THE BOXCARS
At 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 4
Randy Wood Guitars, 1304 E. Highway 80, Bloomingdale. $25
This is truly a bluegrass supergroup, began by fiddler and banjo player Ron Stewart, a longtime veteran of J.D. Crowe’s New South (a band that also included Boxcars bassist Harold Nixon).
Stewart founded this-here band with mandolin maestro Adam Steffey, who’d spent eight fame and fortune-filled years as part of Alison Krauss and Union Station (from Every Time You Say Goodbye through So Long So Wrong). Steffey then played another eight years with the progresso-grass Mountain Heart.
The band also includes John R. Bowman (fiddle, banjo and vocals with the Isaacs, plus a year and change with Krauss’ band) and guitarist Keith Garrett (Blue Moon Rising).
Before the 2011 show, Steffey described what the Boxcars are all about: “On a scale of one to 10, if you put five in the middle as traditional, kind of straight–up bluegrass, and 10 as progressive, we’re probably about a five and a half to a six,” he told us.
At the International Bluegrass Music Association Awards in October, the Boxcars were named Emerging Artist of the Year and Instrumental Group of the Year. See theboxcars.com
ANOTHER ROADSIDE ATTRACTION
At 8 p.m. Monday, Feb. 6
Sentient Bean, 13 E. Park Ave.
If Tom Waits sang lead with Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros, it would probably sound like this quirky quintet from Roanoke, Va. Becostumed like a traveling hippie vaudeville circus, or a Skid Row touring company of Godspell, the band plays a grab-bag of instruments from gypsy fiddle to standup bass to traps ‘n’ brushes to musical saw to kazoo, mouth trumpet and “box of wrenches.”
Ah, but what about the music? It’s weird, it’s hypnotic, it’s occasional beautiful and sometimes evening frightening. There are three lead vocalists and plenty of bizarre harmony, which gives every tune a distinctive sound and appeal. For a Monday night in Savannah, this is pretty darn cool. See reverbnation.com/anotherroadsideattraction
CHECK IT OUT
The second benefit show for former Tybee resident Bennett Bacon (injured in a Colorado snowboarding accident last November) takes place Friday (Feb. 3) at Southern Pine Co. Featuring Little Tybee, the Accomplices and Atlanta’s Christ, Lord (who’ll be part of the Savannah Stopover next month), the catered 7 p.m. event requires a $20 donation (adults), $10 (under 21). Read more about the beneficiary at Bennett-bacon.blogspot.com … Pure energy: Scott H. Biram (who calls himself “The Dirty Old One Man Band”) is back in town for a Feb. 3 show at the Jinx, along with a set by Lydia Loveless, the 20-year-old acoustic, punk singing/songwriting spitfire from Ohio. Loveless’s Indestructible Machine was No. 4 on Spin’s Top 20 Country/Americana Albums of the Year list ...
