TheFourFour

The Show Report, 11/3: Talent you can afford

Posted on 03. Nov, 2009 by thederosh in Show Report

“It’s not very often we get songwriters into town and they’re not playing at Juanita K [Hammons Hall for the Performing Arts],” The Cropdusters‘ Jeb Venable said over the phone last night, and he’s quite right. Tonight is MO Murder Music night at Lindberg’s, where he and bandmate Brian Azevedo and Todd Balisle of The Bootheel team up to trade off stage time playing acoustic versions of songs they wrote. It’s a show that encourages special guests, but tonight’s guest gets a set all her own. Award-winning singer-songwriters on tour should get such things, and you benefit by not having to pay Hammons-Hall-level prices to see her.

Romi (pronounced RAW-me; how cool is that?) Mayes is in Springfield tonight, a Canadian songstress with a load of credentials in the country and Americana scene. The awards list alone is considerable:

Album of the Year and Songwriter of the Year – Western Canadian Music Awards, 2009

Album of the Year and Songwriter of the Year – Western Canadian Music Awards, 2007

Songwriter of the Year nominee – Canadian Folk Music Awards, 2006

Mayes has also performed with Ricky Skaggs, Guy Clark, The Flatlanders, Hayes Carll, Billy Joe Shaver and more. Enough name-dropping, though; click here to get a taste of the music for yourself. Combine that with the local talent onstage and you have a good night to tip a few back and fall in love with a well-written tune.

But wait, there’s more:

* The Magnificents!, Bent Left and The Dead Aheads at The Outland. Bent Left joins the fray from Kansas City, complementing the first Magnificents set we have seen in a while. The Dead Aheads, we hear, are working on new material, too; could some of it surface tonight?

* Makeout at Tonic Ultralounge. Is there a hotter early-week party in this city right now? Is there another early-week party in this city at all? Does anyone else but the Black Box Revue crew have the audacity to attempt such a thing? The answer to all is no.

Tags: bent left, black box revue, bootheel, brian azevedo, concerts, cropdusters, dead aheads, four four, fourfour, jeb venable, kansas city, lindberg's, live, local, magnificents, makeout, mo murder music, music, outland, romi mayes, shows, springfield, thefourfour.com, Todd Balisle, tonic, tuesday