Todd Rundgren

with Freeman

Monday, October 13, 8 p.m.

Todd Rundgren’s best-known songs—the Carole King pastiche “I Saw the Light,” the ballads “Hello, It’s Me” and “Can We Still Be Friends,” and the goofy novelty “Bang on the Drum All Day”—suggest that he is a talented pop craftsman and gifted pop songwriter, but at his core Rundgren is a rock & roll maverick. Once he had a taste of success with his 1972 masterwork, Something/Anything?, Rundgren chose to abandon stardom and, with it, conventional pop music. He began a course through uncharted musical territory, becoming a pioneer not only in electronic music and prog rock, but in music video, computer software, and Internet music delivery as well. During the ’70s, his records were underground favorites, and his albums continued to chart until 1991, nearly 20 years after his commercial peak. In those 20 years, Rundgren may have existed largely on the fringes of pop music, but he produced a body of work that ranks as one of the most intriguing in rock & roll. In 2004, Rundgren issued his first rock album in over a decade. Liars, a political-heavy concept record, was issued on Sanctuary in spring 2004.

Donavon Frankenreiter

with Sara Watkins of Nickel Creek

Tuesday, October 14, 8 p.m.

On August 19, Lost Highway will release Pass It Around, the new album from Donavon Frankenreiter. Pass It Around boasts 10 new songs from the musician/pro-surfer, and also features some special guests and a new approach for Frankenreiter. On his 2006 self-produced Lost Highway debut, Move By Yourself, Frankenreiter set out on his own and began to find his musical identity as an artist as he moved away from the acoustic stylings of his 2004 self-titled debut by plugging in and opening up. Pass It Around shows that identity fully realized. The songs incorporate some of the acoustic and electric elements of his past recordings but infuse them with the musical wisdom he has gained along the way. Frankenreiter even approached the songwriting process in a new way by co-writing for the first time. Donavon collaborated with the likes of Mike Daly (Whiskeytown), Grant Lee Phillips, Steve McQuien (Unamerican) and Thad Cockrell, to name a few. The result is an album filled with soulful melodies, uplifting grooves and some lessons for life. Pass It Around is a testament to Frankenreiter’s continuing evolution as an artist.

Randy Newman

Wednesday, October 15, 8 p.m.

In addition to being one of our greatest American singer-songwriters and film composers, Randy Newman long ago established himself among our sharpest and most caustic wits. Harps and Angels, his first album of new material in nine years, came out August 5, and, like much of Newman’s remarkable catalog, it boasts a deceptively easy-going quality even as it tackles matters of life and death, memory and loss, the discontents of the rich and famous, the problems of the poor, governmental malfeasance, corporate cynicism, and the veritable end of an empire—namely, our own. The recipient of the 2002 Academy Award for Best Original Song, 17 Oscar nominations, five Grammy Awards, 13 Grammy nominations, and two Emmy Awards, Newman is a singular figure who over the course of his career has explored various styles and sounds of the cannon of 20th century American music.

Abigail Washburn & The Sparrow Quartet

Thursday, October 16, 8 p.m.

Performing their first official gig in Knoxville, Abigail Washburn & The Sparrow Quartet is an all-string supergroup of sorts with each player a formidable solo talent and in-demand studio musician. Featuring Abigail Washburn (of Uncle Earl) on vocals and banjo, the band also includes Ben Sollee on cello, Casey Driessen on fiddle, and—maybe you’ve heard of him—Bela Fleck on banjo. Touring in support of their debut CD, the band played in Beijing during Olympic festivities, as well as in San Francisco’s Outsidelands Festival. Check out this YouTube video of the band performing “The Captain” during their most recent visit to the WDVX Blue Plate Special.

Ray LaMontagne

with Leona Naess

Friday, October 17, 8 p.m. SOLD OUT!

Just as "loud" doesn't quantify the sound of a thundering waterfall, "soft spoken" can't begin to describe the complex demeanor of Ray LaMontagne. The young songwriter encapsulates both intensities in his well-wrought and passionate songs recorded on his 2004 debut, Trouble, and Till the Sun Turns Black in 2006. LaMontagne is set to release his much-anticipated third album, Gossip in the Grain, on September 9th on RCA Records. Touching upon a range of styles and musical settings—spanning pastoral folk, railroad blues, front porch country, and plangent balladry—Gossip In The Grain proves to be his most creative and emotionally expansive collection to date. Some parts Van Morrison, other parts Jeff Buckley, LaMontagne's confessional odes to romantic love avoid the pitfalls of amateur poetry and directly strike the veins that course between love and pain. In arguments of authenticity in music, there is no artist more honest than Ray LaMontagne.

Guy Clark

Friday, October 24, 8 p.m.

Songwriting legend Guy Clark doesn’t merely compose songs; he projects images and characters with the kind of hands-on care and respect of a literary master. Clark works slowly and with strict attention to detail, and has produced an impressive collection of timeless gems, leaving very little waste behind. Using everyday language to construct extraordinary songs for more than 35 years, Clark continues to be the type of songwriter whom young artists study and seasoned writers, as well discriminating listeners, revere. Tough, bare-boned and dryly sentimental, his beautiful songs reflect the man himself and display an old-fashioned masculinity that emphasizes honesty, integrity and carefully chosen words. Inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Foundation's Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2004, Clark was honored with the Americana Music Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award for Songwriting in 2005. His latest CD, Workbench Songs, was nominated for the 2007 Grammy award as Best Contemporary Folk/Americana Album.

TV on the Radio

with the dirtbombs

Sunday, October 26, 8 p.m.

Brooklyn-based TV on the Radio mixes post-punk, electronic, and other atmoshperic elements in such a creative way that it only makes sense that its core duo—vocalist Tunde Adebimpe and multi-instrumentalist/producer David Andrew Sitek—are both visual artists as well as musicians. The group has released several EPs including their debut Young Liars (2003), and two acclaimed albums, 2004’s Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes and their most recent, Return to Cookie Mountain (2006), which received wider notice and appeared near the top of several end-of-year lists. Celebration’s Katrina Ford and Blonde Redhead’s Kazu Makino have both made vocal contributions to various TVotR tracks and even art rock legend David Bowie (an early advocate and advisor of the band) has a vocal cameo on Return To Cookie Mountain. The much-anticipated follow-up, Dear Science, is due September 23.

Squirrel Nut Zippers

with Backyard Tire Fire

with Old Ceremony

Thursday, October 30, 8 p.m.

Squirrel Nut Zippers, featuring original and founding members Katherine Whalen, Jimbo Mathus, Chris Phillips, Je Widenhouse and Stuart Cole, are back again! Look out for a new live record late in 2008, and a new studio disc in 2009. The band still rejoices at the difficulty people have pigeonholing their unmistakable sound. A perpetually evolving, hybrid-stew of Southern roots traditions, blues and jazz, the Zippers were aptly tagged “’30s punk” by one critic. They have always flirted with a muse most concerned with ghosts, love gone wrong, fever-dreams and stories unearthed from days past. Centered around the beguiling vocals of Whalen and the anachronistic windup toy that is Mathus, the Zippers promise to both charm and confound.

Minus the Bear

with Annuals and Sylvie

Friday, October 31, 8 p.m.

With catchy song titles like “Hey, Wanna Throw Up? Get Me Naked,” “Monkey!!! Knife!!! Fight!!!,” and “Lemurs, Man, Lemurs,” it’s hard not to be at least a little bit curious about this Seattle-based quintet. Featuring members of Botch, Kill Sadie, and Sharks Keep Moving, Minus the Bear emerged on Seattle’s music scene in 2001 with the release of their six-song EP This Is What I Know About Being Gigantic. Though the band entered the studio before they ever played a show, they toured aggressively in support of the EP, then returned to the studio to record 2002’s Highly Refined Pirates, their first full-length album. The band’s third album, titled Planet of Ice, was released in August 2007. Though the song titles may lead one to believe that they’re a novelty act, Minus the Bear provides polished, shrewdly arranged songs. Finger-tapped guitar riffs mixed with catchy melodies and unexpected time changes keep listeners interested and entertained.