Funk Fest
Friday and Saturday 4 p.m. and 3 p.m, respectively, Metrolina
Expo Fairgrounds, 7100 Statesville Rd., $65-$100 1 day pass, $100-$375 2 day
pass, http://funkfestconcerts.com/charlotte-2014/
This year’s killer hip-hop, old school, soul, and R&B
festival expands to two days and features Outkast - fresh from its
festival-hopping reunion - B.O.B., Fantasia, Doug E. Fresh, Forever FC, and Salt n’ Pepa on Friday
and LL Cool J., Ice Cube, the Roots, War, 112, Olivia, and 95 South/69 Boyz on Saturday.
Robin & Linda Williams
The internationally known duo and longtime “Prairie Home
Companion” staple celebrated 40 years of making music together (and 42 as a
couple) in 2013 with the album “Back 40.” Robin - a Charlotte native - and his
wife return to his birthplace for a rare free concert of traditional bluegrass,
old time and folk.
Amanda Shires
Acclaimed songwriter Jason Isbell’s fiddler bride is quite an
accomplished singer-songwriter in her own right on her 2013 album “Down Fell
the Doves,” which isn’t an obvious straight alt-country record. It’s more
stylistically textured, darker, and bookish in a chamber rock meets art-folk
sort of way.
Crowbar
Saturday 8 p.m., Chop Shop, 399 E. 35th
St., $22-$25, www.chopshopnoda.com
Following frontman Kirk Windstein’s departure from Down, the New
Orleans’ sludge metal stalwarts commemorate their 25th year
(celebrate would be too “up” a word) with the well-received tenth album
“Symmetry in Black” (released earlier this year), which exercises Windstein’s demons
by lacing methodical riffs with thrash and hardcore assault in classic Crowbar
style.
Midnight Ghost Train
Started as an ongoing creative eulogy for a friend after
guitarist/singer Steve Moss’ best friend died in 2007, the Buffalo-based stoner
trio ready the follow-up to 2012’s excellent “Buffalo” - a moody mesh of biting
grooves, psychedelic expansion, and slow building, growling metal - with the
upcoming “Cold Was the Ground.”
Trombone Shorty
TV viewers may have seen this Grammy nominated funk powerhouse
performing with Macklemore & Ryan Lewis and Madonna on the Grammys earlier
this year or as himself on HBO’s “Treme.” His third album is spiked with rock
n’ roll furor (think Lenny Kravitz) and classic R&B grooves amid the jazz
and funk base. With Honey Island Swamp Band.
Ray Wylie Hubbard
The troubadour may not be as well-known as some of his Texas
blues and folk songwriting contemporaries (Steve Earle, Townes Van Zandt, Guy
Clark), but as a writer and band leader he’s one of the Lone Star State’s best
lesser known secrets with a flair for doing whatever he’s doing - soul, rhythm
& blues, country, blues or rock - well.
Tom Keifer
Aligned with the hair metal movement of the `80s, Philly’s
Cinderella had as much in common with blues and Southern rock as it did glam
and on his 2013 debut solo album, “The Way Life Goes,” frontman Keifer
stretches even further. Expect impressive new material as well as Cinderella
staples.
Matisyahu
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