Wednesday, August 20 Buckwheat Zydeco $20.00 adv / $20.00 dos * 8:00 PM With his new album, Jackpot!, zydeco maestro Stanley "Buckwheat" Dural Jr. has once again taken matters into his own hands. And we're not just talking about his mastery of the piano accordion or the Hammond B3 organ. The well-known leader of Buckwheat Zydeco is the first zydeco artist signed to a major record label, the first zydeco artist to perform on a national television show, the first zydeco artist to release a children's album, the first zydeco artist to launch his own record label, and the first zydeco artist to win an Emmy award. Now the Bayou's barnstorming bandleader is back with Jackpot!, his first studio disc since the acclaimed, Trouble, in 1997. The album is Dural's fourth for Tomorrow Recordings, the label he and longtime manager and collaborator Ted Fox co-founded in 1998. Jackpot!, combines soulful original tunes, inspired playing and singing, and the trademark exuberance that's made Dural the world's best-loved zydeco artist, and has earned Buckwheat Zydeco fame as "the world's greatest party band." There's plenty of Buckwheat's signature accordion, and for the first time ever Buck specifically features his soulful mastery of the horizontal keyboard on a three-song Hammond B3 "Encore: featuring Organic Buckwheat".

Friday, August 22 Obscured By Clouds w/ The Slants w/ Chris Tsefalas $10.00 adv / $12.00 dos * 8:00 PM *CD Release Show* - The album “Psycheclectic” opens with a building conceptual segue between each song throughout the entire CD, and includes subconscious murmured dialogue that cross fades into each song. The first segue opens the CD with the subsonic rumbling and thunderous warbling that lead to the whispered murmurings of a faint female voice softly musing in her subconscious dialogue. This thematic flow of consciousness stands out to be the conceptual running theme throughout the CD from beginning to end. The opening song Soft Cheeked and Worried flows out of the introduction with the sonic imagery of drifting desert clouds. The song begins starkly barren with only acoustic guitar, grand piano, and the warm tones of an endless sustain of electric guitars just on the edge of feedback. This song concludes with a droning wall of sound of beaming guitar sustain and oscillating synthesizers.

Saturday, August 23 Mike Gordon $20.00 adv / $20.00 dos * 8:00 PM Rounder Records is proud to announce the release of Mike Gordon’s solo album, THE GREEN SPARROW. Set for an August 5th release, THE GREEN SPARROW finds the accomplished Phish bassist showcasing his wide range of influences in a winning 10-track album that reminds us that Gordon is one of the most imaginative and mold-breaking artists in music today. Recorded at Gordon's home studio in Vermont and mixed at The Barn, his former band’s studio and art space, THE GREEN SPARROW features special guests Chuck Leavell, Phish's Trey Anastasio and Page McConnell, Bill Kreutzmann, Ivan Neville and horn players from Antibalas. Since the break up of Phish in 2004, Gordon has participated in many projects, none of which have been purely solo. An artist known for his endless creativity and touring stamina, Gordon took 2007 off from touring and dedicated his time to writing this record. The end result is an eclectic album boasting Gordon’s skillful assimilation of free-form rock & roll, calypso, pop and funk that showcases a unexpected side to Gordon’s songwriting.

Tuesday, August 26 Edwin McCain w/ Courtney Jones w/ Meghan Coffee $20.00 adv / $23.00 dos * 8:00 PM Edwin McCain is happy. Life’s been good to him and he is very much obliged. Millions of albums sold. Hit songs that never leave the radio airwaves. An unwavering fanbase that keeps him on tour more days out of the year than not. And - surprising even Edwin himself - not one, but two of the most enduring wedding songs on the circuit, his earnest and soulful delivery unlikely standouts amongst all the other contrived wedding fare. So when it came to recording a new album, Edwin wanted to share the songs he loves and that make him happy, hoping listeners will take a few moments along the way to discover, rediscover and savor some of the best vintage soul and R&B songs ever written. So why would McCain - someone who has considerable talent at writing his own songs – choose to do an album of other peoples’ work? “For me, it was an absolute blast,” he says. “It was so much fun taking a break from staring into my own bellybutton, playing, singing, interpreting other people’s songs just for the fun of it. Purely for the joy of doing it.”

Wednesday, August 27 Priscilla Ahn w/ Willoughby Crystal Ballroom - LoLa's Room $12.00 adv / $12.00 dos * 8:00 PM Singer-songwriter Priscilla Ahn embarked upon a career the old-fashioned way: she packed her belongings in a car - “two guitars, clothes, and some other junk I really didn't need to bring” - and left her Pennsylvania home for L.A. That she found steady gigs - a supportive circle of fellow artists and a record deal in a relatively short period of time, give or take several months of bad waitressing jobs - will come as no surprise after a single listen to “Dream,” the lilting opening track of A Good Day, her full-length debut on Blue Note Records. Ahn artfully balances youthful whimsy and grown-up sophistication, playing guitar and singing in a warm, welcoming, and stunningly self-assured voice.

Friday, August 29 Bon Iver w/ A.A. Bondy $14.00 adv / $14.00 dos * 9:00 PM Bon Iver (pronounced: bohn eevair; French for "good winter" and spelled wrong on purpose) is a greeting, a celebration and a sentiment. It is a new statement of an artist moving on and establishing the groundwork for a lasting career. Vernon seems to have tested his boundaries to the utmost, and in doing so has managed to break free form any pre-cursing or finished forms. For Emma's tracks consist of thick layers draped in lush choral walls, with rarely more than an ancient acoustic guitar or the occasional bass drum providing structure. Despite its complexity, the record was created entirely by Vernon with nothing more than a few microphones and some aged recording equipment. This homemade aspect shows itself in sections as creaks and accidentals are exposed in the folds of the songs, but is hidden well by the highly impressive and almost orchestral sound that Vernon managed to produce by his lonesome, within the creaky skeleton of his father's cabin.

Sunday, August 31 Asylum Street Spankers $18.00 adv / $20.00 dos * 8:00 PM Since 1995, Austin, Texas' Asylum Street Spankers have purveyed their love of 1920s and 30s ragtime, pre-war blues, and early jazz into a full-fledged, extremely witty, unamplified hootenanny that's won over thousands of fans. Led by vocalist Christina Marrs and harmonica/washboard player/vocalist Wammo, the group has explored the joys of pre-war raunch ('96's Nasty Novelties), languorously expounded on the thrill of earthly vices ('97's Spanker Madness), and, on 2004's Mercurial, taken on Black Flag and the Beastie Boys. Now they've harnessed what Rolling Stone describes as their "inspired, lunatic brilliance," and applied it to kids' music.

Wednesday, September 3 Tyrone Wells w/ Jason Reeves w/ Justin Klump $14.00 adv / $16.00 dos * 8:00 PM Growing up a skinny preacher’s kid in Spokane, Washington, Tyrone Wells was discouraged from listening to pop music and only exposed to gospel. Little did he know a decade later, the roots of soul would become a key element of his passionate, irresistible and utterly unique songs. Combining pop, soul, and rock, Tyrone sings about true love, war and heartbreak with equal power and sincerity, coming across as a voice for a generation that’s both idealistic and confused. In his five years on the music scene as a singer-songwriter, he has evolved in an honest and organic manner, first scrambling for gigs and selling albums from the trunk of his car to eventually packing out The House of Blues and having his songs featured prominently on television programs. Wells’ major label debut Hold On is a fresh release filled