Metro Arts March 8

GARS presents a program for print-impaired audience. The Grammy Museum in Mississippi showcases music history and current exhibitions. Atlanta Celebrates Photography rebrands as the Atlanta Center for Photography, offering year-round exhibitions and plans for expansion. Anna Hernandez's Color of Clouds exhibit in New Orleans explores colonization and communication through ancient writing systems. Kevin Kinney receives a tribute and nominees for Blues Awards are announced. This program is intended for a print-impaired audience and is brought to you by the Georgia Radio Reading Service, GARS. Welcome to Metro Arts for Friday, March 8th. I'm Kristen Moody for the Georgia Radio Reading Service. Metro Arts is brought to you by the Fulton County Board of Commissioners. For our first articles this week, we go to the Atlanta Magazine online for Immerse Yourself in Music History at the Grammy Museum, Mississippi. Executive Director Emily Havens shares details on current exhibitions and which red carpet looks are not to be missed by Jennifer Green. For nine years, Emily Havens has been at the helm of Grammy Museum, Mississippi, located in her hometown of Cleveland. The only Grammy Museum outside of Los Angeles, its exhibits and artifacts celebrate the power of music across genres from rock and hip-hop to country and jazz, and spotlight the influential role Mississippi performers played in the evolution of American music. Here, Havens shares details on current exhibitions, which red carpet looks not to miss, and why timing a visit around an intimate live performance makes the experience even better. Road Trip. Our newest exhibition is called Highway 61, Traveling America's Music Highway, and it's an incredible trip from New Orleans up through the Mississippi Delta, then Memphis, and all the way to St. Louis. It tells the story of the genres and artists born along Highway 61. We have interviews, cool interactives, and music by performers like Elvis, B.B. King, Chuck Berry, Buddy Guy, Conway Twitty, and Muddy Waters. Fashion Forward. On the Red Carpet exhibit is always evolving. We update it with new looks all the time. It features incredible outfits worn by Katy Perry, Megan Thee Stallion, Charlie XCX, and even Taylor Swift's sheer floral dress and matching mask from the 64th Grammys, which was during the pandemic. But probably the most outlandish outfit is one of our older ones, Cee Lo's green chicken costume from 2011. A Rich Legacy. My favorite interactive exhibit is the Mississippi Music Table in the Mississippi Gallery. You can explore the artists from the state and the lineage between different singers and see why music historians consider our state the birthplace of American music. Up Close and Personal. Sanders Soundstage seats about 130 people and we have public performances so visitors can plan a trip around it. The sessions are like an oral history with a moderated interview and then a stripped down performance. We've done more than 200 of them, including with Peter Frampton, Garth Brooks, and Jimmy Vaughn. It's a lot of fun to come and make a night of it. More to Do. The Cotton House is an incredible boutique hotel downtown. They have a great restaurant, Delta Meat Market, that I love for lunch. The rooftop Bar Fontaine is perfect for a drink and has excellent food too. That was Immerse Yourself in Music History at the Grammy Museum, Mississippi by Jennifer Green. Next, the Atlanta Center for Photography Takes Flight. The rebranded Atlanta Celebrate Photography has its first brick and mortar gallery space and will feature a more year-round approach by Felicia Feaster. What do Otse Pink Flamingo's director, John Waters, and poetic R.E.M. frontman, Michael Stipe, have in common? Both have a side hustle as photographers and both have visited Atlanta to talk about their artistic vision and share their under-the-radar side of their creative output. For 26 years, creatives like Waters and Stipe, along with such photoluminaries as Annie Leibovitz, Gregory Crudson, and Laurie Selton, have come to Atlanta at the behest of one of the city's formative arts organizations, Atlanta Celebrates Photography. Founded in 1998, the organization's goal is to promote Atlanta's importance as a photo-centric town. It has become an integral part of a pretty strong photography community, says Joe Massey, an arts patron and early supporter of Atlanta Celebrates Photography through his family's H.B. and Doris Massey Charitable Trust. Atlanta Celebrates Photography is best known for its annual month-long photography festival in October. The festival allowed people from all walks of life, no matter what they do, who have a love for photography, to discover Jackson Fine Art, the High Museum of Art, Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, all these places that they may not normally go, says Amy Miller, who helmed the organization for 14 years. That was one of the most important aspects of the festival. But like so many arts organizations dealing with a changing funding landscape, as in less money to go around from grant sources, Atlanta Celebrates Photography has recently reinvented itself, moving away from its focus on the signature festival. The festival will remain, but with a shorter run. Rebranding as the Atlanta Center for Photography, the reimagined organization will feature a more year-round approach. That mission is anchored in its first brick-and-mortar gallery space on buzzy Edgewood Avenue across the street from Staple House. Large windows on a busy street make the tiny 300-square-foot ACP Project Lab the perfect venue for a driving city, a beacon for rotating exhibitions of photo-based work, including that of recent Yale MFA grad Davian Alston, whose solo show exhibits through April 27th. And there's more to come, says the organization's new executive director, Lindsay O'Connor. She has held positions at the High Museum of Art and New York City's Whitney and Guggenheim Museums. O'Connor says audiences should look for further expansion by the ACP in 2024. The organization supports an emerging artist fellowship and recently earned WAGE certification to ensure fair wages for their artists. She hopes to soon offer artist studios, community education classrooms, and perhaps even a photo printing lab for community members. The shift in focus comes after some organizational flux following Miller's 2021 departure. She is now the director of institutional advancement for another beleaguered Atlanta arts institution, Art Papers, which has announced plans to sunset in 2026. Post-pandemic realities for arts organizations, particularly in the Southeast, are dire, says Miller. Growing any arts organization, any non-profit arts organization, outside of the Woodruff Arts Center is hard, he says. O'Connor understands the financial challenges that small and mid-sized arts organizations face, but it's not like there's not money here, she says. I try not to dwell on the scarcity and to really focus on the potential for abundance. That was The Atlanta Center for Photography Takes Flight by Felicia Feaster. Next, we move to the Burnaway publication for Anna Hernandez, Color of Clouds at Other Plans, New Orleans by Christina K. Robinson. Taking its title from a passage in the Relacion de Micoan, one of the earliest surviving illustrated manuscripts from colonial Mexico, Anna Hernandez's Color of Clouds is an intricate body of work that quietly unsettles the grammars of colonization. Commissioned by the Spanish viceroy Antonio de Mendoza, the Relacion was produced by a Franciscan friar and anonymous indigenous artist who created its 44 illustrations between 1539 and 1541. It is to the present the primary source of information on pre-Columbian social practices in the modern day state of Micoan. Scholarly studies of the Relacion have often noted what is missing from the work as much as what is present. For example, pages containing descriptions of religious ceremonies were removed from the original previous to its binding, with only one page remaining. Through a distinctive juxtaposition of materials, earthen, and technological, Hernandez creates an otherworldly synthesis of ancient writing systems, all and at once evoking Egyptian, indigenous, and Mesopotamian-style glyphs and talismanic magic. The series worked itself in its various installments into being a document of its own. Functioning as both an integration and a disruption of standard modes of communication, Hernandez's work repurposes wood, beads, seeds, naturally dyed cotton, and concrete to create codices that bridge time and space. Her utilization of textiles and concrete tablets employ binary code, the primary language of all digital technologies, as a starting point for her own unique representation of language. In place of patterns of the numbers 0 and 1, Hernandez uses marks, both their presence and absence, in hues of black, white, red, and yellow to create a new form of hieroglyphics and an opportunity to analyze their patterns. Pieces like Juju synchrotizes the words of computer coding with indigenous knowledge from both the Americas and the African continent. Similarly, Remember, our relations, where we come from, who we are, charts this interconnectedness in part through the use of color. Red and black, when used separately and in combination, hold spiritual significance for many groups of indigenous people on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. The colors call many deities and energies into the space, with Hernandez's language systems creating the harmony and order necessary to accommodate them all. In Color of Clouds, such order is repurposed as a tool for destabilizing and subverting other oppressive systems of classification. The acrylic and concrete casting works, such as Decolonize and Revolution, are simultaneously relics of the past and a powerful call to humanity toward present and future action in the interest of all living beings. Anna Hernandez's Color of Clouds is on view at Other Plans in New Orleans through March 10, 2024. That was Anna Hernandez's Color of Clouds at Other Plans, New Orleans, by Christina K. Robinson. Next, we move to the creative loafing publication online for Blues and Beyond, Dancing with the Star. Kevin Kinney gets a massive tribute, Nominees for Blues Awards Announced, by Hal Horowitz. It has been a long, slow, and steady grind, but Kevin Kinney has gradually become an icon, some might even say a living legend, of the Atlanta roots music scene and beyond. The lead singer-songwriter of Drivin' and Cryin' is a musical force of nature, having written hundreds of songs for both his longtime band and for his various solo projects since D&C's presciently named 1986 debut, Scarred but Smarter. Along the way, Kinney has worked with a diverse array of artists that recognize his talent as a musical alchemist, one who combines country, folk, swamp, hard rock, and blues into a mix that displays its red clay roots while pushing into often edgy, uncompromising sonic territory. The band's twisty, somewhat turbulent history drove the 2012 documentary Scarred but Smarter, the life and times of Drivin' and Cryin'. In 2015, the band was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame. Through the decades, Drivin' and Cryin' has headlined thousands of dates, as well as opening for larger acts, since first playing off nights at Atlanta's 688 Club. While those in the South have recognized Kinney's talents from the beginning, he remains far a household name, even in homes that have original copies of D&C vinyl in their collections. That may or may not change as an epic venture paying tribute to Kinney's songwriting unfolds in the coming year. Titled Let's Go Dancing, a compilation celebrating the songs of Kevin Kinney, the project will eventually yield over 100 tracks covered by admirers, peers, associates, fans, and followers of the band and its impressible frontman. Produced and curated by Kinney's wife, Anna Jensen, it's the ultimate labor of love. The plan is for four vinyl albums to be released quarterly, containing a selection of singles that started appearing digitally by weekly last June for about a year. The first full length out on vinyl last November 24, 2023, Record Store Day, and digitally February 2nd, Let's Go Dancing Said the Firefly to the Hurricane, a compilation celebrating the songs of Kevin Kinney, features largely acoustic performances from Patterson Hood with Peter Buck, Shovels and Rope, Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, Alejandro Escovedo, Pylon Reenactment Society, and other critically acclaimed music practitioners as eclectic as Kinney's musical approach. Three remaining titles, all on the scrappy, tasty, goody label, will start with the words Let's Go Dancing. The second is Let's Go Dancing Split a Mountain in Two with a Flake of Snow, a compilation celebrating the songs of Kevin Kinney, continuing with another lyric from that song. A different interpretation will lead off each set. Being the generous and humble guy he has always been, Kinney slept in his car for six months while working at a sewage plant when he first arrived in Atlanta. All proceeds go to charities chosen by Kevin and his wife. Jensen also provides the distinctive art for each album and single. While these are likely to be gobbled up by existing Kinney admirers, devotees of the players involved in this mammoth undertaking should also be enticed to check out the DNC frontman spotlighting one of Atlanta's most revered, important, influential, and gifted performers. See for yourself why adoration for Kinney is far and wide when he plays Eddie's Attic, April 3rd, at 8 p.m. Nominees and awards noted. The Blues Foundation has released the nominees for their annual awards, and three Georgia-based acts have been recognized. Congratulations to E.G. Kite, acoustic album, Larkin Poe, band of the year, and John Tavius Willis, traditional blues male artist. Watch this space for more info if and when any of them triumph in their respective categories. And speaking of awards, congratulations to Larkin Poe, who won this year's Grammy for Blood Harmony, at Best Contemporary Blues Album. That's an amazing honor for Marietta's Lovell sisters, and well-deserved, as it was released on their own indie label. Spring is almost here. Shake off the winter chill with these recommended blues and beyond shows. Friday, March 8th, J.J. Gray and MoFro, Cedric Burnside, The Eastern. The Elasti Tour is named after the Florida Swamp blues rock pop artist J.J. Gray's new album, the frontman's first in nine years. But since his career began in 2000 playing clubs smaller than Smith's Old Bar, he and his ever-changing MoFro unit have never relied on hits or radio play to connect with audiences. Now graduating to larger stages and festivals, it's likely his core audience hasn't abandoned him. His recent release reflects his roots in Florida soul blues sensibilities, honed to a slick edge, some with orchestrations. Arrive early to catch the dusky, rhythmic blues and leathery funk of opener Cedric Burnside. Tickets are $43 to $47. That's 7.30 p.m. at The Eastern, 777 Memorial Drive, SE, Atlanta, 30316, easternatl.com. YOLA, Terminal West. Show has been postponed to a later date. With the reams of press Brit soul diva YOLA received after the release of 2023's second disc, Stand for Myself, this seems like a sure sellout. Her powerful voice combines the swagger of Arisa with the rootsy intensity of Mava Staples. She's part rock, funk, some country, and even a touch of disco, but it seems natural and effortless, and it all works. Tickets are $30 to $35. That was scheduled for 8 p.m. at Terminal West, 887 West Marietta Street, Northwest, Atlanta, 30318. Call 404-876-5566 for more information or visit terminalwestatl.com. Owens Owens ate Eddie's attic. Mississippi born and bred, now making Nashville his home, Owens makes his living as a touring sideman, but his own full-length debut, 2021, showed that he's got the stuff to be a solo artist. His tough, dusky Americana rocks with tension, gusty singing, and great songs. The heavily tattooed Owens taut attack might be a little more intense than most of what hits Eddie's stage, and the all-seated setup isn't quite right for his rugged, guitar-heavy approach, but it should still be a rollicking night. Tickets are $23.37. That's at 9.15 p.m. Eddie's attic is 515B North McDonough Street, Decatur, 30030. Call 404-377-4976 or visit eddiesattic.com for more information. Friday March 8th and Saturday March 9th, Bob Margolin, Cajun Blues. This two-night stand of the veteran one-time Muddy Waters guitar sideman features a duo performance with Bill Sheffield on March 8th. Blue Velvet Atlanta opens the next evening, then returns, along with guitarist Skylar Softly to back Margolin on his set. Get ready for classic, old-school Chicago blues played with authenticity, verve, and humor by an elder statesman who learned his licks from the best. Tickets are $15-20. That's 6.30 p.m. at Cajun Blues, 2397 Savoy Drive, Atlanta, 30341. Call 770-674-4240 or visit cajunblueschambly.com. Sunday March 10th, Susie Boggess, Eddie's Attic. Country thrush Boggess has been cranking out radio-ready hits since the late 80s, but after leaving the major label Grind and releasing 2014's Lucky, an unadorned set of Merle Haggard covers, she moved to a darker, more earthy sound. The singer doubled down on that approach for 2023's tough Prayin' for Sunshine, which she'll likely feature along with new arrangements of earlier, more commercial material. Her sublime cover of the folk pop standard Someday Soon, Boggess' most streamed song, almost bests Judy Collins' classic version. Tickets are $50.62 plus. That's 6 p.m. at Eddie's Attic, 515B North McDonough Street, Decatur, Georgia, 30030. Call 404-377-4976 or visit eddiesattic.com. Wednesday March 13th, Lizzie Noe, Julie Williams, Eddie's Attic. If folk singer Lizzie Noe's only talent was accompanying herself on a modified, smaller-sized harp, that would be enough to endorse this show. But she's also a talented, dulcet-voiced singer and intimate songwriter with three fine albums. The newest, Have These, 2024, has received enthusiastic critical reviews as it pushes into slightly more pop and even rock as the song cycle delves into Noe's personal life stories. Highly recommended. Tickets are $20.03. That's 7 p.m. at Eddie's Attic, 515B North McDonough Street, Decatur, 30030. Call 404-377-4976 or visit eddiesattic.com. Friday March 15th, Rob Ickx and Trey Hensley, Eddie's Attic. Think you've seen some acoustic shredding? Wait till you get a load of Dobro Master Ickx, 15-time International Bluegrass Music Association winner, and guitarist Hensley as they tear into folk country bluegrass originals and a few covers from three superb albums, each better than the last. It's mind-blowing stuff that inspired a standing ovation when they recently opened for Little Feet. Up close and personal at Eddie's is the perfect place to get blown away. Tickets are $26.70. That's 9 p.m. at Eddie's Attic, 515B North McDonough Street, Decatur, 30030. Call 404-377-4976 or visit eddiesattic.com. Loving, Fog Lake, The Loft. Canadians David Perry and Jesse Henderson tour to support their second full-length, Any Light, out last month. As their band name implies, the music is exquisite, soft and heavy-lidded slow pop infused by folksy tendencies. A bit of Nick Drake here with some melancholy melodies there. Imagine a male-fronted Mazzy Star and you're in the ballpark. Some of the material will likely get amped up a bit live, but Loving's cushy, sumptuous, unruffled sound is miles from rock and roll. Tickets are $20-25. That's 8 p.m. at The Loft, 1374 West Peachtree Street, Marietta, 30309. Call 404-885-1365 or visit centerstage-atlanta.com. Saturday, March 16th, Hermanos Gutierrez, Variety Playhouse. How can two Switzerland-based brothers and instrumental guitarists playing a mix of often atmospheric music inspired by Spaghetti Westerns and Rye Cooter sell out this 1,000-seat venue with hardly any promotion and even less radio play? Certainly, releasing their most recent album on Dan Auerbach's Easy Eye imprint helped, but with a retro approach comparable to little else, they've carved a specialized niche in a world-inspired Americana that clearly resonates with more than a cult audience. It's a hypnotic, inimitable, often moody sound. See if you can find a ticket. $32-40, 8 p.m., Variety Playhouse, 1099 Euclid Avenue, Northeast, Atlanta, 30307. Call 404-504-7354 or visit variety-playhouse.com for more information. Sunday, March 17th, Colin Hay, The Eastern. Yeah, he still plays the men at work hits, but for the past four decades, folk pop artist Colin Hay has established himself as a quality singer-songwriter. With over a dozen solo albums having attracted a substantial fan base, many of whom weren't born when M.A.W. songs were blitzing MTV, Hay is best solo, as he, for this show, telling dryly humorous stories and choosing seldom-heard gems from his expansive catalog. Tickets are $42-50, that's 7.30 p.m., The Eastern, 777 Memorial Drive, Southeast, Atlanta, 30316. Visit easternatl.com. Atlanta Blues Society Monthly Meetup, Rootstock. Join host band Trip and the Breakers and converse with other local blues lovers, probably discussing who won the Best Contemporary Blues Album Grammy last month, hint, locally born Larkin Poe, for this month's get-together. If you play well enough or think you do, sign up for The Closing Jam 2. This is free, 3 p.m., Rootstock, 8558 Main Street, Woodstock, 30188. Call 770-544-9009 or visit rootstocknow.com. Monday, March 18, Wishbone Ash, Smith's Old Bar. These 70s UK hard prog rockers sporting powerful twin lead guitars were once arena headliners, but decades of more personnel changes in Fleetwood Mac and releases on albums so obscure even the band's cult fans may have had trouble finding them, has diluted whatever legacy once had 24 studio and 11 live albums later. However, Argus, 1972, the album that first gained the band notoriety, remains one of their finest, most memorable releases. In recognition of its staying power, the quartet, led by lone original member Mandy Powell, will play the album in its entirety for this rare Atlanta club appearance. Tickets are $45-50, that's 8 p.m. at Smith's Old Bar, 1578 Tiedemont Avenue NE, 30324. Call 404-875-1522 or visit sobatl.com. Tuesday, March 19, Socks in the Frying Pan, City Winery. Dismissing St. Patrick's Day, this traditional Irish trio, guitar, fiddle, accordion, still exude the kind of unhinged energy the Pogues used to bring, albeit without a frontman, quite as magnetic or symbolic as Shane McGowan. Regardless, they have won multiple awards for live performances and toured the world, bringing their Socks sound to the masses. It's a guaranteed party, especially if you kick away those chairs and dance. Tickets are $20-30, 8 p.m. City Winery at Ponce City Market, 650 North Avenue NE, 30308. Call 404-496-3791 or visit citywinery.com forward slash Atlanta. Thursday, March 21, Big Richard, Eddie's Attic. You won't find a more entertaining, frisky bunch of talented bluegrass players than the four women that comprise Colorado's Big Richard. Sporting the typical instrumentation of bass, guitar, mandolin, and fiddle, no drums, the quartet also adds a very non-traditional world-class cello player to the lineup, bringing a distinctive perspective to their sound. Their harmonies are wonderful, the playing is expert, and there's that cello, cool, classy, and fun. Tickets are $15, that's 9-15 p.m. at Eddie's Attic, 515B North McDonough Street, Decatur, 30030. Call 404-377-4976 or visit eddiesattic.com. Cody Parks and the Dirty South, Smith's Old Bar. Take some ZZ Top Southern Fried Rock, add ACDC intensity, throw in enough liquor to kill a horse, and you're close to the gritty attack of Parks and his band. They have some gnarly covers, including long-haired country boy and fulsome prison blues, pummeling the classics with screaming guitars and a swamp attack. It's gonna get loud. Tickets are $12-15, that's 8 p.m. at Smith's Old Bar, 1578 Piedmont Avenue, NE, 30324. Call 404-875-1522 or visit sobatl.com. Friday, March 22nd, Blue Oyster Cult, The Eastern. Buck Dharma and Eric Bloom are the only original members, but they have always been key to Blue Oyster Cult's melodic metal. Of course, you'll hear Don't Fear the Reaper, complete with its iconic cowbell, but the band's catalog has lots more almost hits that guarantee a room full of blue-jeaned older dudes singing along to the Red and the Black, Godzilla, and playing Beavis and Butthead air guitar to the eternal riffs of Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll. Rock on, dude! Tickets are $47.50, that's 8 p.m. at The Eastern, 777 Memorial Drive, SE, 30316. Visit easternatl.com for more information. Saturday, March 23rd, Peter Case, Ben DeLaCour, Eddie's Attic. When Peter Case decided to go folk in 1986, he had already logged years with the frustratingly underrated pop-rocking Plimsolls. That brought energy and intensity to the many albums since, including Dr. Moan, 2023, this most recent release has Case putting down his battered acoustic guitar for piano, injecting a different, slightly darker sound into the mix. He remains one of the country's finest, most talented, and well-traveled troubadours, and he never phones it in. Tickets are $28.92+, that's 7 p.m. at Eddie's Attic, 515B North McDonough Street, Decatur, CA, 3030. Call 404-377-4976 or visit eddiesattic.com. Indigenous, Smith's Old Bar. Since 1998, frontman and singer-guitarist Mato Nanji has been keeping the flame burning for this quartet of blues-rocking American Indians from South Dakota's Yankton Indian Reservation. A clutch of solid Stevie Ray Vaughan-inspired albums for the Vanguard label put them in the spotlight for a short time, but new material has been slow in coming of late. Regardless, Nanji has a compelling voice, plays fiery leads, and writes strong tunes for his genre. Tickets are $12-15, that's 8 p.m. at Smith's Old Bar, 1578 Piedmont Avenue NE, 30324. Call 404-875-1522 or visit sobatl.com. Sam Birchfield and the Scoundrels, Nicholas Jamerson and the Morning Jays, Terminal West. Birchfield and his Americana-laced Southern folk rockers bring an introspective, melancholy, muggy, and bayou-styled approach to their music, which sound like it was recorded on a one-room shack on some mosquito-infested Backwoods River. He and his soulful, country-influenced band feature music from the magnificent, under-the-radar Scoundrels, 2022. Tickets are $20-25, that's 8 p.m. at Terminal West, 887 West Marietta Street NW, Suite C, Atlanta, 30318. Call 404-876-5566 or visit terminalwestatl.com. Marco Silker, My Politic, The Earl. There are so many Americana releases each year, it's impossible to get traction on any of them. That made Silker's 2021 low-key debut, Poharl, which generated near-unanimous raves and instant recognition for her as a vibrant new voice on the already-crowded landscape, such an outlier. Better still, she followed it with last year's even more potent Valley of Hearts Delight, an introspective, often moody look on life, the environment, and the fleeting nature of both. She's in it for the long haul, catch her now on this infrequent Atlanta stop. are $20, that's 8 p.m. at The Earl, 488 Flat Shoals Avenue NW, Atlanta, 30316. Call 404-522-3950 or visit badearl.com. Sunday, March 24, Peter Mulvey, Eddie's Attic. Mulvey has been crafting his unique mix of folk, blues, pop, and jazz since the early 90s, making fans of artists such as Chuck Proffitt and Annie DeFranco, both of whom have produced his albums. His sharp, poetic wordplay, sweet melodies, and intriguingly diverse music sets him apart from other singer-songwriters. He's always just one song away from crossing over and will be featuring music from the all-acoustic More Notes from Elsewhere, released last month. are $16, that's 6 p.m. at Eddie's Attic, 515B, North McDonough Street, Decatur, 30030. Call 404-377-4976 or visit eddiesattic.com. Wednesday, March 27, Marshall Crenshaw, Eddie's Attic. Fresh from Crenshaw's stint fronting the Smithereens, it's the 40 Years in Showbiz Tour. He's used Marshall and his three-piece outfit to charge through four decades of should-have-been hits from a career of terrific albums, each brimming with hummable, melodic pop keepers. It's inexplicable why he never crossed over, but it has never stopped him from writing great songs. Though his most recent material is nearly eight years old, maybe he'll throw in a few new ones tonight. are $35, that's 7 p.m. at Eddie's Attic, 515B, North McDonough Street, Decatur, 30030. Call 404-377-4976 or visit eddiesattic.com. Thursday, March 28 through Sunday, March 31, Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, The Tabernacle. After a year, another multiple-night stand at the venue, Isbell has been calling home in Atlanta for recent tours. The ex-drive-by trucker will likely feature material from the Grammy-winning Weathervane 2023, plus the songs that got him here. His band is incredible, the tunes are Americana classics, the audience loves him like a local, and he has different opening acts each night to showcase new talent. What's not to like? Tickets are $68.50 to $266 plus, that's 8 p.m. at The Tabernacle, 152 Lucky Street, Northwest, Atlanta, 30303. Call 404-659-9022 or visit tabernacleatl.com. Friday, March 29, Peter Karp Band featuring Mark Johnson, Eddie's Attic. Delta Moon co-founder and frontman Johnson now gets almost equal billing, at least when the Peter Karp Band plays Atlanta, which is often. Having played Blind Willie's last month, don't expect a repeat of that performance, as Karp changes set lists nightly, and the shows are always tight, professional, and display the songwriting and instrumental talents that have kept him on the road for the better part of 40 years. And Johnson kills it every time. Tickets are $20 plus, that's 7 p.m. at Eddie's Attic, 515 Bean North McDonough Street, Decatur, 30030. Call 404-377-4976 or visit eddiesattic.com. Slow Parade, Cicada Rhythm, The Titos, The Earl. This show from Matthew Pendrick's Americana altar show, Slow Parade, celebrates the collective's third album release and also serves to showcase some other quality local acts. Slow Parade's generally melancholy sound combines folk, country, and singer-songwriter approaches with some tougher rockers, like Junker in the Fast Lane. Openers Cicada Rhythm add jazz and blues to their already quirky stew, and The Titos' Suburban Soul, their description, rounds out a terrific triple bill. Tickets are $15, that's 8.30 p.m. at The Earl, 488 Flat Shoals Avenue, Northeast, Atlanta, 30316. Call 404-522-3950 or visit badearl.com. Katie Pruitt, Terminal West. Introspective Georgia-bred Americana singer-songwriter Fokie Pruitt made critical and commercial waves with her 2020 debut, but her follow-up took nearly four years to make. Montress, her new one, hits the streets next month. Expect to hear many of the tunes before the rest of the world. Guaranteed, you'll also get Walking Back to Georgia, a bittersweet single she recorded with Elizabeth Cook and Butch Walker to support the Georgia Music Foundation. Tickets are $22-25, that's 8 p.m. at Terminal West, 887 West Marietta Street, Northwest, Suite C, Atlanta, 30318. Call 404-876-5566 or visit terminalwestatl.com. That was Blues and Beyond, Dancing with the Star by Hal Horowitz from the Creative Loafing Publication. Next, we move to Arts ATL for Rialto to present visually stunning, gravity-defined Parsons Dance on Sunday by Robin Wharton. David Parsons, Artistic Director of Parsons Dance, acknowledges that his company, and much of its repertoire, emerged from a long-term collaboration with Tony Award-winning lighting designer Howell Blinkley. The two co-founded Parsons Dance in 1985 and worked together until Blinkley's death in 2020. That span of history will be on display this Sunday afternoon when Parsons Dance performs at Georgia State University's Rialto Center for the Arts, fittingly as part of the Rialto's 2023-24 series, Holding the Light. Blinkley was Parsons' close friend and go-to collaborator for the bulk of the company's repertory, Parsons told Arts ATL in an interview. As with many Parsons Dance performances, Sunday's mixed bill will include Caught, the 1982 solo that put Parsons on the map as a choreographer. It is perhaps the foremost example of how Blinkley contributed to the company's signature aesthetic. In Caught, Blinkley and Parsons created the illusion of flight with use of a strobe light and five minutes of gravity-defined choreography. Though Caught usually features a male presenting dancer, company member Zoe Anderson, a woman, will perform it on Sunday. Zoe is a monster the way she just attacks the movement, said Parsons. Parsons got his start on a scholarship to the Ailey School in New York and was a protege of choreographer Paul Taylor. Parsons and Blinkley met while both were working for the Paul Taylor Dance Company. For almost 50 years, the innovation they incubated within Parsons Dance has influenced theater, film, and dance beyond the company. Blinkley's successful career lighting Broadway shows, including two Tony Awards, the most recent in 2016 for Hamilton. Parsons has accepted commissions from companies throughout the United States and internationally, including New York City Ballet and American Ballet Theater. He has choreographed for opera, musicals, and film, including Julie Taymor's 1992 breakthrough production for the small screen Full Fire. During John McFall's early tenure as artistic director of Atlanta Ballet, McFall commissioned Parsons to create a work for the company. Blinkley's final collaboration with Parsons, The Road, debuted in 2021. Originally lit by Blinkley, the current version is lit by Christopher Chambers. It is the newest work on the bill and closes the first half of Sunday's program. Parsons choreographed The Road to music by Yusef Kat Stevens and said it was inspired by Yusef's personal and artistic journey over the course of his career. The Road questions whether a life can ever be recounted as a story of purely linear progress. The dancers move across the stage with ceaseless, peripatetic restlessness, and the piece closes with a newer re-recording of the iconic 1971 composition Peace Train, showing Yusef's circular return to old material with new attention. Like The Road, the four remaining pieces highlight Parsons' ongoing conversation with the forms, composers, and performers of 20th century music. The show will open with Swing Shift, a big, bold Parsons dance staple built around what Parsons described as massive partnering. He aptly summarized it as a hot, beautiful piece. Set to an original score by Kenji Bunch, Swing Shift fills the stage with dancers in flowing costumes. Instruments used in the score surface into distinct voices, only to blend back into a harmonious whole over and over. The choreography follows a similar pattern. Dancers lift one another and leap together in constantly shifting trios and duets, creating a kaleidoscopic constellation of convergences, mergers, and separations. The solo Balance of Power and the ensemble piece Kind of Blue evolved through Parsons' exploration of how formal musical techniques might be translated into dance. In Balance of Power, both choreography and music build from a simple rhythmic sequence into a technical tour de force, ultimately transforming the dancer's body into a visual cacophony of limb and gestures. Kind of Blue takes cues from its namesake, Miles Davis' monumental jazz hit, by using structured improvisation to keep the dance fresh, every performance unique. The program's final ensemble piece, Nascimento, was an early collaboration with renowned Brazilian singer and composer Milton Nascimento. Parsons said Nascimento came to see him backstage when the company was on tour in Brazil. The composer told Parsons he loved what Parsons' dance was doing, and he wanted to compose a score for the company, for free. In the resulting piece, Parsons' nostalgic gestural reflections on his experience as a tourist in Brazil intertwine with Nascimento's music, itself inspired by the composer's encounter with Parsons' art. Throughout, the Rialto program will showcase Parsons' athletic, stage-devouring adaptation of Lester Horton, Ailey, and Taylor techniques. Though Sunday's program is in all Parsons' bill, Parsons said fostering the work of outside choreographers has been integral to the company's mission. A dancer's career is like a minute long, he reflected. The way they grow during that time is getting to work with different minds. For Parsons, keeping talented dancers in the company means providing them with those opportunities. Consequently, Parsons' dance has produced work by more than 30 choreographers, among them Robert Battle, the former artistic director of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, who also spent time as a dancer with the company. Those choreographers were influenced by, and in turn have influenced, the Parsons' dance repertoire. Like last season's Rialto engagement of the Martha Graham Dance Company, Parsons' show brings to the Atlanta stage important modern dance history, as well as what promises to be an afternoon of gorgeous dance. Parsons' dance last performed in the Atlanta metro area in 2021. This is a rare opportunity not to be missed. That was Rialto to present visually stunning, gravity-defying Parsons' dance on Sunday by Robin Horton. Next up, review. Alliance's Two Cities has numerous highlights, heavy script by Luke Evans. From the beginning, we as the audience understand that Brendan Pelsu's adaptation of A Tale of Two Cities won't be a straightforward dramatization of Charles Dickens' original text. He has employed numerous metatheatrical elements meant to heighten our awareness of the constructed nature of historical storytelling. This awareness runs throughout the world premiere production, currently on the Coca-Cola stage at Alliance Theater through March 17th. Set during the events of the French Revolution, Dickens' novel serves as an indictment of the upper class, as well as a warning against mob mentality. And Pelsu's adaptation channels both themes fairly well. At times, the script ruthlessly satirizes the aristocracy's frivolity and self-centeredness. At others, the tone is much darker, tapping into the rage and bitterness of those who live their lives under the boots of the wealthy. It's in these moments that the story comes alive, with Pelsu's words and Leora Morris' keen direction drawing out the humanity of Dickens' writing in a way that feels timely. We are greeted by narrators Stephen Ruffin and Tess Malice Kincaid, who introduce us to the actors and story. Both play other roles in addition to narrating. The whole cast plays more than one. Generally, I'm a fan of this kind of postmodern approach. As Ruffin's narrator reminds us, history is always happening, always was happening, and is always about to happen. However, it could be argued that a tale of two cities overplays the hand. There are times, too, when the narration from the original text becomes too cumbersome. The opening scene where Charles is being put on trial is an attention trap. Parts of it are compelling, but as it goes on, you can feel the script begin to buckle under the weight of its exposition. Throughout the play, Kincaid's narrator prompts the audience to make various exclamations in reaction to the play's events. Shock from the crowd, please, is one example. While this is a fun and interactive tool, it's easy to overuse. The efficacy depends on the energy level of the audience, and the prescriptiveness of being told what emotion to express occasionally creates unease when the instructions don't match how one is actually feeling. I would not necessarily count this as a flaw. However, it amplifies the story's themes of individual versus group thought. After all, a little discomfort in the theater is not always negative. These techniques would not work as well without Kincaid's authoritative voice behind them. Her instructions carry a certain quality to draw the audience in. It's not until Act Two, however, that you realize this is not just a strong performance from Kincaid. It is her career best. The blend of empathy and ferocity with which she endows each character she plays leads to some of the show's most volcanic moments. If you leave the Alliance without her name on your lips, I can only assume you were watching an entirely different play. The other driving force is Tiffany Denise Hobbs, whose performance is quieter, but nonetheless affecting. She radiates sincerity and composure as Lucy Minette, but manages to turn on a dime to make an absolute meal out of her dual role as the cartoonishly evil Marquise de Seymouron. Every cast member gets their moment in the spotlight. A few others particularly worth noting are Lee Osorio, with whom Hobbs has excellent chemistry, and Brad Raymond, whose rendition of King Louis XVI is the show's comedic highlight. Visually, A Tale of Two Cities is nothing to complain about. Every inch of this production looks gorgeous, or is calculated to match the unique blend of grandeur and metatheatrical distancing that the script exhibits. Zhiyun Chang knocks it out of the park with the scenic and lighting design, using spotlights to create little pockets of isolation, which are incredibly effective at evoking a setting. Fabian Fidel Aguilar's costumes are similarly eye-catching, particularly the flamboyant pieces used to accentuate the play's satirical moments. These comedic beats may feel somewhat jarring when juxtaposed against the seriousness of the rest of the script, but Aguilar highlights them well. Though the script is a bit bulky, occasionally stumbling in attempts to streamline a dense novel, the moments that land do so with show-stopping intensity. The ambition behind Pelsu's adaptation must be applauded. He clearly has a keen sense for what makes the story relevant for the modern era. That was Review. Alliance's Two Cities has numerous highlights, heavy scripts by Luke Evans. Next up, News. Atlanta Ballet's 2024-25 season to include Coppelia. Three world premieres by Gillian Ann Renaud. While watching Coco Chanel, A Life in Fashion, Atlanta Ballet's full-length production that premiered last month, artistic director Gennady Nedgevin got an idea. He would invite resident choreographer Claudia Schreier to create a new work for the 2024-25 season set to Stravinsky's Rite of Spring. It was one of many decisions Nedgevin made in recent months to program the company's upcoming season, which was announced today. The connection between Coco Chanel and Rite of Spring isn't as unlikely as it seems. Act Two of Coco Chanel includes a dramatic scene with Igor Stravinsky, one of Chanel's many lovers, at the piano and a group of dancers behind him clad in costumes reminiscent of Václav Nijinsky's groundbreaking Rite of Spring, for which Stravinsky wrote the score. Nijinsky's unconventional angular choreography and the work's non-balletic costumes caused angry pandemonium among the audience at the ballet's 1913 Paris premiere. Since then, scores of choreographers have set ballets to the driving, rhythmically challenging score. That's all the time we have for this article entitled News, Atlanta Ballet's 2024-25 Season to Include Coppelia, Three World Premieres by Gillian Ann Renaud. That concludes today's MetroArts program, which is brought to you by the Fulton County Board of Commissioners. This has been Kristen Moody for GARS, the Georgia Radio Reading Service. Thank you for listening to GARS.