THURSDAY, JANUARY 2
Rock the Park w/Beartoe/Little Sheeba & The Shamans/The Brand New Opiates As Beartoe, Deland-based guitar-playing singer-songwriter Roberto Aguilar crafts a warm blend of soulful blues and folk rock smeared in Florida swamp muck. The lo-fi R&B garage shuffle of Little Sheeba & the Shamans is piloted by the grit-flecked vocals of frontwoman Ari Little. And Brand New Opiates doles out a particularly dynamic blend of swampy gypsy rock and dark rootsy grooves. All three are featured at the first Rock the Park of 2014; as usual, the music kicks off at 6:30 p.m., pets and kids are welcome, and admission is free. (Curtis Hixon Park, Tampa)
B.B. King The second (non-NYE) concert featuring the legendary guitar-slinging bluesman at the Capitol Theatre; fingerstyle guitarist Shaun Hopper opens this date as well. (Capitol Theatre, Clearwater)
FRIDAY, JANUARY 3
WAHH! Featuring Sri Rajib Karmakar A special listening room concert of exotic tones and textures to benefit WMNF Community Radio. Sitar master Sri Rajib Karmakar brings light modern fusion techniques to Indian classical music sounds, his deft plucking and note manipulation leading an ensemble of players on this night — Shankh Lahiri on tabla and vocals, guitarist Peter Mongaya, drummer/percussionist Mike Washington, and bassist Ray Villadonga. (Hideaway Café & Recording Studio, St. Petersburg)
Goodnight Neverland w/The Music Box/Dropin Pickup/Let's Make Forts/Lions After Dark Acoustic The atmospheric alt rock of local outfit Goodnight Neverland is driven by the high-toned, delicately lovely vocal serenades of frontman/guitarist Kerry Courtney, his acoustic and electric axe melodies — textured strums and clear picked notes — boosted by sturdy rhythm section support of brothers/bandmates Jeremy and Jordan Tellone (on drums and bass respectively). The local trio headlines this bill of Bay area talent. (Local 662, St. Petersburg)
Victor Wooten w/Stu Hamm “I don’t become the music when I pick up my bass: I live the music,” Victor Wooten revealed during a clinic he gave before his last Bay area concert. The comment sheds much light on the prolific, well-regarded bass ace, who’s listed among Rolling Stone’s Top 10 Bassists of All Time and has more than 25 recordings to his credit, including 14 albums as a long-standing member of Bela Fleck & the Flecktones (five of those were Grammy winners), and a bunch more as a solo artist, not to mention the odd side project output. Wooten returns to town for the first time since 2011 supporting a pair of full-lengths he issued in 2012: Words and Tones, original Wooten tunes featuring female vocalists who bring a neo-soulful/R&B hue to Wooten’s jazz fused sound, and Sword and Stone, which finds Wooten re-interpreting the tunes as strictly instrumentals and showcasing his diverse style on a range of lowend vibration makers — from standard fretted bass to upright, mando piccolo, fretless and bassimer models. (Largo Cultural Center, Largo)
Wayne Sharp & The SharpShooter Band Mississippi blues rock vet Sharp is versed on piano and Hammond B3 organ. He spent several years of his career playing sideman to Michael Burks and appeared on four of the late blues musician’s albums, including 2012 Blues Music Award-winning posthumous release Show of Strength. His keys skills propel the instrumentals of the SharpShooter band, which is rounded out by sons Grayson and Sean on guitar and drums respectively, guitarist Jon Woodhead and bass player Terrance Grayson, the latter also a one-time player in Burks’ band. This show falls after the release of the quintet’s debut full-length, Living with the Blues. (Skipper’s Smokehouse, Tampa)
SATURDAY, JANUARY 04
Qristina & Quinn Bachand A Side Door presentation featuring two rising stars of the international Celtic folk circuit: Canadian siblings Qristina and Quinn Bachand. She plays a mean fiddle and sings in soaring dulcet tones, while younger brother/acoustic guitar prodigy Quinn delivers strumming accompaniment to her spirited bowing and backs her vocals with strong sweet harmonies. (Palladium Theater, St. Petersburg)
D.R.E.A.M. Producer Showcase This presentation dubbed D.R.E.A.M. (for “Drums rule everything around me”) shines the spotlight on some noteworthy Bay area producers — OP Supa, Wally Clark, Rude, Persyce, Khep and Ranmecca. Also of note: guest sets by the Three-Headed Monster production team and live performances by hip hop artists Don Mack, The Villanz and Jinx. (Crowbar, Ybor City)
Barefeet, Black-Tie & Boardies Ball w/Resinated/Tribal Style/Freelow/Mountain Holler/TNA The Suncoast Surfrider Foundation— an activist network that promotes the protection and enjoyment of oceans, waves and beaches — stages its annual holiday party and concert, with live sounds ranging from the bumpin’ roots reggae of Tribal Style to the funky island rock jams of Resinated to the acoustic guitar-driven post-folk imaginings of Mountain Holler. Prizes for the Best Dressed evening/beachwear combos. (Caddy’s on the Beach, Treasure Island)
WhiteGold w/Michael Parallax/Tetromino/Luuls WhiteGold has committed all the blunders that relegate a typical band to basic listing territory — a name that’s virtually impossible to Google (type ‘whitegold band’ into a search and get bombarded with more than a million results for wedding rings, 13+ million when you take off the ‘band’), no music or video on their Facebook page, an Tumblr page that’s M.I.A., and a bio that might as well be blank. To make matters more confusing, the number of people in pics of WhiteGold (2) doesn’t match the number of band members listed on their FB (3). But the first Saturday of the New Year is a slow one, and the minimal info I’ve gleaned about WhiteGold has me intrigued; a run-on but seemingly apt description dubbed their music “crush pop rave brutal drone performance art projection crazy lights bff dance party.” The band’s primaries (frontgal Emily Kempf and best friend/bandmate Billy Mitchell) are rather adorable, too, and I hear they know how to make the kidz get down. (New World Brewery, Ybor City)
