Rodney Block, Little Rock’s renowned trumpet man, has a couple of gigs this weekend. He will be part of the SoMa temporary entertainment district kickoff party at 7:30 p.m. Friday. Block also does an occasional “Live from the Front Porch” concert series, and he will perform at 7 p.m. Saturday from the Miller’s Crossing/Sherwood neighborhood. The porch show will be hosted by Sherrill & Terrance Montgomery.
For tipping purposes, use the smartphone Cash app and send to $MOBETTABLOCK
Dean Agus will perform at 8 p.m. Saturday night at The Trough Bar and Grill (formerly the Core Public House), 833 Central Ave. in Hot Springs.
Meanwhile, in the virtual world:
Local Woody Guthrie fans, many of whom traveled into next-door Oklahoma for the free festival held each summer in Guthrie’s home town of Okemah, will be interested to know about the 23rd annual Guthrie Folk Festival, also called Woody Fest, presented by COOP Ale Works. The free virtual festival will hold the music, panels and community on what would have been his 108th birthday.
Performers at the festival Saturday and Sunday will include John Fullbright, Butch Hancock, Randy Crouch, Ellis Paul, David Amram, Sarah Lee Guthrie, Serena Guthrie, Annie Guthrie, the Red Dirt Rangers, the Burns Sisters, Graham Nash, Jason Mraz, Glen Hansard and Arlo Guthrie.
For a list of all the performers, see woodyfest.com/artists/
For information about panels and workshops, see woodyfest.com/panels/
(Mary Gauthier, Tim Easton, BettySoo and Samantha Crain are among the panelists)
To see streaming options, go to woodyfest.com/watch/
Big Piph will be featured at 10 a.m. Friday on the “Ask the Artist” feature on the Murphy Arts District’s Facebook page, facebook.com/eldomad.
Epiphany Morrow, a Pine Bluff native and Stanford graduate, performs with his seven-piece band, Tomorrow Maybe, and has worked with other acts, including TI, Big Sean, Tye $, Snoop Dogg and Ne-Yo.
His latest creative project is a one-man show, “The Glow.” He is also working on a soon-to-be-announced project combining hip-hop, entrepreneurship and young people in under-served communities.
Malcolm Holcombe, a frequent performer at White Water Tavern in Little Rock, (and an amazing singer-songwriter from the mountains of western North Carolina) will perform on YouTube and Facebook at 1 p.m. Sunday “Songs From the Shed #3,” an acoustic version of his 2015 album, “Another Black Hole.” “Tips are appreciated but are not necessary,” Holcombe says in an e-mail. See paypal.me/GypsyEyesMusic or venmo.com/GypsyEyesMusic.
Ray Wylie Hubbard, another occasional performer at White Water, is releasing an album of collaborations that fans have been looking forward to, says his label, Big Machine Records. “Co-Starring,” Hubbard’s 17th studio album, features guest stars Ringo Starr, Joe Walsh, Don Was and Chris Robinson of The Black Crowes — and that’s only the lineup on the first song, “Bad Trick.”
The second song, “Rock Gods,” features Aaron Lee Tasjan, who opened Hubbard’s most recent show at White Water. Other Hubbard collaborators are The Cadillac Three, Pam Tillis, Paula Nelson & Elizabeth Cook, R. Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown, Larkin Poe, Peter Rowan and Ronnie Dunn with Pam Tillis. And there’s a song, “Outlaw Blood,” with Ashley McBryde of Mammoth Spring.
For an interview with Hubbard, see grammymuseum.com
A pair of Arkansas siblings, known as The Render Sisters, have a new video for their debut single, “Lost Boy,” produced by Pam Tillis and Josh Sikkema. The sisters are Mary-Keaton, 16, and Stella, 14, who filmed the video at the family’s row crop farm just outside Pine Bluff. The Country Network (TCN) began airing the video on Monday. Here are some air times: 8:08 a.m. and 4:03 p.m. today and 7 a.m. and 2:07 p.m. Friday. And you can see it at RenderSisters.com
Here’s what Tillis says: “The moment I met the Render Sisters I could sense their maturity. My unexpected moment came when I heard them sing ‘Lost Boy’ and how easy they made it sound. It was an intriguing melody that caught me off guard, with Everly-esque harmonies and simple but haunting lyrics. These gems in the rough from rural Arkansas don’t need much polishing, just more opportunities to do what comes naturally.”
Lyle Lovett and Shawn Colvin will perform together at 8 p.m. Friday, streaming live on lylelovett.com, shawncolvin.com, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.
Michael Franti will perform “Live From Soulshine Bali” in his “Stay at Home World Concert Tour” Saturday and Aug. 15 from his home in Bali. Tickets are $22.
Franti’s latest album is “Work Hard & Be Nice.” For his “Stay Human” film, he has been nominated for the People’s Choice Podcast Awards in two categories, and voting continues through July 31.
(Franti’s sole Central Arkansas show, so far, was at the semihistoric, but sadly demolished Cinema 150 movie theater at the corner of Asher and University avenues. The round structure could have hosted more concerts but it met the fate of most movie theaters in Arkansas, becoming a parking lot.)
To submit listings for the music column, please email:
jackwaynehill@gmail.com
