The Jauntee w/Ajeva and CBDB The Jauntee calls Colorado home these days, but the group of Berklee School of music grads is spending the summer going on a coast-to-coast tour and visiting old fans of its improvisation-based stage show that visits all segments of the musical spectrum including jazz, rock, bluegrass and psychedelia. Listen to a live recording below. (Skipper’s Smokehouse, Tampa) INFO
Chris Walker Band In college, I squatted at the apartment Chris Walker shared with one of my best friends. I not only lived rent-free, but was also lucky enough to share a wall with the best guitar player I had ever met up until that point in my life. That’ll happen when you pick up the instrument at the age of 12 like Walker, 33, did (he was playing in Sarasota-area clubs by the time he was 13). He gave me lessons, we talked about life, and I got to hear him practice for hours on end. That was more than 10 years ago, and it’s been a pleasure to watch him travel the world on the Armed Forces Entertainment circuit, link up with jazz singer Gloria West and become a hard-gigging staple in the Bay area blues scene. His fiery solos and charismatic personality are hard to look away from as he channels influences like Hendrix and Coltrane into one of the best guitar shows in Florida. Solo and band gigs from Walker are never a rarity, but he is a homegrown talent not to be taken for granted. (Ringside Café, St. Petersburg) INFO
ALSO PLAYING
Witchgrass Wednesdays (The Ale & the Witch, St. Petersburg) INFO
Betty Fox Band (Hideaway Café, St. Petersburg) INFO
Hospitality Night w/Philip “Squeak” Walker & Walter “Blunt” May (Callaloo at Manhattan Casino, St. Petersburg) INFO
Da*Cypher (Crowbar, Ybor City) INFO
DJ DARTH KRAL: Princess Slaya’ Them Softly (Ella’s Americana Folk Art Cafe, Tampa) INFO
This article appears in May 17-24, 2018.
