Sounds Good: Buddy Guy & Jonny Lang@Uptown, Truckstop Honeymoon@Replay, Reverend Horton Heat@Crossroads

This weekend is the calm before the storm…

The storm being next week, a holiday week that has killer shows virtually every night.

By virtue of the 4th being on Wednesday it seems like everyone is treating the entire week as a holiday, in particular the Crossroads.  They have a bunch of shows including Yonder Mountain String Band, Fitz and the Tantrums, Dark Star Orchestra, and Death Cab for Cutie. 

But that’s not to say there are no quality shows to check out before then. 

For example….

Wednesday, June 27^th

Buddy Guy & Johnny Lang at the Uptown in KC

This old and new combo pairs a legend with a youngster who really seems like a seasoned vet. Probably because, at just 31 years old, Jonny Lang has been in the spotlight for nearly two decades. He exploded out of the gate at age twelve, signed to A&M Records at 15, and had a multi-platinum album at 16. He’s one of the premier axe-men around today, obviously, or else why would Buddy Guy be towing him around?

And of course, what needs to be said about Buddy other than he is a national treasure, one of the top guitarists of the last 50 years, and considered as THE influence for the likes of Stevie Ray Vaughan, Clapton, and Jimi Hendrix. Do you really need more convincing?

Saturday, June 30^th

3^rd Annual Fish Fry at the Replay in Lawrence featuring Truckstop Honeymoon & Jason Eklund

Downtown Lawrence should be packed this weekend with the Tour of Lawrence bike race among other things. So if you’re out and about Saturday afternoon and in search of an ice cold beverage and a nice patio to relax on, look no further than the Replay, which boasts one of the best patios on Mass. Street. And probably the biggest one, too.

I’m told the fish will start frying around 3 and the bands will start around 6. Jason Eklund is a singer-songwriter type from Tennessee who has one of the worst websites I’ve ever seen. Check it: http://www.jasoneklund.com/ Maybe he’s going for that “I-don’t-care-about-promotion-let-the-music-speak-for-itself thing.”

And of course we’re all familiar with Truckstop, the husband-wife dirt duo with catchy songs about white trash livin’. But don’t let that fool you. Their songs are spit-polished to a shiny luster with spot-on harmonies and soulful yawps that have made these guys one of Lawrence’s best over the past few years. Best enjoyed with a cheap beer on ice with lemon or lime, right hipsters?

Reverend Horton Heat, Lucero, & Mountain Sprout at Crossroads KC

We all know the Reverend by now, right? He was in town this past February at the Bottleneck when I wrote this:

“How does one describe the good Reverend? It’s not as easy as you think. Well, let’s see, he kind of created the genre now known as psychobilly. What’s psychobilly you ask? Umm, it’s kind of a punk, country, swing, rockabilly, metal, big band type of deal. Got it?”

Needless to say the Reverend is truly an ORIGINAL, one that any real music fan needs to see live at least once. So there’s that. But I’m really looking forward to Lucero, a country tinged roots Americana band out of Memphis who released an album earlier this year called Women & Work. Now that is one grizzled album title.

Paste’s Kristen Blanton gave the album a 6.3 rating (do we really need the .3?) and had this to say:

“It’s been a long time since 1998, and with the growing years Lucero’s sound has evolved from their identifying restrained playing to a sonic layering comprised of vibrating guitars, joyous horns and quicktime keys… The six-piece has restrained its punk traditions on this 2012 album, bridging the transition between the shadow of the past and the prospects for the anti-pop future.”