This Week in Milwaukee: January 26- February 1, 2023

Here are the Milwaukee events we are looking forward to coming up this week.

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Milwaukee County Library Shelfie Week Photo Contest, Victoria Victoria featuring guitar maverick Charlie Hunter, Jared James Nichols returns, Woodland Pattern’s 29th Poetry Marathon, The Best Westerns, Phil Cook, Virginia Woolf and more—This Week in Milwaukee!

Thursday, Jan. 26

Library Shelfie Week Photo Contest

Love the library? Milwaukee County is home to 27 great ones, all funded by taxpayers. Now through Sunday, Jan. 29, get into the picture and upload your best photos from your favorite spot at any Milwaukee County public library. Winning entries will receive prizes. More info at  mcfls.org/library-shelfie-contest.

Victoria Victoria featuring Charlie Hunter @ Shank Hall, 8 p.m.

Victoria Victoria’s singer Tori Elliot said, “By the time that I got in the studio with Charlie, it just felt like an arrival, musically,” she said. “It felt like my voice was sitting where I always wanted it to be sitting.” That would be virtuoso Charlie Hunter, who plays bass lines, chords, and melodies on seven and eight-string guitars. Paying back the compliment, Hunter says, “Tori’s work is remarkable because it accomplishes the feat of being accessible but really honest and authentic at the same time, which is rare,” Hunter said. “I just loved being a part of her process.”

Friday, Jan. 27

Sleepersound w/Dramatic Lovers and Moritat @ X-Ray Arcade, 6:30 p.m.

Last week Sleepersound provided the recorded soundtrack for the public art installation called Lightfield at Cathedral Square Park shepherdexpress.com/culture/visual-art/lightfield-new-public-art-installation-brightens-winter-mont/ and now they are performing in the flesh. The dream-pop band traffics in meadows of sound not far away from German psychedelic and Pink Floyd soundtrackium. The group is helmed by drummer-producer Dan Niedziejko, who just might stick around until midnight for a birthday salute.

Dramatic Lovers take their name from a violence-prone group of World War I-era anarchists that haunted the very same Milwaukee neighborhood that the band calls home. The band played their first show at the Cactus Club, the exact building in which the anarchists gathered a hundred years before. Sometimes called art rock and avant pop, Morita rounds out the evening.

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Saturday, Jan. 28

Jared James Nichols @ Lilliput Records, 1 p.m. and The Miramar Theatre, 6 p.m.

East Troy-native Jared James Nichols career trajectory continues upward. In 2021 Epiphone released a signature model guitar and Blackstar released a signature amplifier. The blues rocker recently released a new self-titled album. Saturday afternoon’s in-store appearance at Lilliput Records will be followed by a concert at the Miramar Theatre.

Tom West w/Rich Travis at Var Gallery, 7:30 p.m.

Tom West is a singer-songwriter with a distinctive, androgynous vocal style who writes catchy, tender folk songs often embellished with ambitious arrangements and cinematic flair. American Songwriter said ‘“A Folk Singer from Outer Space’ somehow offers some soothing solace for the current, permeating state of loss and isolation.” Opener Rich Travis’ hypnotic Blues-Folk toys with the molecules of time, unravelling the simplest of melodies.

2023 Poetry Marathon @ Woodland Pattern Book Center, 10 a.m. (Also Sunday.)

Riverwest’s Woodland Pattern Book Center hosts its 29th Annual Poetry Marathon, which will take place virtually and will feature more than 300 poets of all ages, as well as contributions from musicians and moving image artists, from Milwaukee and around the globe.

In addition to the virtual program, several watch parties are being organized across the city and beyond. On Saturday, January 28, Milwaukee audiences can view the Marathon at Black Husky Brewing from 12 to 6 pm. On Sunday, January 29, from 4-7 pm, Woodland Pattern will host its own watch party and potluck, followed by a final viewing party at 5 Points Art & Gallery and Studios from 7-10 pm. Sheboygan residents can also gather to watch the Marathon at Paradigm Coffee & Music from 12-3 pm on Sunday, January 29.

The Poetry Marathon serves as Woodland Pattern’s most important fundraiser, providing fuel for more than 400 literary and other arts programs in the year ahead.

The Best Westerns @ Circle A, 8 p.m.

Performing at the civilized hour of 8 p.m., world-class purveyors of western swing, the Best Westerns blur the lines of tidy musical genres. But don’t let their aw shucks-politeness fool you, this crew can cut the best musicians in town; there are no slouches in this band. Bassist Mark Hembree spent half a decade touring with founder of Bluegrass, Bill Monroe and steel guitarist Eddie Rivers has returned to Wisconsin from his years of playing with Asleep at the Wheel.

Sunday, Jan. 29

Phil Cook @ Tra La La (2330 S. Burrell St.), 7 p.m.

Recorded at NorthStar Church of the Arts in Durham, NC, Phil Cook’s new solo instrumental album All These Years has been described as “near hymn-like, a collection of prayers or meditations, improvisations threaded together by feeling, by the things that matter most. When Cook began these songs, he was in the headspace of meditating on the people in his support network, and those closest to him.”

With a resume that includes Megafaun, DeYarmond Edison, Blind Boys of Alabama and Kanye West, here is a chance to catch the Wisconsin native in an intimate setting. More info here: facebook.com/events/1166562933966051.

Monday, Jan. 30

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf @ Milwaukee Chamber Theatre

Perhaps best known as the wonderful and cringe-worthy film of a boozy late night that pitted Elizabeth Taylor against Richard Burton, (at the time a couple in real life), returns to the stage, in Edward Albee’s play where a younger couple step into the middle of a trainwreck.

 On the campus of a small New England college, long-married George and Martha invite an opportunistic new professor and his stunningly naïve wife home for a nightcap following a faculty mixer.

As the cocktails flow, the young pair find themselves caught in the crossfire of a savage marital war between one of the most legendarily dysfunctional couples ever created. As the combatants attack the self-deceptions they’ve forged for their own survival, the enormous secrets at the foundation of their relationship slowly emerge in this hilarious and harrowing classic that forever changed the face of the American theater. Through Feb. 2

Tuesday, Jan. 31

Hallowtribe w/Cabin Essence @ Storyhill Firehouse, 6:30 p.m.

The Originally Wisconsin Series features an evening of ‘60s- inspired music with sets from Cabin Essence and Hallowtribe. Nick Mass from Cabin Essence will be sitting in with Hallowtribe, whose John Justus will return the favor.

Wednesday, Feb. 1

“Dino! An Evening with Dean Martin” @ Stackner Cabaret

Effortlessly charming and charismatic, Dean Martin rose from humble immigrant roots to embody the definition of cool as a Rat Pack heartthrob and one of America's most adored entertainers. “Dino!” transports the audience to a hip ‘70s club where – accompanied by his signature drink in hand—the "King of Cool" entertains all by weaving personal stories with a smorgasbord of classic hits including “Ain’t That a Kick in the Head,” “Everybody Loves Somebody,” “That's Amore” and more. Though March 19.

Leslie Vansen: “Musculature of the Line: @ Saint Kate - The Arts Hotel

Michael Muckian had this to say about the exhibit at MOWA DTN (Museum of Wisconsin Art Downtown)” In [Leslie] Vansen’s work, the simple line has definition, depth, weight, and history. It represents life’s natural order, while at the same time disrupting the way we see and understand life. The line defines the nature of Vansen’s paintings and drawings, while struggling against the restrictions the artist has placed on its own stubborn expressiveness.” shepherdexpress.com/culture/visual-art/mowa-exhibit-explores-the-musculature-of-the-line/  Through April 2.