‘From jazz to hip-hop’ series highlights February music shows in Northern California

The end of February brings us the second installment of a new series at the Crocker Art Museum, tracing the connectivity of jazz, soul and hip-hop — but there’s much to get to before that.

Local artists, message Aaron Davis on Instagram if you have upcoming shows, @adavis_threetosee.

We start the month with a makeup date from the enigmatically raw, soul-dusted Marty O’Reilly Trio, flanked by graveled land pirate The Sam Chase and his trio. The duo of trios was slated to turn Starlet Room into some madcap version of an avant-garde folk-blues opium den in April, but a health scare derailed the plans. That road bump, thankfully, appears to have passed — the only remaining fear will be that felt by those who like their folk music squeaky clean and safe. Both of these raspy, ramshackle frontmen can lay out their own rusted bear traps of sweetly haunting, desolately soulful and relentlessly captivating balladeering — dancing around them is what makes their sets so enthralling. It’s tricky to maintain your footing in their plush, zigzagging labyrinths as it is, even if you don’t hear one go snap underfoot (8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 3. $20. harlows.com).

Very few singer/songwriters can make it all seem so easy in the manner that folk hero David Wilcox can. His pulse never seems to rise above a comfy resting rate as he nestles on a bench on a breezy seaside cliff — but that’s all until you start to peer closer into the warm nooks and crannies of his renowned songwriting, which yields a rapid spelunking into the expansive and at times emotionally-fraught caverns below. Touring behind his tender 2023 acoustic record “My Good Friends,” Wilcox stops off both at the Sofia in midtown (Saturday, Feb 3. bstreettheatre.org) and in Nevada City at the Nevada Theatre (Thursday, Feb. 1. paulemerymusic.com), with Jean Rohe opening both gigs.

A budding local tradition gets a new chapter when the rollicking Booze Bombs, hailing from the Black Forest region of Germany, post up for an early afternoon set at SacYard Community Tap House (Noon to 3 p.m. Sunday, Feb 11. Free. sacyard.beer). The throwback shack-shaking quartet performed a rowdy and jubilant set of plank-spanking pin-up rockabilly as part of the tap house’s two-year anniversary party in January 2020 (you know, that part of 2020 that was still fun), and has returned to SacYard several times since while touring the U.S. For those keeping score at home, yes, Feb. 11 is indeed Super Bowl Sunday — but their set ends a half hour before kickoff. Did we mention SacYard has TVs and beer?

Sacramento’s own Fat Tuesday fiesta offers up its usual early evening second-line romp through midtown with festive local stalwarts Element Brass Band. The saunter begins at Mulvaney’s (1215 19th St.) at 5 p.m., trots over to Streets and then ends at the Torch Club for more tunes (indoors this time) with Big Chiefs and Hayez — and we hear talk of “jambalaya and hurricane specials” (4:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 13. torchclub.net). Element Brass Band also provides the soul for another Mardi Gras Party at East Sac’s cozy Hilltop Tavern on Saturday, Feb. 10; the party runs noon to 6 p.m. with Element performing at 5 p.m. (instagram.com/hilltoptavernsac). Peeking ahead to March, the City of Trees Parade and Mardi Gras Festival comes back for its third year, flooding Capitol Mall and Old Sacramento with all manner of music, food, drink and other NOLA-flavored revelry (Sat. March 9. curiositycollaborative.org/city-of-trees-parade/).

Well, Happy Valentine’s Day indeed! A combo tour from indie rock upstarts Futurebirds and the Nude Party has that feel of a trek that would often skip the capital region — seeing those names on the V-Day marquee at Goldfield Roseville is our love language here at Sac Beat HQ (8 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 14. $26. goldfieldtradingpost.com). Flip a coin for which order they play on this co-headlining tour. Perhaps the Nude Party starts it out with their arid, acid-washed desert psych meets thumping blues-flecked ’60s basement club rock, showcased with aplomb on their sprawling 2023 album “Rides On” (which also packs one of the more faithful Dr. John covers you’ll ever hear). Or, maybe it’s Futurebirds up first, a plucky and exultant band that aptly self-describes as “too indie rock for the jam festival, too country for the indie scene, a little too psych-rock to feel like we were Americana” (they’re pretty spot on here). Either way, they’ll both follow an opening set from Pearl Charles.

Time can be a vicious beast when you realize how fast it flies. To wit, jam band/Southern Rock royalty Gov’t Mule — presided over by soul-slinging axe king Warren Haynes — celebrates its 30th(?!) anniversary in 2024. Their newest album, “Peace ... Like a River,” inspired by “the golden era of rock, soul, jazz and blues” according to Haynes, dropped in June, followed by an EP “Time of the Signs” in November. Their Lincoln stop on the anniversary tour gets all the sweeter (and probably rowdier) with an opening set from superstar-in-the-making Lukas Nelson + POTR — that’s “Promise of the Real” to you! (7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 16, at the Venue at Thunder Valley. $52.95-$102.95. ticketmaster.com).

Derv Gordon, original frontman of 1960s British rock act the Equals, is out on tour for his first gigs since 2019 and stopping off at the intimate Side Door in Curtis Park (7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 22. $30. thesidedoor.net). Drawing from his Jamaican ska-punk roots, the Equals scored their biggest hit in 1968 with “Baby Come Back” before Gordon would embark on a solo career. He’s backed on this tour by Oakland riff-rattling protopunk act So What, with Gordon leading them through a set of Equals material, and So What also performing their own set. Local legend Kepi Ghoulie also joins the party for an opening set.

The Crocker Art Museum is hosting a new special series of concerts through April titled, “The Message: A Journey from Jazz to Hip Hop.” Highlighting local artists, the series explores the roots and connective tissue between jazz, soul, funk, hip hop and rap, and chronicles how these genres have given voice to the voiceless throughout their history — as they still do today. February’s installment, the second of four parts, dives into the smoldering songbooks of Billie Holiday, Dinah Washington, Nina Simone, and Betty Carter, with vocalists Rhonda Peters, Denise Anya, Darlene Tellis, and Carol Mandon handling the duties (7 p.m. Thursday, Feb 22 at the Crocker. $30. crockerart.org). Local architects LabRats, erecting sonic skyscrapers forged from all of the aforementioned genres, take the reins for part three (March 28) with hip-hop acts Jakhari Smith and TIP Vicious bringing the series home on April 25.

Finally, spend your Leap Day with a Sacramento favorite that hasn’t played a local gig since before the last Leap Day. Led by sax-wielding frontman Jason Boggs (formerly of Filibuster), the Snobs bust out their first gig since early 2019 (9 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 29, at Old Ironsides. $5. theoldironsides.com). Think Clash/Stooges-era rock/punk with a dose of Morphine — the band, definitely not the med.