I promised to balance the scales this February with leading ladies. In addition, the Millennium Music Conference returns this month to the midstate stage, hitting venues in and around Harrisburg.
One diversion from the norm is a plug in the mentionable section for a young Colombian blues player who has an affinity for central Pa. His name is Carlos Elliot Junior, and he’ll be playing on Jan. 31, barely making the February cut.
Yo Mama’s Big Fat Booty Band, Appalachian Brewing Company, 2/12, 8 p.m., $10
This band’s name is suggestive of their music—funky. Mary Frances (vocals and keyboard) leads this itinerant group around the country, evangelizing their brand of funk. “Onward!” is their most recent album, dropping in late October. The track, “Trunk Fallin’ Off,” is a blend of old school hip-hop and straight-up rap and encourages you to dance that derriere off. The album opener, “Ante Up,” is a more straightforward funk tune, employing horns and more instrumentation and relying more on the repetitious, but smooth-sounding, lyrics found in this genre. If you have the dance-bone and are in for an upbeat time, this show will be just that.
Clannad, Whitaker Center, 2/7, 8 p.m., $29
Clannad is a New Age Celtic band, comprised of three siblings (Moya, Pol and Ciaran Brennan) and their twin uncles (Padraig and Noel Nuggan). Everyone knows the Brennan’s sister, Enya, but they were the first to blend Gaelic and pop/rock and have been rewarded for their hit tunes, “I Will Find You,” (theme from “The Last of the Mohicans”) and “In a Lifetime” (featuring Bono), selling 15 million records worldwide. Their legacy is as the forerunners of earthly/spiritual music, and Moya’s voice got quite the endorsement when Bono said she “has one of the greatest voices…ever.”
Millennium Music Conference, 2/20-2/23, venues in Harrisburg/Camp Hill/New Cumberland/Lewisberry/Duncannon
The 18th Annual Millennium Music Conference is part-educational/mentoring for young artists and a way for emerging musicians to showcase their talents. The lineup is loaded at bars, venues and restaurants in the area. Be sure to hit up their website to see the roster of events. Locally, bands will be performing at Anthony’s, The Abbey Bar, Carley’s, Ceolta’s, Midtown Scholar, Momo’s, Stage on Herr and Suba. In the past, the music has been hit-or-miss, but this is certainly a lens into the farm league of East Coast artists.
Mentionables: Carlos Elliot Jr., Stage on Herr, 1/31; Jimkata, Appalachian Brewing Company, 2/5; Roofbeams, The MakeSpace, 2/15
