Critically acclaimed Indie Folk act Vandaveer returns after a successful stop here last year at the MidPoint Music Festival. The Washington, D.C.-based group was formed in 2006 by mastermind Mark Charles Heidinger, who has roots that put him closer to the heart of Americana music (born in Ohio and raised in Kentucky). The band has taken many forms since then, both in the studio and onstage, with a rotating cast of musicians fluttering in and out. One mainstay is singer Rose Guerin, who gives Vandaveer its magnetic harmonies.

Vandaveer — whose new Dig Down Deep album came out April 26 — performs a free show at 10 p.m. tonight at MOTR Pub. Opening is local AltFolk troupe Young Heirlooms, who are currently recording their first full-length and a music video (look them up soon on Kickstarter if you’d like to help the band release them).

Here's Vandaveer's clip for "Dig Down Deep," from the new album.



• In a more Metal mood? Then you can head to Bogart's for the Hed2Head Tour 2.0, featuring Hed PE and Mushroomhead (get it? "Hed" to "Head"?), along with Corvus, American Head Charge and Tenafly Viper. California's Hed PE mixes Punk, Metal and Hip Hop — to make what they call "G-Punk" — while Cleveland's Mushroomhead wear masks and make Electro-Industrial-strength Metal. The Mushers were formerly embroiled in a feud with another masked band — Slipknot — but ultimately both sides kissed and made up. Relations are just fine now, so much so that Corey Taylor has expressed an interest in launching a masked-bands tour featuring Slipknot, Mushroomhead, Mudvayne (part-time maskers) and GWAR.

Tickets for tonight's show are $20. Showtime is 7:30 p.m. Here is Mushroomhead's clip for the song "Come On."



• Georgia-born/NYC based Pop singer-songwriter Ron Pope brings his tour behind the new album Atlanta to Hamilton's Galaxy CDs this evening for a 7 p.m. performance. Joining Pope for the all-ages show are Josiah Leming and Jesse Ruben. Admission is $8.

Pope is a great example of the current climate wherein an artist can post a video on YouTube and within months be known around the globe. A very simple fan-made video of the break-up song "A Drop in the Ocean" has amassed an astonishing 18,201,114 hits (as of minutes ago) on the site. Pope scored a major label deal but, after just two singles, he backed out of it to remain independent. Since 2008, he has put out about a dozen recordings on his own and has been featured on numerous TV show soundtracks.  

Here's the clip that made Pope explode:



• Speaking of artists doing it for themselves, Roster McCabe is another group taking advantage of the increased ease of riding on the D.I.Y. route and actually being able to maintain a career as a musician. And they do it with a mix of old- and new-school promotions. The Minneapolis Rock/Reggae/Funk/Electro/Dance group is on pace to play 220 shows this year and, helping them do that, they've released all of their music for free via download on their website. Billboard calls the five-piece Jam scene up-and-comers one of "five up-and-coming jam bands that could draw audiences to the festivals of tomorrow."

Here's Roster McCabe doing their thang live and making all the people dance with their song "Stargazer" (joined by Steve Molitz of Particle and a collaborator of Cincy's own Freekbass). The group plays The Mad Frog in Corryville tonight with guests Grover.

Click here for more live music events tonight.

Tonight at Molly Malone's in Covington, guitar hero Bill Kirchen and his band Too Much Fun perform at 8 p.m. Tickets are $18.

Dubbed "The Titan  of the Telecaster," Kirchen hails from Ann Arbor, Mich., where he attended high school with Iggy Pop and Bob Seger. In the early ’70s, he played with Commander Cody's Lost Planet Airmen, forming Roots Rock band Too Much Fun a few years later in D.C. Along with his own albums, Kirchen has performed with Emmylou Harris, Link Ray, Doug Sahm and Elvis Costello (Costello, Nick Lowe, Maria Muldaur and a slew of other friends/fans joined him on his 2010 release, Word to the Wise).

Here is the title track (and Tele tribute) from Kirchen's 2007 album, Hammer of the Honky-Tonk Gods.

Tonight at The Drinkery on Main Street in Over-the-Rhine, excellent local Pop/Hip Hop/Rock crew Gold Shoes release its first long-player in conjunction with a free performance (the album is conveniently titled The Gold Shoes LP). The band was formed in 2009 and features MC vocals from rapper Buggs Tha Rocka (a great solo artist as well), Steven Shaefer on guitar/sax, Mike Weigand (keys), Kevin Johnson (bass), Tony Kuchma (drums/percussion) and singer/guitarist Archie Niebuhr. Gold Shoes has a magnetic, endearing sound that mixes Hip Hop and Rock with great hooks and touches of Jazz and Blues. Fun, cool stuff. You can purchase or give the album a preview spin online here.

Tonight's show starts at 9 p.m. and also features Vito Emmanuel, The Zoo Crew and DJ Sinceer.

Late last year, the band released the album's first single and video, "Trade Your Wings." More recently, they unveiled another great music video for the track "Barely Alive." Check 'em both out below.

At Mayday in Northside, widely acclaimed singer/songwriter Sharon Van Etten comes to town on her tour supporting her latest album, Tramp, which features contributions from members of The National (local boy-done-good Aaron Dessner produced the album), The Walkmen and Beirut. Van Etten spoke with Jason Gargano for this week's CityBeat about how the new album was her first attempt at serious collaboration, as well as what working with Dessner brought to the project and why she's been getting "dolled up" a little more lately ("A friend of mine once said, 'When I’m not feeling very confident I put on lipstick' and she just feels better. I kind of like that idea," she told CityBeat). Read the entire interview here.

Doors open at 8 p.m. tonight and, unlike most Mayday shows, there is an admission fee ($12). Opening the show is Flock of Dimes, the solo guise of Jenn Wasner of acclaimed group Wye Oak.

Here's a video from earlier this year of Van Etten performing songs from Tramp in NYC.



• Local rockers Messerly & Ewing present a really cool after-party for Building Value's annual fundraiser/design competition ReUse-apalooza in Northside (click here for details). Following the event, the M&E band will head to Northside Tavern to perform a special tribute to R.E.M.'s 1988 album, Green.

The band has some really unique swag to auction off for the cause (get a look at some examples here) and R.E.M.'s official website even gave the event some attention. To help M&E perform the album, they'll be joined by a slew of special guests: Mike Fair (Adventure Seekers), John Erhardt (Wussy, Ass Ponys), Chris Comer (Chris Comer Trio), Pete Janidlo (Clifford Nevernew, Seven Speed Vortex), Tricia Suit (Seven Speed Vortex) and poet Nick Barrows (Eagle to Squirrel). Wussy and Shiny and the Spoon will also do what's being called "R.E.M. album inspired performances."

Showtime is 10 p.m. and it's free to attend. Here's the whole album to get you in the mood.



Click here for even more live music events going on around town tonight.

If you were hoping to walk up and buy tickets to check out tonight's show at the Taft Theatre featuring the Grammy-winning Tedeschi Trucks Band, skip the box office and "walk up" to a scalper because the Taft just sent out a press release announcing the show as a sell out. (Read what our Brian Baker had to say about the group here.)

If you do have tickets to tonight's 8 p.m. show (doors open at 7 p.m.), be sure to arrive on time to catch opener Shannon Whitworth (pictured). After a self-made Americana debut, the singer/songwriter's career began in earnest in 2009 when she went into the studio with producer Neilson Hubbard (who has worked with a slew of singer/songwriters, including Glen Philips, Garrison Starr and his pal Matthew Ryan). The two emerged with Water Bound, a lovely, eclectic album that touched on Blues, Jazz, Roots music and Rock.

Whitworth has a new album due this year in which she collaborates with Band of Horses' bassist Bill Reynolds (who has done behind the scenes work for The Avett Bros. and Lissie), so the evolution of Ms. Whitworth should be interesting to continue to watch.

Here's a clip of Whitworth performing live:

• Jazz trumpeter Scott Belck performs tonight at the Blue Wisp. Belck is the Director of Jazz Studies at University of Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music, where he succeeded retiring longtime department head Rick Van Matre a couple of years ago. Read our interview from last year with Belck here. For tonight's 7:30 performance at the Blue Wisp, Belck is joined by locals Rusty Holloway, Phil DeGreg and Jim Leslie. Admission is $5.

• The 2012 Tunes & Blooms music series at the Cincinnati Zoo concludes tonight with a 6 p.m. concert featuring Folk Rock crew The Turkeys and Americana ensemble Jake Speed & the Freddies. Admission is free but it costs $8 to park in a zoo lot. It might rain. Bring a hat.

Here's a clip from a documentary about late local outsider artist Raymond Thunder-Sky featuring Speed's song, "Raymond Thunder-Sky," especially audible towards the end. Looks and sounds like a great project.



Click here for more of tonight's live music events.

Paste magazine's "50 States Project" series singling out some of the best music in all of the states in America today posted its list of Ohio bands. Three Cincinnati acts — Bad Veins (in at No. 1!), Walk the Moon and Pomegranates — made the cut.

Here's the rundown of all the bands chosen in Paste's "10 Ohio Bands You Should Listen to Now." 

1. Bad Veins (Cincinnati)

2. The Black Swans (Columbus)

3. Cloud Nothings (Cleveland)

4. The Lighthouse and the Whaler (Cleveland)

5. Nick Tolford and Company (Columbus)

6. Old Hundred (Columbus)

7. Phantods (Columbus)

8. Pomegranates (Cincinnati)

9. Southeast Engine (Athens)

10. Walk the Moon (Cincinnati)

Listen to a track from each band and read what Paste has to say about Ohio here.

We've written a bit in the past about the new film-meets-music "One Shot Music Video" series, beautifully shot, black-and-white short films of various local musical acts shot at the historic Emery Theatre (which is back in action as a functional venue this weekend). Shot by world renowned photographer Michael Wilson with audio help from the musical duo Pop Empire, the clips are filmed in one continuous take (thus the name).

The project has started to take shape and is on a roll now. Pop Empire's Cameron Cochran reports that the series is now named for the venue — "The Emery Sessions" — and will be comprised of footage from 10 artists, all shot at the theater. It's a great way to not only spotlight local music, but also show off the theater in a great light.

Wilson and Pop Empire have completed a couple of videos for Daniel Martin Moore for the first of the series. The second in the series is Over the Rhine (longtime compadres of Wilson's, who has shot OTR album covers and promo shots — including the one above — since the band's very beginning). OTR is familiar with the surroundings; the band played the "preview party" hosted by The Requiem Project which re-introduced the 100-year-old theater to locals late last year.

Here's a clip of Over the Rhine's Linford Detweiler and Karin Bergquist performing "The Laugh of Recognition" from the twosome's latest album, The Long Surrender. (Click over to local blog Each Note Secure to check out another clip from the project.)



Cochran also runs the all-free, all-digital "record label" The Recording Label, which has issued stellar recordings by The Kickaways, Vacation, Sacred Spirits and Pop Empire. He says working on "The Emery Sessions" inspired him to give the label a more local-specific name. The Recording Label is now called Cincinnati Recording Service. Click here for the new site.

And here are a few words from Cochran on the Sessions and the label:

If we are consuming light then sound is accompanied by sight. Many musical performers understand this concept and will incorporate a visual component to their audio performance. The idea behind the "One Shot Music Video" is to approach music from the opposite direction. The audience approaches the music from a visual perspective first because whether they know it or not the first performance they see is the photographer's.  It is the photographer's eye that navigates them through the musical performance. The hidden live performance is the one done with the camera.

The Emery Theatre was the perfect place to begin our exploration of this relationship between listening and watching live musical performances. Each musician we have recorded and that we are going to record have a love for this amazing space and understands what the Emery Theatre means to our great city of Cincinnati. It is perhaps our own experiences working in this theatre and the pride that has developed for our hometown of Cincinnati that inspired us to change the name of The Recording Label to Cincinnati Recording Service. This name change is also a tip of the hat to another person who loved his city as well as the power that American music has to bring people together, Memphis' very own Sam Philips.

Though they hail from Minneapolis, Indie Pop duo Fort Wilson Riot list its "hometown" as "Our dear van Casandra," a nod to the pair's nomadic life as a D.I.Y. touring entity. Buzzed about after their appearance at last year's MidPoint Music Festival, the twosome (Amy Hager on vocals, keyboard, guitar and trumpet and Jacob Mullis on vocals, guitar and keyboards) returns to Cincinnati tonight for a free show at MOTR Pub. FWR has been noted for its dynamic approach, shifting around from Indie Folk to Garage Rock to Dance Pop and beyond.

Here's FWR's latest single, the Electro groovin' "For All the Little Things," taken from its split EP release with Minneapolis' Phantom Tails.



The show kicks off at 10 p.m. with openers Zoo Animal, stirring vocalist Holly Newsom's self-described "Minimalist Grunge Pop with heart" group, also from the Twin Cities and inspired by the likes of Julee Cruise, Keren Ann and another "Newsom," the harp-rockin' Joanna.

Here's the gauzy, woozy Zoo Animal track "Laying and Lying" from the recent seven-song EP Departure.

Canadian Alternative band Cowboy Junkies perform tonight at the 20th Century Theatre in Oakley. Formed in the mid-’80s, the group has been consistently critically acclaimed and have had a few moments of mainstream breakthrough, including its cover of The Velvet Underground's "Sweet Jane," a minor MTV hit in the late ’80s that was revived as part of the soundtrack to Natural Born Killers in 1994. The track was included on the 2008 compilation of Canada's finest, Rhino Records' Northern Songs: Canada's Best and Brightest (the album put the Junkies alongside Great White North greats like The Band, k.d. lang, Leonard Cohen and Broken Social Scene).

The past couple of years the Junkies have been issuing a string of releases under the "Nomad Series" banner, a nod to the group's freedom from a record label contract for the first time since their formative years in the mid-’80s, which has given them free reign on what they release, create and record. The group has used the series to get closer to its already close fans, keeping those interested posted on the progress of each project via their website. Now that all four volumes of the Nomad Series have been issued, the collection is available as a box set with lots of bonus features and a 52-page book.

Tickets for tonight's 8 p.m. show are $20-$30. Here's "Sweet Jane" and a track from Vol. 2 of the Nomad Series, which features all songs written by late singer/songwriter Vic Chesnutt, "We Hovered With Short Wings."

Our Steven Rosen spoke to the Junkies' Michael Timmins about the Junkies' connection to Cincinnati's like-minded Over the Rhine band. Read it here.

When the phrase “guitar hero” gets tossed around, it’s naturally in reference to some of the greatest six string figures in Rock history. But if there is a subset of that hallowed group — guitar heroes in waiting, as it were — then Natalie Wells surely deserves to be included on that hopefully short waitlist.

The Independence, Ky., native is quickly becoming one of the Greater Cincinnati area’s most powerful live forces with a guitar presence that stands shoulder to shoulder with some of the giants of Rock. A teenage student of the Blues, Wells felt an affinity for first generation masters like Skip James and Mississippi John Hurt and next gen ’60s acolytes like Johnny Winter, Big Brother’s Sam Andrews and James Gurley, Jimmy Page, Jimi Hendrix, Rory Gallagher and a host of others. Wells’ brilliance in her own guitar pursuits has been in her supernatural ability to absorb a rainbow of Blues and Rock influences and translate them through her own unique interpretive gifts. As she showed on her largely original debut, Mind the Gap, she may have learned from the greats but she’s much more interested in running the guitar flag a little farther up Rock & Roll Hill.

On her new mini-album, Live from Earth, Wells and her chugging rhythm section (bassist Curt Hall and drummer/vocalist Michael Hodges) offer up an all-cover set that simultaneously proves how much she loves her influences and demonstrates her translational power.

Live From Earth’s seven tracks represent just four factions of Wells’ estimable influences and they’re more than tangentially connected; Buddy Guy is one of the primary links between the old acoustic and new electric school of Blues, while Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix and Robin Trower represent those who most effectively reimagined the Blues in a Rock context. Wells injects swinging new life into Led Zep chestnuts “Heartbreaker/Living Loving Maid” and “What Is and What Should Never Be” while distilling Hendrix’s complex chemistry to a simpler but still impressive formula with her takes on “Stone Free/Third Stone From the Sun” and his avowed classic “Voodoo Chile.”

Wells finds the heart of Guy’s gentle “My Love is Real” and the soul of Trower’s blistering “Day of the Eagle,” all delivered with her fluidly original guitar stylings and a voice that is part husky Blues shouter, part Cher Pop powerhouse. Wells may still has a few minor vocal timing issues to fine tune, but Live on Earth is solid evidence that her guitar chops are cooked to perfection and ready to serve to a wider audience.

At this point, Natalie Wells’ guitar does not gently weep; it cries a bucket of tears, screams with passionate abandon, howls like a steroid-amped wolf and demands to be heard.