Moonshine Mafia will perform at 3 p.m. Saturday at the River Bottom Winery, 13810 Combee Lane, Roland.
The Hot Springs-based band will be performing a rare live show in these days of the coronavirus, says Moonshine Mafia lead singer Anna Brazeal, who said the band had only performed four times in 2020.
"When I was contacted to confirm this week's show, first I said, 'I don't know what you're talking about," Brazeal laughs. "It had been booked about a year ago by Rena at the Winery and I had forgotten all about it. So, when I realized we were actually going to get to do a live show, needless to say, we were very happy to hear this date was coming up this weekend."
Originally booked as a solo act, Brazeal changed plans and decided to bring her blues rock band, which also includes her husband, rhythm guitarist Brandon "Whiskers" Brazeal. Other members of the band are Kish "Preacher" Moody on lead guitar, Mark Bolin on bass and Mathew "Shotgun" Pruss on drums.
Brazeal, an Arkadelphia native and graduate of Henderson State University, was the co-founder in March, along with Susan Erwin Prowse, of Artists Against Covid-19, which, she told KTHV-TV, has two main goals: "collaborating with musicians who have lost their source of income and engaging with the community to provide a little bit of light."
In recent years, in addition to hosting North Little Rock's Yadaloo Music & Arts Festival and serving on the board of directors of the Arkansas River Blues Society, she has been the lead singer of the Central Arkansas band.
She previously spent 20 years in Dallas as a performer, sharing stages with Radney Foster, Deryl Dodd, Little Big Town and Uncle Kracker.
During her time in the band, she told Nightflying magazine that "... the music industry is a balance of disappointments and victories, you hope for more of the latter and learn to deal with the rest along the way... As an artist sometimes you are bathed in glory and sometimes your faith is shaken, it's our nature. It's a love/hate relationship."
The patio has heaters that will keep the outdoor temperature at 65 degrees, according to the winery's website.
◼️ DJ Kramer will provide the music from 8 to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday and DJ BBox will perform from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Cannibal and Craft, 307 President Clinton Ave., Little Rock. Admission is free.
◼️ Neil Diamond's 80th birthday will be celebrated from 3 to 5 p.m. Sunday at Stone's Throw Stifft Station, 3015 W. Markham St., Little Rock.
CONWAY
Lane Long will perform at 8 p.m. Friday and Randall Shreve will perform at 8 p.m. Saturday at Kings Live Music, 1020 Front St., Conway. Admission is free.
◼️ Cold Crown will perform at 8 p.m. Saturday at TC's Midtown Grill, 1611 E. Oak St, Suite 19, Conway.
HOT SPRINGS
"Artbeat Karaoke" will be held at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Tooter and Payton will perform at 8 p.m. Saturday at The Trough Bar and Grill, 833 Central Ave., Hot Springs.
HOT SPRINGS VILLAGE
Bad Habit will perform at 7 p.m. Saturday at The Beehive, 220 Minorca Road, Hot Springs Village. Admission is free.
STAY TUNED
Arkansas Sounds will present a free "Tribute to the Legendary Magic 105" from 7 to 9 p.m. today on Facebook. From 1980 to 2008, Magic 105 was the dominant rock'n' roll FM radio station in Central Arkansas.
There will be video and audio clips, photos and a panel discussion by the station's on-air personalities: Tom Wood, Tommy "The Outlaw" Smith, David Allen Ross, Carole Kramer, Sharpe Dunaway, Reade Mitchell, Jeff Allen, Casey Jones, Trent "Treetop" Tyler and Clyde Clifford.
To watch and listen, go to app.kosmi.io.
◼️ Erin Enderlin, a Conway native and now a singer-songwriter in Nashville, Tenn., will perform, along with Kendell Marvell and Waylon Payne, a streaming show at 7:30 p.m. today in a benefit for Alive Hospice. Tickets, $20, are available through stageit.com/signup.
Enderlin's songs have been recorded by Alan Jackson, Reba McEntire, Terri Clark, Randy Travis and Lee Ann Womack.
◼️ Zach Abbott will perform a livestream show at 7 p.m. today from the First Financial Music Hall in El Dorado. See the Murphy Arts District site on Facebook or at eldomad.com.
◼️ Singer-songwriter Erin McKeown will perform a livestreaming show at 7 p.m. today on Facebook as part of the "25 Years of Signature Sounds" series. A donation of $25 is requested.
McKeown, who has released 10 albums, wrote a musical, "Miss You Like Hell," with Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Quiria Alegria Hudes. The play, which opened off-Broadway in 2018, was nominated for five Drama Desk Awards. The Wall Street Journal named it best musical of 2018.
◼️ Jess Klein will host a birthday livestream at 6 p.m. today, with tickets $3 on Musae.me/klein2.
Klein is a singer-songwriter and member of the band My Jerusalem, best known for her album, "Everybody Loves a Winner."
◼️ Jeff Plankenhorn and Jeff Kamel will perform Plankenhorn's new single, "Murder of Crows," at 7 p.m. today on Facebook. Find it here: https://fb.me/e/3dXkk6wcz.
Plankenhorn is an acclaimed singer-songwriter in Austin, Texas, and Kamel is a member of bluegrass band Wood & Wire.
◼️ Sam Baker will be featured on "Sundays with Mary," hosted by Mary Gauthier, from 2 to 3:30 p.m. Sunday on Facebook.
◼️ Brian Eyster will interview Larry Sparks, who will perform at 7 p.m. Sunday as part of The Backstage Sessions of Signature Sounds. Donation of $20 is requested of those who can afford to pay. Sparks is a bluegrass singer and guitarist who began his recording career in 1970. Find it on the Signature Sounds YouTube channel.
◼️ The Toronto Fiddle Collective will present Dan Stacy in a workshop/concert/jam from 7 to 9:30 p.m. Wednesday. Cost to participate in the live Zoom event is $35 or $20 for just the workshop or concert only. For tickets, e-mail fiddleshow@gmail.com.
Stacy is a fiddler, step dancer and composer in Stratford, Ontario, Canada.
WATCH THIS
"It Was the Music," a 10-episode documentary series about the musical journey of singer-songwriter-multi-instrumentalist Larry Campbell and his vocalist wife, Theresa Williams, is being shown on Amazon Prime. Cost to view is $25 or $4.99 per episode.
Campbell, now part of a duo with his wife, led Levon Helm's band for several years and before that, led Bob Dylan's band. He and his wife performed in Arkansas as the opening act for Jackson Browne at the AMP in Rogers and were in Helm's band at his final Arkansas performance at the Wildwood Performing Arts Center in Little Rock.
Before their gig in Rogers, I interviewed the couple, and found them as down-to-earth as anyone had a right to be, and when my wife, Vicki, and I went on a Cayamo music cruise, we ran into Larry and Theresa several times, on and off the boat, and they were definitely not trying to win Snooty Rock Stars merit badges.
The film also features Jackson Browne, David Bromberg, Rosanne Cash, Shawn Colvin, Jerry Douglas, Phil Lesh, Buddy Miller, Tracy Nelson and others.
◼️ Activist-artist Caesar Pink has released a video of his song, "Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!," that has won 16 video awards while generating controversy and getting banned by some platforms, all the while getting praise for its ridiculing of prejudice and bigotry. The video of the song can be viewed on vimeo.com.
READ THIS
It was on pastemagazine.com a month ago, but only now did I run across a piece on the late Marvin Gaye, who is still relevant. It's "Fifty Years After Mavin Gaye, Singers Are Still Asking, 'What's Going On?'"
◼️ "The Ballad of Justin Townes Earle," on rollingstone.com is sad reading, about the life and death of Steve Earle's talented son. Returning to thoughts of those long-ago days of music cruises, the young Earle was one of the people we saw perform on the boat, as well as noticing him on one of our shore excursions, when we spotted him alone, without family or friends, on the beach. Perhaps that was the way he wanted it, but one wonders at the loneliness of the long-distance performer, as it were.
LISTEN HERE
Marty Stuart is sharing a new song, "I've Been Around," with its words by Johnny Cash, who never recorded the song, which was presented to Stuart by Cash's son, John Carter Cash. The video, on YouTube, is great fun, with images of the two men from the days when Stuart was in Cash's band.
◼️ In January 2020, we went to the 30A Songwriters' Festival in Florida, and one of the singers we set out to see was David Olney, who died on stage during his third song before we got there late, having gotten lost. The song he was singing can be heard on the website of American Songwriter magazine, which has the story and song here: tinyurl.com/y3mpogxa.
Thanks to fellow music fan and co-worker Terry Austin, who passed along this story on the one-year anniversary of Olney's quiet departure.