Close out ’23 with funk, blues and the swingin’ warmth of local music — December’s Sacramento Beat
So, looks like we’re about done with 2023 — that was quick! Cheers to a final jam-packed month of indie, blues, folk and glitzy yuletide swing (sounds way better than shopping, right?). Happy Holidays, Sactown.
We might suggest temporarily adding the word “funk” to their name for the night when the Sacramento Blues Society hosts its annual gala — in celebration of its 45th year — with headliner Sugaray Rayford and his seven-piece band. A flame-throwing bluesman at heart, his 2022 record “In Too Deep” gushes with funky, urban soulful grooves (shades of a feistier Gary Clark Jr., add horns) spun for humid city nights that sprawl well past last call and into the bluing sky at sunrise (7 p.m. Sun. Dec. 3 at Harlow’s. $35. harlows.com).
Choose your beverage carefully on this Sunday eve. It won’t matter what your normal emotive reaction to your firewater of choice is, Ora Cogan has an innate ability to seize control of the frontal lobes and puppeteer them to her will. The Vancouver Island-based songstress delivers an onslaught of relentlessly intense and searingly captive psych-crafted ballads — a sprawling constellation of gothic country and smoky, hazy indie folk leaving one powerless to maintain solid footing within the sweet and somber waves of her swirling sonic nebula. Her current tour behind her newest record “Formless” finds her stopping off in midtown at the Golden Bear, with Garret Pierce and Drew Walker joining the bill (8 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 3, 2326 K St. $10. goldenbear916.com). For the foothills crowd, Cogan also visits Stardust Station the night before (Saturday, Dec. 2), playing mid-bill with Pregnant and Boss Awkward (6:30-10:30 p.m., 792 Nevada St., Nevada City. $15. instagram.com/starduststation)
Local artists, message Aaron Davis on Instagram if you have upcoming shows, @adavis_threetosee.
Borderline overwhelming is the amount of recorded music pouring from “pre-apocalyptic psychedelic pop” maestro Anton Barbeau, who in September offered up the 31-track double-album behemoth “Morgenmusik/Nachtschlager.” Length-wise it recalls his hefty 25-song pandemic-era mindbender “Manbird” — but that was four albums ago! His latest offering teems with influences from the different landscapes in which it was written: half in the open spaces of his native Sacramento, the other in the concrete jungle of Berlin, where he made home for nearly a decade. The results are patently Barbeauian: razor-sharp pop acumen, alluringly quirky, intermittently fuzzy, teasingly psychedelic, and endlessly accessible. Barbeau wraps up his year of touring in Davis alongside goth-folk duo Charming Disaster (8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 8, at Watermelon Music, 1970 Lake Blvd., Davis. $20. watermelonmusic.com)
Haunting throwback troubadour Gill Landry is swinging by the revamped Drytown Social Club (now helmed by Feist Wines). Check out his new deserted-plains-at-dusk single “When I Get There” for a peek at the infinite void he is slowly sketching a map of (working by candlelight, wrapped in a moth-eaten blanket, dipping a tattered quill into a half-frozen inkwell and nipping at a jar of whiskey). For those keeping score at home, Landry is the second former member of Old Crow Medicine Show to visit Drytown this year after Willie Watson stopped by in June — keep your eyes on this gem of a foothills haunt for what figures to be a busy ’24 of shows (7:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 8, 15950 Highway 49, Drytown. $20. feistwines.com).
For those who like their rock and folk slightly more offbeat, a little quirky and occasionally laden with non-sequiturs (and fans of the 1998 comedy “There’s Something About Mary”), Jonathan Richman swings into town with his usual sidekick Tommy Larkins on drums for a gig at the Sofia. Richman isn’t traveling far to do it — the Massachusetts-born cult hero and former Modern Lovers frontman now makes a home 80-ish miles north in Chico, where he’s known to do some occasional busking (8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 8. $30. bstreettheatre.org).
Foothills folk/blues/rock stalwart Aaron Ross is celebrating the release of three 2023 albums — July’s “Noir,” April’s “Glory Days” and an additional offering due Dec. 7 — with a trilogy release party of sorts, alongside Moore Brothers (8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 15, at Miners Foundry, 325 Spring Street, Nevada City. $20/$25. minersfoundry.org).
For the eighth time, Sacramento’s swingin’ showman Peter Petty presents his jazzed-up holiday soiree “Hepcat’s Holla’ Daze-Swingin’ Yuletide Revue.” This year, his shimmying 12-piece juggernaut of a band is dubbed the Mercenaries of Merry (we’re pretty sure this feisty orchestra has never had the same name twice). Slap on your holiday best (it’s a fancy affair) and get loose to a hodgepodge of holiday tunes — incorporating elements from the “Harlem Renaissance, classic and neo-Burlesque artistry, and joyous holiday celebrations” — with help from a few pinkies-up libations and a bevy of guest performers including Dana Moret, Omari Tao, Richie & Katie Lawrence, A La Mode, Mariachi Bonitas de Dinorah Klinger, Marcel Smith and New Keyser-Petty Family Singers (7:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 16, at the Crest Theatre. $32.50-$49.50. crestsacramento.com/events).
A seemingly years-in-the-making pairing of Lee Bob and Bellygunner comes to fruition at the Side Door in Curtis Park, where kindred spirits Lee Bob Watson and Gabe Nelson — formerly of Jackpot and Cake, respectively — share a stage for (purportedly) the first time while each performing full-band sets of their own original music. We consider it likely that the two will do some collaborating with each other’s sets — there is ample space to be filled in the Venn diagram of each man’s whimsical and edgy indie forays (7 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 16, 2900 Franklin Blvd. $20. thesidedoor.net).
We’ve gotten pretty used to annual New Year’s double-gigs from Chico natives Mother Hips at Harlow’s these last few years. It is not to be for 2023, but a pre-NYE gig from bluegrass favorites Brothers Comatose is a pretty dang good alternative. I ding them and stop short of “perfect” only on account of their deeply polarizing, albeit obsessively catchy and cheeky new single “The IPA Song” — a tune which, in case you’re wondering, is not exactly extolling the virtues of its titular ales. For lager lovers fed up with bitter-bombed brewery menus, this protest song is your Woody Guthrie moment, seize it accordingly. But for us self-proclaimed hop-heads, sorry BroCo, we’re officially fighting! Just kidding, I’ll be there! Madeline Hawthorne opens (8 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 30. $25/$30. harlows.com).
Grab Bag: Tahoe-bred Americana rock mainstay Dead Winter Carpenters holds court at Harlow’s with upstart bluegrass darling AJ Lee & Blue Summit (8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 8. $18/$20. harlows.com); Hiss Golden Messenger — the vehicle for indie hero M.C. Taylor — stops off at Harlow’s with the Lostines (8 p.m. Monday, Dec. 11. $26/$31. harlows.com); the legendary Blind Boys of Alabama bring their now-traditional holiday show to the Center for the Arts in Grass Valley (7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 13. $50-$60. thecenterforthearts.org); prep yourself for a “2023 Red Hot Holidays” gig with rock/funk/ska/R&B act Fishbone — trailblazers of mashing all those styles together (with Lesdystics, 8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 15, at Goldfield Roseville. $30. goldfieldtradingpost.com); just in time for the season, charming local troubadour Quinn Hedges dished up a holiday album, “Night Divine” a few weeks back and has a smattering of local gigs throughout December (quinnhedges.com/shows).
