Friday, June 14
Chris Haise Band Album Release w/ Zach Pietrini, Cullah and The Comrades @ Anodyne Coffee Roasting Co., 7 p.m.
The title cut of the Chris Haise Band’s sophomore album Suburban View updates the lyrical question, “there is something going on here and you don’t know what it is, do you, Mr. Jones?” No surprise, considering Haise has long studied in the halls of Bob Dylan and Randy Newman.
Engage Haise in conversation and you get a young guy who is well-versed in the humanist side of current politics and admits he has more questions than answers. Which, coupled with his prodigious musical gifts, makes Haise the ideal ear on the ground.
The Earls of Leicester w/ Jerry Douglas @ Turner Hall, 7 p.m.
The Earls of Leicester began as something of a tribute to the legacy of Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys. Any band led by dobro master Jerry Douglas is going to be respected, and fiddler Johnny Warren plays the same violin his dad played when he was a member of the Foggy Mountain Boys. But keep an eye and ear on de-facto frontman Shawn Camp. As versatile and talented as they come, Camp is a virtuoso flatpicker who co-wrote songs with the late Guy Clark. Music fans still talk about the Milwaukee house concert he played at the Jahnke Loft Series.
King Courteen @ Colectivo at the Lake, 7 p.m.
Growing up, King Courteen’s family surrounded him with music. The songwriter nailed his craft busking and as a fixture at local open mics. A noted woodworker, he is also one of the few people you will meet who took their moniker in honor of a Milwaukee building. Colectivo at the Lake’s Friday Nite Music Series, showcasing local singer-songwriters, runs through Aug. 30.
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Wobblyhead 20 Reunion Show w/ Def Harmonic, Signaldrift, Casino Versus Japan, DJs OneF, Rob Sevier and Old Man Malcolm @ Cactus Club, 9 p.m.
Rich Menning has contributed a lot to Milwaukee. Currently an MPS educator, his long-gone music store, Atomic Records, was a cultural nexus (though no one ever called it that) serving as, among other things, a source of employment for musicians, fanzine publishers and incubator for Wobblyhead, the record label started by Atomic employees Jeff Baumann, Mark Moore and Erik Kowalski. It will be interesting to hear the evolution of the sounds and music performed by these artists that began as personal projects and gained the label a well-earned following as the years went by.
Saturday, June 15
Mary Rodgers Album Release and Bailey Dee @ Pabst Milwaukee Brewery & Taproom, 9 p.m.
Milwaukee’s loss was Nashville’s gain. WAMI award-winning saxophonist Mary Rodgers played with ska band The Invaders, greasy roots-rockers the Uptown Savages, Midwest Death Rattle and Dead Man’s Carnival before moving to Music City. She returns for the release of her debut album, To the Ghost of Mary Rodgers...
Sunday June, 16
Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit w/ Father John Misty and special guest Jade Bird @ BMO Harris Pavilion, 6 p.m.
Jason Isbell may be one of the best songwriters of his generation whose literate, succinctly crafted songs gain depth with each listen. Likewise, his wicked guitar playing gets to the point both loudly electric and delicately fingerpicked. Father John Misty is a performance artist or pop music shape-shifter, his history pockmarked with false signals that lead to question marks, dead ends or therapy sessions. He’s been compared to John Lennon, Leonard Cohen and writer Philip Roth—all known for refracting their life in their publicly released work.
Tuesday, June 18
Chill on the Hill w/ Rose of the West and Trapper Schoepp with York Bishop @ Humboldt Park Band Chalet, 6 p.m.
Every Tuesday through August 27, the Bay View natural amphitheater is home to a wide swath of the city’s best local music. Family friendly, pet-friendly, populated with local food trucks and beer vendors, the weekly gathering has grown each year. This week kicks off with dreamy synth-pop band Rose of the West made up by Gina Barrington, Thomas Gilbert, Erin Wolf, Cedric LeMoyne and Dave Power. The band “loosely threads dark and brooding strands throughout its newest songs to bind its temperate-but-temperamental style of pop.” The result, a “technicolor” taste of pop with a hint of dark shadows. Trapper Schoepp used his music to get him through his toughest times. The Milwaukee-based “tunesmith” wrote his way out of mental depths and self-questioning. “I was in a rut and these songs were my way of writing myself out.” His dedication has given himself a name amongst American singing storytellers.
