If it's seemed like Cincy Folk trio The Tillers haven't been as omnipresent on the local club scene this summer, that's because the group has been spending a lot more time on the road since the release of its sophomore album, By the Signs. The band has been playing clubs and festivals throughout the Midwest and East Coast but come home Thursday to open for Ramblin' Jack Elliott at the Southgate House.  

The problems in Haiti aren't going to end anytime soon, so thankfully the stream of local Haitian relief benefit concerts continues to flow over the next few weeks (and hopefully months). Here are several Haiti-related happenings this week.   

It'll be pouring CD release parties this weekend, with five very disparate area bands celebrating the completion of their newest studio offerings: altrockers Seabird, Pop Rock band Lovely Crash, Soul Jazz outfit iolite, Cajun vets Lagniappe and Americana favorites Wild Carrot. Get all the details here.  

Wade Baker recently nabbed his first CEA nomination in the Jazz category, but he's a pervasive presence throughout Cincinnati's music scene. In addition to playing trumpet with a rotating cast of Jazz luminaries in the Wade Baker Jazz Collaboration, he's toured with Hip Hop/Jazz/Jam locals Eclipse, provided bass for Blues cat Jon Justice for the past three years and has a regular gig with the veteran Blue Birds Big Band. And that's just a partial list.  

Don't miss the Clifton Heights Music Festival, taking place Friday at four venues, all kicking off at 9 p.m. The lineup is stacked with quality entertainments from all genres, including The Frankl Project, Eagle to Squirrel, Eclipse, Ill Poetic, Chick Pimp Coke Dealer at a Bar and Wonky Tonk.  

Two years ago, young singer/songwriter Nathan Holscher released his second album, 'Even the Hills,' a moody, mesmerizing slab of ethereal, transcendent Americana that helped make the relatively new Cincinnati resident a much buzzed-about local artist. Holscher has improved on that work with the new release, 'Hit the Ground,' and this time he's not alone, using the name Nathan Holscher & the Ohio 5 to give props to his current back-up band of ace local players.  

If Greater Cincinnati is a conservative region filled with tight-ass people, the Cincy Fringe Festival is a laxative. It loosens us up, gets things moving a little better and smoother. Maybe the Fringe Festival is fiber in our otherwise meat-and-potatoes cultural diet. The annual event helps balance out the rest of our stodgy, by-the-book year.