✔️ = Critic's Pick
✔️ Tampa Bay Blues Festival w/Buddy Guy/Robert Cray/Delbert McClinton/Beth Hart/John Nemeth/Ronnie Earl/Janiva Magness/more For two dozen years now, this internationally renowned three-day music festival has been staged near the waters of Tampa Bay, where visitors from around the world can enjoy the area’s spectacular waterfront views, a tropical atmosphere, and some of the best blues music out there. In 2011, the Festival won the prestigious Blues Foundation’s Keeping the Blues Alive award, and in 2018 the Tampa Bay Blues Festival welcomes some hearty headliners (Robert Cray, Buddy Guy and Delbert McClinton closing out Friday, Saturday and Sunday, respectively) alongside some of the more undersung names in the genre. One of those is Janiva Magness; the 61-year-old Detroit native has released a dozen albums since her 1991 Fathead Records debut (More Than Live) and earned a 2017 Grammy Best Contemporary Blues Album nomination for her 2016 effort Love Wins Again (Fantastic Negrito, who is playing Safety Harbor Songfest this weekend, took home the award). Magness, who is a huge advocate for kids in foster care, arrives supporting a brand new album, Love Is An Army (released just over one month ago), and should be pretty happy about the festival’s own partnership with the PARC charity, which supports children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities to exercise their independence and experience life to the fullest. McClinton is a featured collaborator on Love Is An Army, and while he plays a day after Magness, it would be cool to see the duo onstage together at some point. (Vinoy Park, St. Petersburg) INFO
X IN THE KRESS
Photos: X Ambassadors play, Tim Tebow, Cedric the Entertainer and more party at Tampa's Kress Building
✔️ USF Bullstock w/X Ambassadors/COIN/We The Kings None of the bands on the bill for the University of South Florida’s annual USF Week concert (Bullstock) are strangers to the area. But you would have had to pay a cover if you wanted to see X Ambassadors (“Renegade,” from the Jeep commercial), Nashville indie-pop band COIN (“Talk Too Much”) or Bradenton pop-punk group We The Kings (“Sad Songs,” “Check Yes Juliet”). This one is free, even if you’re not a student, and more information is available via usf.edu/student-affairs/usfweek. (Sun Dome parking lot at the University of South Florida, Tampa) INFO
The Florida Orchestra Presents R&B Legends w/Michael Lynche Here’s the first of three shows that find the Florida Orchestra joining forces with former American Idol contestant and St. Petersburg-based R&B vocalist Michael Lynche, who’ll help the ensemble take on songs by James Brown, Otis Redding, Luther Vandross and Marvin Gaye. Friday is in Tampa, but two Saturday shows happen in St. Pete (Mahaffey Theater). More info is available via floridaorchestra.org. (Ferguson Hall at David A. Straz Center For Performing Arts, Tampa) INFO
WATCH
Marley The Messenger recites "A Thousand Words A Day" (VIDEO)
Marley The Messenger w/Whale Feral /DJ Robzilla Gainesville is making a stop in Tampa, and Marley Montano is leading the way. Before Montano, better known as Venezuelan-American rapper Marley The Messenger, comes to The Blue Note, he decided to share a new clip for “A Thousand Words A Day,” a reflective, string- and synth-driven ode to a fallen friend as well as the “the many teachers and practitioners of Hip Hop who helped to influence his life’s path.” Watch the clip on cltampa.com/music. (The Blue Note, Tampa) INFO
✔️ New Music Festival & Symposium Research presentations and various concerts are part of this two-day celebration of out-of-the-box composition, which technically kicks off in Lowry Park when Terroir New Music Group stages a concert at c. 1940 Florida Beer Garden. The selection panels and programming committee for the festival and symposium reviewed 380 submissions from 21 countries before deciding on the selected composers, whom the general public can experience at no charge. Get more information and a schedule via music.arts.usf.edu. (School of Music at University of South Florida, Tampa) INFO
✔️ Jus Henry Album Release w/Synergy In A Cup/Hype Cuz/Jroc Jones/Fre$h P/Mike2wice Weallhere/Khalea Lynee/Steven Alex Woodburn/Lolo Defoe Jus Henry — a member of Tampa party-starting sound collective Synergy In A Cup — breaks off to celebrate the release of a solo album. He’ll get help from his Synergy bandmates, and this show features a head-to-head battle set featuring two of the Bay area’s wildest frontmen, Fre$h P and J-Roc Jones. Look above for more from Henry. (Crowbar, Ybor City) INFO
Friday Concerts in the Park w/Chad Montana Remember the Friday Extra Concert Series? It’s back with a new name and celebrating 31 years of offering a schedule of live music from jazz and country to reggae and classic rock. This installment under the performance shed at Water Works Park features country crooners the Chad Montana Band. (Water Works Park, Tampa) INFO
Danial Ryan Art Opening w/King Complex/Geri X/Loose Talk/King Complex Expect to see some surrealist cats on the wall when Tampa illustrator Danial Ryan opens his second show at The Bends. Reception kicks off at 9 p.m., but a trio of Bay area bands — rock and roll outfit Loose Talk, tech-rock trio King Complex and long-running, eternally adored songwriter Geri X — start with the music at 10 p.m. As is always the case at The Bends, there is no cover to get in. (The Bends, St. Petersburg) INFO
The Weight Band Members of various old-school rock bands — The Band (Jim Weider), The Levon Helm Band (Brian Mitchell), and The Rick Danko group (Marty Grebb) — perform timeless hits (think “The Weight,” “Up on Cripple Creek” and “Ophelia”) at this, the band’s Capitol Theatre debut. (Capitol Theatre, Clearwater) INFO
ALSO PLAYING
Grateful Dead Night w/Dead Set (Cage Brewing, St. Petersburg) INFO
80s Video Night w/VJ Jason Barco (The Dungeon at The Castle, Ybor City) INFO
Dukes of Juke (Skipper’s Smokehouse, Tampa) INFO
Classical Guitar (Friday Morning Musicale & Federated Clubs, Tampa) INFO
Flip The Bird (Smokin’ 19, St. Petersburg) INFO
April 6-7 Theo Von (The Attic at Rock Brothers Brewing, Ybor City) INFO
Pirate Flag (Jannus Live, St. Petersburg) INFO
Don Gates Band CD Release Party w/Special Guests Cottondale Swamp (Brass Mug, Tampa) INFO
#Pound Friday w/Midnight Tyrannosaurus (The Ritz, Ybor City) INFO
Smooth D and the Hunks Concert (Following Clearwater Threshers vs. Dunedin Blue Jays at Spectrum Field, Clearwater) INFO
Tribute to Chopin w/Matthew Graybil (The Tampa Quaker Meeting) INFO
Lounge Cat Friday (Independent Bar, St. Petersburg) INFO
Synia Carroll (Palladium Theater, St. Petersburg) INFO
Shadowrun Brothers (Fubar, St. Petersburg) INFO
Brewery Show Discord Theory w/TAL/Phantom Phunk (Green Bench Brewing Co., Saint Petersburg) INFO
This article appears in Apr 5-12, 2018.