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Photo courtesy of the artist
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Photo courtesy of the artist
Guitarist-songwriter-producer Ray Parker Jr., who began as a session guitarist with the likes of The Temptations, Stevie Wonder and The Spinners, comes to the Northern Lights Theater, highlighting this week in Milwaukee entertainment.
Thursday, Feb. 6
Paired featuring Katie Gabert and Jason Anderson @ VAR Gallery, 6 p.m.
Enjoy an evening of dinner, drinks and music as chef Katie Gabert (former Goodkind Chef de Cuisine, Riverside-Pabst sous chef) prepares Yucatecan-inspired dishes derived from her time spent cooking with her family from the Caribbean shores of Mexico. Expect a seafood-forward, nine-course menu including fried octopus and tea-marinated scallops, as well as handmade fresh pastas and breads. Musician Jason Anderson spent 2017 touring as guitarist-keyboardist for Strand of Oaks. He has been described as an “endearing singer-songwriter whose work is as anthemic as it is affecting.”
Ray Parker Jr. @ Northern Lights Theater, 8 p.m.
Guitarist-songwriter-producer Ray Parker Jr. began as a session guitarist playing behind The Temptations, Stevie Wonder, The Spinners, Gladys Knight & the Pips and other Motown acts. With his band Raydio, Parker had hits with “Jack and Jill,” “You Can’t Change That” and “A Woman Needs Love [Just Like You Do],” but he carved his name into the history books with the chart-topping song, “Ghostbusters,” from the movie of the same name.
Friday, Feb. 7
Johnny G w/ Jake Paul @ Shank Hall, 8 p.m.
John Gimler spent four years in Milwaukee playing keyboards in Jake Paul’s band before going solo and moving west. With his old boss opening, Gimler is celebrating the release of his sophomore album, One Red Rose Serenade. Gimler’s 2018 album, Riding the Wave, was a low-key acoustic collection of personal songs.
The Hungry Williams: Cedarburg First Friday @ Cedarburg Cultural Center, 6 p.m.
Hungry Williams was a New Orleans drummer with an unforgettable name and a serious jones for the mambo beat—that Spanish tinge of which Jelly Roll Morton spoke. Named for the man himself, the Milwaukee combo is piloted by second-generation drummer John Carr and fronted by vocalist Kelli Gonzalez. The Hungry Williams take note of how important it is to make an audience want to move. Picking and choosing from the corner where jazz and R&B met up, they take songs that both groove relentlessly on a dime and look to run off the rails.
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Abby Jeanne w/ Retoro @ Turner Hall, 8 p.m.
Here is the rescheduled concert that was cancelled when the January “blizzard that never happened” happened. Back in October, when Abby Jeanne returned to Milwaukee from her New York City work hideout, it was for the release of her cassette, Get You High. While she continues woodshedding for her next project, she makes a stop here to play new material for a hometown audience. Retoro’s spikey, angular sounds should provide for a kinetic pairing.
Ye Vagabonds @ the Irish Cultural and Heritage Center, 7:30 p.m.
Ye Vagabonds, brothers Diarmuid and Brían MacGloinn, hail from the rural town of Carlow on the southeast coast of Ireland. Their third album, The Hare’s Lament, is a collection of traditional Irish music that includes music learned from rare archive recordings of a grandfather they never met. Violin, bouzouki, guitar, mandolin, harmonium and fiddles provide instrumentation on folk songs about failed rebellions, lost love and the title cut, sung from the perspective of a wild hare.
Saturday, Feb. 8
Photo courtesy of the artist
JJ Grey & Mofro w/ Freddy & Francine @ Turner Hall, 8 p.m.
As easy as JJ Grey & Mofro’s music is to take in, it is difficult to pin down. It’s not retro, but it’s not modern either. Much like their Stax-Muscle Shoals forefathers, Mofro lays down a thick groove blending Hammond organ, Fender Rhodes piano, horns and harmonica. Like Otis Redding, Grey is a master of tension and release, building a song and stretching it out until it’s all but snapped and then doubling back for more frenzy. It helps to have songs as strong as “Country Ghetto,” where the audience sings along on cue as the band wades into the evening’s wall of swamp. As far back as his 2010 Milwaukee gig, Grey was preaching to the converted, playing for an audience of aging hipsters and bra-less, jam-band chicks enjoying an in-door preview of the festival season.
Seventh Annual Guitar Festival Concert @ Latino Arts, 7 p.m.
This performance will highlight winners of the Guitar Festival Competition and some of the world’s most talented guitarists, including soloist and chamber musician Elina Chekan, a native of Minsk, Belarus, and Cuban-born Rafael Padron, who is program director of classical guitar at the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami.
Sunday, Feb. 9
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Billy Don Burns w/ Liar’s Trial @ Kochanski’s Concertina Beer Hall, 2 p.m.
Billy Don Burns has worked with legends Merle Haggard, Johnny Paycheck, Harlan Howard and Hank Cochran. He has also seen prison bars from the inside. This matinee show gives Burns the opportunity to perform his outlaw country songs—tales from a guy who comes by them honestly. With songs filled with missteps and regret, Liar’s Trial should provide an updated take on Burn’s worldview.
