Todd Wolfson

Alejandro Escovedo
Off Broadway
May 15, 2012

Storytelling is a craft that is formulated through years of experience and must be as finely tuned as a guitar. Spirited rock & roll is the backdrop to Alejandro Escovedo's heartfelt and sincere storytelling. Last night in St. Louis, he bared his soul, shared gritty details of writing and recording, and thanked his fans -- all while wearing a warm smile and strumming his guitar.

St. Louis guitar legend Jimmy Griffin pulled double duty as the opener and then as one of the stellar cast of St. Louis musicians acting as Escovedo's backing band.

Despite the crowd at Off Broadway both onstage and on the floor, Escovedo created an intimate atmosphere, one conducive to his prolific style of performance and telling of tales. Many musicians feel obligated to talk between songs and fill every quiet space with unnecessary banter or awkward retellings of nonsensical stories, but Escovedo's quips invited you in to his 30-plus years as a musician. Exuberance, in both the crowd and the band, was plentiful and intensified with each iteration of Alejandro Escovedo -- starting with a four-song "set" of acoustic tunes, roaring in to the full band version of songs (including new ones from the upcoming album Big Station) and ultimately ending after three encores.

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Photo by Getty Images

Playing music in general takes some guts. Doing it alone takes even more, and making a record of instrumental unoccupied guitar moves a musician from the "gutsy" category to "ballsy." Here is the list of six best solo guitar albums. Feel free to let us know what your favorite solo guitar record is, but bring a friend for support.

6. Christopher Trull - Boxes of Dead Things
Click here to download or stream this album from Dead Language Records

Local guitarist Christopher Trull, formerly of Grand Ulena and currently of Yowie, recorded the instrumental record Boxes of Dead Things for no other reason than to get ideas out of his head and onto tape. The result is surprisingly beautiful, considering Trull's abstract pedigree. Each consonant moment simply aches, and each knotty melody slithers mischievously. Christopher Trull is not only one of our city's best-kept secrets, he's also one of the most inventive musicians alive.

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The 2012 Riverfront Times Music Showcase is a month away. And if that is our own St. Louis Music holiday, then consider this the season: Over the next month, we'll be making our cases for all 125 bands and artists nominated for an RFT Music Award this year. Each weekday between now and the showcase on June 2, we'll introduce the nominees from one or more of our 25 categories. For each artist you will find a photo, a streaming track to sample and a few words from the staff at RFT Music.

Vote for all categories at the official 2012 RFT Music Showcase Reader's Poll.

Previously
Chamber Pop
Metal
Folk
Electronic/Dance
Americana
New Band
Singer-Songwriter

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There are plenty of musicians who died before getting definitive time in the musical spotlight. Tega -- a rapper who was affiliated with Nelly's St. Lunatics -- is sadly in that category, as he passed on while he was in the midst of climbing the musical ladder.

Tega -- whose real name was Oretga Devon Henderson -- was part of Da Camp, a rap group that often performed with Nelly and Murphy Lee. By 2009 the group had put out some mixtapes and was in the process of completing a full-length album.

But by the end of May of that year, Tega had died after succumbing to injuries sustained in a shooting.

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Meditate on the metaphysical with Active Child this Thursday at the Firebird. Pat Grossi combines ethereal falsettos and swelling harmonies with billowing harp that floats over an electronic horizon. Deer Tick is four albums deep into its catalogue, and now come with David Letterman's approval. The band makes rock n' roll that could comfortably tread over a dirt path. See them at The Firebird on Wednesday. Shows are happening elsewhere this week as well; check a few of them out below.

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Roy Kasten

Steve Winwood at the Peabody

Steve Winwood | Bobby Long
May 14, 2012
Peabody Opera House

As go case studies in paying respects to the elder statesmen of rock & roll, there are worse fates than fourth-row tickets (so what if they're far orchestra right?) to Steve Winwood at the Peabody Opera House. Unlike many of the retirement-countdowners in attendance, I never tripped out to Blind Faith or Traffic, and unlike some of my fellow middle-agers I didn't lose my virginity to Arc of a Diver (that would be Sade's Diamond Life). I have no history with Winwood, save that I know how hard the Spencer Davis Group could rock.

Could Winwood at the recently-turned age of 64?

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No, this is not super exclusive footage of Hologram Freddie Mercury. But sometimes archive footage does more to preserve a memory of deceased musician than a special effects trick.

A few days after Tupac Shakur came back from New Mexico appeared as a "hologram" during last month's Coachella festival, cynics wondered aloud about the optical illusion becoming a trend. Somebody even put together a humorous "poster" advertising next year's show, which consisted exclusively of either bands with deceased members or performers who have long since passed away.

Anybody who dismissed such a prophecy as far-fatched was probably a little taken aback when Queen announced it would use an optical illusion of Freddie Mercury to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the musical We Will Rock You. According to BBC interview with Queen guitarist Brian May, members of the band had been planning the special effect:

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For as long as tattooed cool kids have piled onto stages and jammed their little hearts out, there have been jerks in the crowd spewing bad vibes and threatening to ruin everyone's night. Whether it's the grown man who throws elbows at teenagers to get to the front, the drunk couple who's dry-humping and/or fighting throughout the set, the person heckling the opener for no good reason or the guy yelling at the solo performer to play that one hit from his other band, there will always be that self-absorbed idiot who lacks concern for anyone's show-going experience but his or her own.

But it's 2012, so those inconsiderate showgoers have smart phones. These amazing, near-magical devices that allow us to check-in, Tweet our friends to find them at the show and sometimes even pay our tabs, can not only make our lives easier and more fun, but allow us to record and document every minute of our mundane existences.

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The 2012 Riverfront Times Music Showcase is a month away. And if that is our own St. Louis Music holiday, then consider this the season: Over the next month, we'll be making our cases for all 125 bands and artists nominated for an RFT Music Award this year. Each weekday between now and the showcase on June 2, we'll introduce the nominees from one or more of our 25 categories. For each artist you will find a photo, a streaming track to sample and a few words from the staff at RFT Music.

Vote for all categories at the official 2012 RFT Music Showcase Reader's Poll.

Previously
Metal
Folk
Electronic/Dance
Americana
New Band
Singer-Songwriter

More >>

Active Child - Thursday @ the Firebird

This weekend is the much-anticipated release party(s) for Tower Groove Records' new Double LP, which showcases heaping piles of superb local talent -- thirteen RFT Music Award nominees populate the must-have local compilation. The festivities take place over the course of three days and three venues, moving from El Lenador to Off Broadway to Mangia, and is sure to be the social event(s) of the season.

Speaking of local talent, this Friday also marks the release of Fister's newest release. The loud-is-law stoner / doom metal band has been pouring their blood sweat and tears into this latest offering -- blood mostly, which the band recently had removed from their veins, collected in vials, and mixed in with the ink used for said album's liner notes. Don't believe me? Lick the liner notes then, Mr. Skeptic, and look for that copper-y taste. Don't say we didn't warn ya.

The rest of this week's picks follow, including visits from Deer Tick, Mariachi El Bronx, Madeleine Peyroux and more.

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