Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band (Photo credit: bigdamnband.com)
This month, a wide variety of guitar personalities enter the midstate, from fingerpickers to free range stylists. Unique acts await you. I didn’t mean that to sound like a fortune cookie, but we’re certainly fortunate to have these musicians rollin’ on through during the doorstep to spring.
Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band, Abbey Bar, 3/20, Doors @ 7 p.m., $15 (advance)/$18 (door)
The blues has found a place to hang its hat in Harrisburg, and Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band adds to our odd love for the Delta sounds. Josh “The Reverend” Peyton leads his trio to and fro in the United States, fingerpicking his way through 250 appearances per year. Peyton’s guitar playing is as good as it gets, and his band’s newest album, “Between the Ditches,” does justice to the bellow-voiced, barrel-chested vocalist. This one will be a foot-tapping special.
Diane Cluck, The MakeSpace, 3/23, 7 p.m., $5-$10 (Donation)
Cluck came highly recommended to this Musical Notes via Matt Hickey, a trusted booker in the area, who has been on the pulse of anything musically underground for many years. He’s spot on with this choice. Cluck’s wobbly vibrato, dense lyrics and unique guitar playing (“she plucks the strings where the neck meets the body of the guitar, producing a harp-like tone,” says NPR’s David Farland), will not be everyone’s folk fancy, but this Lancaster-raised wonder is held in high esteem throughout the music world. The MakeSpace is lucky to have landed Cluck, so, if you want to see something different and exploratory, stop on by the N. 3rd Street venue.
Delicate Steve, Messiah College Student Union, 3/26, 9 p.m., Free
Messiah College’s Student Union has been bringing names upon names to its weekly B-Sides event on Wednesday nights for many years, including Josh Ritter, Brooke Waggoner, Rosie Thomas, Justin Townes Earle and Over the Rhine. Now comes Steven Marion, a New Jersey native, who has essentially created his own genre of ethereal, electronic riffs (Filter Magazine refers to it as the Asian Blues). Some songs, like “Wally Wilder,” sound cartoonish. Others bleed into the psychedelic realm, but they all have one thing in common: no lyrics. One time, essayist and author Chuck Klosterman wrote a fake bio for Delicate Steve for the Luaka Bop Label. It’s absurd and funny—you should read it. Anyway, sit back, enjoy one of the many non-alcoholic treats at Messiah, and take in the sonic pleasures of Delicate Steve. It’s free—what the heck?
Mentionables: The Fleshtones, HMAC, 3/8; Hayes Carll and Bob Schneider, York Strand Capitol, 3/21; Keb Mo, Whitaker Center, 3/26
