THURSDAY, JANUARY 17
Side Door Jazz: Nicki Parrott, Rossano Sportiello & Eddie Metz Australian jazz singer, double bass maestra, and much called-upon sidewoman Nicki Parrott is likely best known for her 10-year tenure playing with Les Paul. This Florida tour finds her joined by frequent collaborator, pianist Rossano Sportiello, and drummer Eddie Metz Jr., in support of a new album the three-piece recorded and issued last year, Live at the Jazz Corner. (Palladium Theater, St. Petersburg)
Adam Beyer w/Victor Calderone HallucinationLimited.com in partnership with Serious Soul welcome Swedish techno DJ/producer and Drumcode Records founder Adam Beyer for a night of hard, throbbing, percussive-driven dance music. NYC house music producer, DJ and remixer Victor Calderone warms up the floor. (The Kennedy, Tampa)
Ellie Goulding w/St. Lucia After her 2012 reign with smash hit single “Lights,” British indie-pop princess Ellie Goulding takes her sophomore album Halcyon on tour in the U.S. The singer-songwriter hypnotizes audiences, her breathy syrupy vocals about loneliness and heartache set to upbeat, ethereal electropop. Halcyon features a range of producers and guests, like Brit rapper Tinie Tempah (“Hanging On”) and Scottish DJ Calvin Harris (“I Need Your Love”). Goulding is joined by her own four-piece band when she brings her dance party to Orlando this week. (Hard Rock Live, Orlando) —Shannon Kelly
The Heavy Pets w/Wyllys/The Heavy Hustle South Florida’s jam rock sons The Heavy Pets kick-off a three-night run with nu-disco house DJ/producer Wyllys in Ybor. Wyllys gets the bodies moving, his opening DJ set segueing into a “disco improv interlude” featuring The Heavy Hustle (members of the Pets with Wyllys), and culminating in a Heavy Pets live set. Put your Saturday Night Fever face on and prepare for nonstop funking, bumping and grooving — no setbreaks and collabs all around. (Crowbar, Ybor City)
FRIDAY, JANUARY 18
Natalie Merchant The last time rock songstress Natalie Merchant hit town, the 10,000 Maniacs former enchanted and entertained with an intriguing, instrumentally lush concert. “And while you might fear that the 19th and 20th-century children's poems she unearthed for her new release, Leave Your Sleep, would threaten severe twee overload,” CL Editor David Warner commented in his review, “the music they've inspired her to write is surprisingly rich and varied. Accompanied last night by an expert eight-member band playing everything from cello to piano to banjo to accordion, she made it seem as if the poems had been waiting for her music all along.” Children's book illustrator Barbara McClintock created a 48-page, full-color picture book based upon Leave Your Sleep that was released last year, and likely it will be offered amid the merch offered on Merchant's current tour. (Ruth Eckerd Hall, Clearwater)
The Music of Michael Jackson The Florida Orchestra pays tribute to the late King of Pop with vocalist James Delisco (winner of E! reality TV series The Entertainer and fresh from finishing his one-year contract at the Las Vegas Hilton), a full-scale band, and guest conductor Brent Havens in a program of MJ hits spanning four decades — “ABC,” “Beat It,” “Rock With You” and “The Way You Make Me Feel” among them. (Mahaffey Theatre, St. Petersburg)
Marty Stuart A prolific traditionalist with an eclectic style sensibility that dives in and out of honky tonk, rockabilly, country-rock, old-fashioned country, and bluegrass. Stuart played with Johnny Cash for six years in the 1980s, starred in the Grand Ole Opry numerous times, has won four Grammys (the last in the “Best Country Instrumental” category for his tribute to guitar great Clarence White), and just put out his 17 studio album, Nashville Vol. 1: Tear the Woodpile Down, on Sugar Hill Records. (Largo Cultural Center, Largo)
Tab Benoit w/Damon Fowler Group Louisiana’s electric bluesman with soulful Delta roots returns to the Bay area following a hallmark year, which found the smoky-voiced guitar-slinger issuing a best-of compilation spanning his 25-year career, and revealing his relevance on another comp that came out last year, Black On Blues - A Tribute To The Black Keys, his offering a lick-seared serving of “Gold on the Sealing.” (Skipper’s Smokehouse, Tampa)
Not Broken Yet CD Release Show St. Pete-based folk rock foursome Not Broken Yet — guitarists/singers Paul Cataldo and L.A. Moore, bassist/singer John Stone, and drummer/percussionist John Stone — celebrate the completion of their self-titled first album, recorded at Hideaway with producer John Kelly and officially unveiled during this CD release show at the studio’s intimate listening room-style performance space. (Hideaway Café & Recording Studio, St. Petersburg)
Galactic feat. Corey Glover w/Bobby Lee Rodgers/Art Official Not so fresh off the Jam Cruise boat, New Orleans funk and jazz purveyors Galactic hit the ‘burg for a few sets of ass-shaking grooves and cuts off 2012’s Carnivale Electricos, a party record drawing inspiration from and evoking the electric vibrations of Mardi Gras traditions and Brazilian Carnaval celebrations. Corey Glover (In Living Colour) adds his throaty soulful croons and howls to the band’s live mix. (State Theatre, St. Petersburg)
