnson. Patrick Bagley of the Franklin Journal describes Stephen’s guitar playing as “powerful” with “biting slide guitar work.”

Cannery Row brings us an alternative folk-americana sound with a newgrass twist. With special guest Kris Wright.

8pm/$5.

Listen at www.myspace.com/canneryrowmusic

With a wide range of cover material ranging from Johnny Cash to John Mayer and a wide collection of original songs ranging from the ridiculous to the sublime, Billy’s high energy performance, manic guitar playing and distinctive vocals (reminiscent of Bruce Springsteen and John Hiatt) have been winning over audiences up and down the east coast.

Bill Staton and Mitch Russell make up the guitar/mandolin duo known as the Stump Skunks, bringing us a mix of country and americana covers with an original flair.

The show starts at 8pm/$5.

Listen at www.billycaldwell.com.

Funky, homegrown and hot…

The Avant Gardeners are fiddler and vocalist Laura Light, George Paul
on piano and accordion, Dave Wiesler on keyboards, guitar and mandolin
and Jubal Creech on percussion. The tunes are eclectic, original and rootsy - American hybrid variety.

The deep grooves of the band’s mixture of traditional and composed tunes have contributed to the delirium of dancers at countless dances and concerts from coast to coast. Their performing styles range from traditional swing to Celtic and old time, and their facile improvisation on fiddle, piano, accordion, guitar, mandolin, and percussion have given this group their reputation as one of the premier contra and swing dance bands in the country.

The show starts at 8pm.

8pm, open to all. Signup begins at 7:30pm.

Trees On Fire may draw their inspiration from Radiohead and the Beatles, but the result is a sound that cannot be compared to any other. The band uses three-part harmonies, rock/funk/reggae-based originals, and covers ranging from traditional klezmer to Kings of Leon. Come dance, come listen, come find out why they have one of the fastest-growing fanbases in Central Virginia.

About Astronomers, reviewers say:

“As the name suggests, Charlottesville quartet Astronomers favor an expansive, stargazing sound. Guitars circle like satellites through eccentric, chiming orbits. Though the bright, busy tones get exotic and ethereal enough to suggest shoegazers, they’re much more restrained, grounded in a straightforwardly melodic sensibility … Frontman Nate Bolling’s moody baritone croon could definitely find a home across the pond, but the jagged churn of tracks like “Or Maybe It’s Nothing” melds post-punk slash to an elegant Britpop sweep. For a relatively new band they’re remarkably assured, with an impressively fanciful sound.”
—Chris Parker, IndyWeek.com
The show starts at 8pm/$7.

www.myspace.com/treesonfiremusic.

www.myspace.com/weareastronomers.

Driftwood Fire delivers folk-pop at its best; catchy, honest and poetically poignant. Lynn Scharf’s vocals are rich and emotive. Charlotte Formichella’s guitar and banjo parts are rootsy, inventive and pop-tastically ear-pleasing.

Driftwood Fire began performing together in 2007 and took on a legion of friendly fans. Their song Appalachian Hills won First Place in the 2007 International Narrative Song Competition and is also being considered for use on PBS’s Road Trip Nation. They are a 2007 Denver Blue Note singer/songwriter finalist, a VH-1 Suggested Artist and are included on the ‘Best of Live at Lunch” compilation CD from KRFC 88.9FM, a community radio station in Fort Collins, Colorado, Driftwood Fire’s home town.

Driftwood Fire keeps a busy national touring schedule and has had the great privilege of playing the 2009 Falcon Ridge Emerging Artist Showcase, the Rocky Mountain Folks Fest, the National Women’s Music Festival, and a Far-West Folk Alliance Premier Showcase.

With special guests Gwynne & the Civilians. This 12-year old vocalist has a voice that belies her years, a voice that emerges and expands and fills the room, and wraps around the Civilians’ alt-rock sound with perfect ease.

The show starts at 8pm/$5. Listen at www.driftwoodfire.com.