Mike Brown Group

Live Music @ Boise Brewing's Taproom Every Thursday!
2024-08-22 18:00 - 21:00 UTC | Boise Brewing, 521 W. Broad St, Boise, Idaho, 83702
Local musicians play in Boise Brewing’s taproom every Thursday, 6-9pm. Come enjoy some jams with great beer and seasonal favorites and be sure to check out the new restaurant!

Great Garden Escape Concert Series - McKenna Esteb
2024-08-22 18:00 | Idaho Botanical Garden, 2355 N Old Penitentiary Rd, Boise, Idaho, 83712
The Garden is excited at the variety of genres being featured this year. There is something for everyone!

Thursday Thunder - Asphalt Buffet
2024-08-22 18:00 | Boise Spectrum, 7709 W. Overland Road, Boise, Idaho
Celebrating summer with our Thursday Thunder Summer Concert Series!

Live Music at The Warehouse
2024-08-22 17:00 - 20:00 | The Warehouse Food Hall, 370 S 8th St, Boise, Idaho
Thursdays just got a major upgrade at The Warehouse Food Hall with the return of live performances! Whether you’re into tunes, flavors, or just good times, our live music Thursdays cater to all. Dive into a world of diverse food options, sip on crafted drinks, and let the music elevate your evening.
Weekly on Thursdays from 5 to 8 p.m.
Free for all ages

See Them Cannons
2024-08-22 14:00 - 17:00 | The Riverside Hotel, 2900 W Chinden Blvd, Garden City, ID, 83714
Ryan Wissinger Trio- Ryan Wissinger graduated from the McNally Smith College of Music in 1997 with a degree in Music Performance. He covers a tremendous range of songs.

Boise Open
2024-08-22 - 2024-08-25 | Hillcrest Country Club, 4610 W Hillcrest Dr, Boise, ID, 83705
The Albertsons Boise Open is a professional golf tournament in Idaho on the Korn Ferry Tour, played annually at Hillcrest Country Club in Boise. Held in mid-September for its first 23 years, the new September playoff schedule of the Web.com Tour in 2013 moved the Boise event up to late July.

Mary Lambert, Jenny Zigrino
2024-08-21 20:00 | Knitting Factory, 416 S 9th St, Boise, Idaho, 83702
The Mary Lambert show scheduled for August 21, at The Olympic has been moved 9th St. Parallel at Knitting Factory. All tickets will be honored. If you are unable to attend due to the venue change, please reach out to Ticketweb for a refund by July 27th, 2024.

MARY LAMBERT

In 2012, Mary Lambert was working three restaurant jobs when her life changed. An aspiring singer-songwriter, cellist, spoken word artist, and newly graduated with a Bachelors of Music Composition from Cornish College of the Arts, she had begun to establish herself around Seattle, performing slam poetry and fusing a talk-singing style into her intimate performances. She received a phone call from a friend who was working with Macklemore and Ryan Lewis on their debut album, The Heist. Macklemore and Lewis were struggling to write a chorus for their new song, a marriage-equality anthem, called “Same Love”. Lambert had three hours to write the hook, and the result was the transcendent chorus to Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’ triple-platinum hit “Same Love,” which Lambert wrote from her vantage point of being both a Christian and a lesbian.
Writing and singing the hook led to two Grammy nominations for “Song Of The Year” and “Album Of The Year”, as well as the iconic performance alongside pop legend Madonna at the 2014 Grammys. Mary then signed with Capitol Records, where she released her debut album “Heart on My Sleeve” produced by Eric Rosse (Sara Bareilles, Tori Amos) and Benny Cassette (Kanye West). Her smash single, “Secrets” launched to No. 1 on the Billboard Dance charts, and was certified RIAA Gold in 2015. The New York Times called her debut album “refreshing and severely personal”.
Mary Lambert isn’t your typical pop artist. Inspired by confessional folk singers as well as spoken-word performers, she is a brutally candid writer who deals directly in her art with her past traumas. Lambert was raised in an abusive home, attempted suicide at 17, turned to drugs and alcohol before being diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and survived multiple sexual assaults throughout her childhood. With that list of horrors, you wouldn’t expect Mary to be disarmingly joyful, but she charms effortlessly, and the effect on her audience is bewitching. She describes her performances as “safe spaces where crying is encouraged; My entire prerogative is about connection, about being present, and facilitating true catharsis. Also, fart jokes.”
Mary Lambert’s latest EP, Bold. is her first release since leaving Capitol Records, and was fully funded through a Kickstarter campaign that raised $20,000 in 8 hours, and closed at $70,000 in a few short weeks. The response was a true testament to the passionate communities she represents. Lambert produced 3 of the 7 tracks herself, including a touching duet with her mom, Mary Kay Lambert. “Bold. is a queer pop EP about being unabashedly yourself. I think that we are in an era where embracing and loving your real, complex self is radical, and this collection of songs epitomizes that belief.” Bold. will be available worldwide on May 5th.

SOCIAL LINKS

JENNY ZIGRINO

With the sweetness of the Midwest and the iron balls of the East Coast, Jenny Zigrino is a comedian that packs a punch of truly original humor. She’s charmed audiences across the country with her wit, keen observations, embarrassing anecdotes, and brilliant honesty for a compelling performance you can’t ignore.
She made her late night debut on Conan O’Brien and was a recent guest on the hit shows @Midnight and Adam DeVine’s House Party Season 3 on Comedy Central. She’s been featured on TBS, Oxygen, TruTV, MTV Fox, and IFC.
A rising star in Hollywood, her first film appearance was a leading role in the film 50 Shades of Black with Marlon Wayans. She also stars in the film Bad Santa 2 with Billy Bob Thornton, the sequel to the 2003 hit film Bad Santa. She exploded onto the Just For Laugh’s New Faces Showcase for 2016 and has been featured in many festivals across the country. She is an alumni of The New York Comedy Festival, Women in Comedy Festival, Bridgetown Comedy Festival, Moontower Comedy Festival, and many more.
She recently released an IFC Web series with her friend and comedian Jen Saunderson “The Filling is Mutual” available on IFC Digital.
Debuting this summer is Jenny’s first comedy special, which she just filmed in April 2017 for Comedy Central.
In conclusion, she’s kind of a bad ass bitch.

Yung Gravy
2024-08-21 20:00 | Expo Idaho, 5610 North Glenwood Stree, Garden City, Idaho, 83714
Only the best things get better with age — wine, cheddar, 401ks, the list goes on. It turns out Yung Gravy gets better with age too.
When you think about it, the name Yung Gravy says a great deal. It’s perpetually youthful, and it oozes “sauce.” As such, Yung Gravy uses his own special recipe to bring originality and positivity to make his one-of-a-kind impact on the genre. Gravy flexes his passion for soul music and oldies in his production, sampling a wide range of musical styles dating from the 1940’s to the present-day. Nostalgic and often-jubilant melodies paired with heavy trap drums form the usual canvas for his signature baritone voice — reminiscent of Barry White. Showcasing effortless flows and endlessly quotable lyrics, Yung Gravy paints something truly unique while clearly having a good time doing so. In the span of six short years, Gravy has transformed from Soundcloud stalwart to platinum powerhouse.
Gravy became the soundtrack, and unofficial second mascot, of the Tampa Bay Lightning, and was given an honorary Stanley Cup Ring. Tallying 6 billion streams and selling 5 million units thus far, he’s notched four entries on the Billboard 200, two in the Top 30 of the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Chart, and two on the Top 20 of the Top Album Sales Chart.
Details

Gates open at 6:30pm
Show starts 8pm

Together Pangea Celebrates 10 Years of Badillac
2024-08-21 20:00 | Shrine Social Club, 1118 West Idaho Street, Boise, Idaho
Together Pangea Celebrates 10 Years of Badillac at an all ages show in Boise on Wednesday, August 21st at the Shrine Social Club

Tyler Childers - Mule Pull '24 Tour
2024-08-21 19:00 | Ford Idaho Center
Tyler Childers
Mule Pull ’24 Tour
with Special Guest Shakey Graves and Bella White
August 21, 2024
Ford Idaho Center Amphitheater

THE CRANE WIVES w/ Steven Leaf
2024-08-21 19:00 | Treefort Music Hall, 722 W. Broad Street, Boise, ID, 83702, United States
Born of the 2010’s folk boom and now comfortably stationed in their rock and roll era, TheCrane Wives epitomize the evolving sound of the indie genre. Having performed hundreds ofshows on stages across the country, they gravitate toward high-energy melodies, featuring thekinetic percussion of Dan Rickabus, the silky, driving bass lines of Ben Zito and playful guitarleads from front women Emilee Petersmark and Kate Pillsbury. Counterbalancing their livelystage presence, their lyrics extol the shadow side of the human condition, delving intomythology and themes of darkness and inner conflict. The band softens the blows of theiremotional candor with soulful three-part vocal harmonies, like a 21st century Cerberus, thehound of Hades reimagined as an emotional support animal. To date, they have released fivefull length albums, including their 2020 live album, “Here I Am”

Steven Leaf
There is a quiet confidence to the music of Steve Leaf. He has been writing songs for fifteen years now. Some songs about love, some songs about love lost, and others about everything else to cover all the bases. Steve hails from Michigan and cut his teeth in the singer/songwriter scene of Chicago which is to say he usually tries to sneak a Wilco cover into his set. Sometimes it pans out, other times, not a chance. He released his first record ‘We Are Ghosts’ in 2010 and has subsequently released several other albums since then including ‘Lightspeed’ in 2015 and ‘Go to the Pines’ in 2017. Steve finds inspiration in the songwriting of Josh Ritter, Damien Rice, and the less lyrically driven music of Ratatat and Nils Frahm. Always busy, Steve is consistently recording new music. In 2015, his fascination with instrumental music led to his creation of the guitar driven band ‘Public Access’, a ten piece leviathan rock band, a stark contrast to the reserved solo music Leaf creates. During a Leaf set, you can expect focused lyrics and tight guitar melodies over swirling ambient guitar loops.

Andrew Kinsey
2024-08-21 18:00 - 21:00 | The Riverside Hotel, 2900 W Chinden Blvd, Garden City, ID, 83714
Bringing Country music to Boise and beyond!

NEIGHBORHOOD CONCERT SERIES at Kristin Armstrong Park
2024-08-21 17:00 | Kristin Armstrong Municipal Park, 500 S. Walnut St., Boise, Idaho
Get ready for another summer packed with free summer concerts in the parks. We are entering the 4th year of the Neighborhood Concert Series, where we have teamed with Lost Grove Brewing, St. Luke’s Health Plan, and the City of Boise Arts & History Department to bring live music to neighborhoods around Boise.

Idaho Cutting Horse Association Fall Cutting
2024-08-21 - 2024-08-31 | Ford Idaho Center

Nate Smith
2024-08-20 20:00 - 22:00 | Expo Idaho, 5610 North Glenwood Stree, Garden City, Idaho, 83714
According to an age-old cliché, getting knocked down ain’t what matters – it’s how you get up, which Nate Smith knows firsthand. With a personal journey scarred by disaster, but defined by revival, he could have stayed down multiple times through life, and instead grew into something else entirely: A beacon of country-music hope.
Featuring a mix of gritty backwoods soul, rock ‘n’ roll swagger and velvet-thunder vocals, Smith is a Nashville artist with a unique connection to life’s inner tug of war. And with his first batch of major-label music, he’s aiming to tip the scales once and for all.
A California native, former worship leader, and lifelong music lover, Smith approaches that mission with a background as eclectic as it gets.
Details

Gates open at 6:30pm
Show starts 8pm

LETTUCE
2024-08-20 19:30 | The Egyptian Theatre, 700 W. Main St., Boise, Idaho, 83702
LETTUCE is (a) the prime ingredient in a salad, (b) a slang for cash, (c) a green herb that can be smoked, (d) a genre-busting six-member musical collective formed in 1992 by four alumni of the prestigious Berklee College Of Music, or (e) all of the above. If you answered “e,” then you’re in on the sheer magic of a band that both feeds the rich history of funk music and combines it with strains of hip-hop, rock, psychedelia, jazz, soul, jam, go-go, and the avant-garde.
The GRAMMY® Award-nominated six-piece is comprised of Adam Deitch [drums, percussion], Adam “Shmeeans” Smirnoff [guitar], Erick “Jesus” Coomes [bass], Ryan Zoidis [alto, baritone, tenor sax, Korg X-911], Eric “Benny” Bloom [trumpet, horns], and Nigel Hall [vocals, Hammond B-3, Rhodes, clavinet, keyboards]. To date, their discography includes Outta Here [2002], Rage! [2008], Fly [2012], Crush [2015], the EP Mt. Crushmore [2016], the live album Witches Stew [2017], Elevate [2019], Resonate [2020], Unify [2022], and now VIBE – a single 48 minute continuous session of pure, free-flowing improvisation, available digitally for the first time.
With VIBE, Lettuce cement their status as boundary-pushing innovators over three decades into their lauded career, blurring lines and smashing up jazz chords, psychedelic passages, big horns, strains of soul and go-go, hip-hop elements for an uplifting, improvisational sound all their own. Ryan Zoidis explains, “we got into a vibe and hit record. 48 minutes went by like a blink of an eye. This is our first purely improvised recording. Nothing planned, nothing edited or overdubbed. This is a true spontaneous musical expression captured in its entirety.”

TerrorTuesdays - A Classic Horror Film & Popcorn
2024-08-20 19:00 - 21:00 | Voodoo Cellar Boise, 200 N Capitol Blvd, Boise, Idaho
Join us for a horror film on our 120” screen with Dolby® surround sound, and enjoy free theater style popcorn during the show! We randomly select a horror genre movie each week, and it varies from new releases to true older classics. Come early for Happy Hour drink specials starting at $3! Food is available all night too, so no need to deal with getting dinner before you come in for the show!
No Cover Charge!
Want to know what horror flicks are coming up?
Simply follow us on Instagram or Facebook, or join our newsletter (in footer below), because that’s where we announce the upcoming movie each week. We do a story by Monday evening to announce that week’s movie, and we also send out our weekly newsletter each Monday to announce the events happening at our pub that week.
Come Early For Pre-Movie Trivia!
At 8pm all entered groups will take part in a mini pre-movie trivia with all questions being based on the movie, the cast, or the topic. Everyone in the winning group gets a free drink of their choice!
(Each group can consist of up to 5 people, so groups of 6 or more will be split into multiple groups!)

Taphouse Pub & Eatery Trivia with Game Night Live
2024-08-20 19:00 - 21:00 | Idaho
Trivia at Taphouse Pub & Eatery every Tuesday from 7pm-9pm provided by Game Night Live. We do two different one hour rounds. 1st and 2nd place for each round both get Taphouse gift cards!

An evening with SATSANG
2024-08-20 19:00 | Neurolux, 111 N 11th St, Boise, ID
“I just want to write and perform songs that touch the heart and help others”. Letting go of genre, expectation, and boxes, Satsang has leaned into the power of songwriting to drive their forthcoming release, Flowers From The Fray (the band’s 5th album in 6 years) due out Fall 2022.Recorded and self-produced with the help of bandmate and longtime collaborator Parker Brown, this record finds the duo tucked away in a secluded cabin in Southwest Montana digging back into the foundation on which Satsang was founded on. “These songs were all so personal to me” says Drew McManus. “Whether it was really sifting through the stage of life I had found myself in which was a kind of dark night of the soul, or leaning into the love of my wife. This record is truly me bearing my heart. I needed to seclude myself to find out where these songs wanted to go, and having Parker’s musical guidance had a big hand in that.”This record, coupled with the band’s last release All. Right. Now. is a maturing. A growing into the songwriter and musicians that the band was destined to be. A settled and firm foundation of influences and sound that brings every external aspect in and finds it internalized and distilled into “Flowers From the Fray”

LUTAN FYAH w/ Droop Lion
2024-08-20 19:00 | Treefort Music Hall, 722 W. Broad Street, Boise, ID, 83702, United States
Rootsy reggae singer with messages of unity, love, & justice deeply embedded in his music, Lutan Fyah was born in the parish of St. Catherine, Jamaica, with music in his blood. With his grandfather running a sound system, artists such as Lieutenant Stitchie, Papa San, Lady G., and the legendary Dennis Brown would often visit the family home. Fyah aspired to become a famous singer himself, but he also took his soccer playing seriously and joined a professional team after finishing high school. He gave up sports in 1999 and began an internship at Buju Banton’s Gargamel label. He went on to record some tracks for Banton’s label along with some freelance work for other producers, before singer Jah Mason came along in 2001 and offered Fyah the support slot on his worldwide tour. Three years later he made his full-length debut with Dem No Know Demself on the Minor7Flat5 label. Time and Place on the Lustre Kings label followed in 2005. A year later he released two albums, Phantom War on Greensleeves and Healthy Lifestyle on VP Records. Fast forward to 2021 Lutan Fyah started his own record label Old Capital Music Group headquarters in the United States with a strategic partnership with Stand Out Living Original. Lutan Fyah & his team have been preparing for the release of his next album along side the Lutan Fyah Reggae documentary & other new EP’s & singles released under his own label with the exciting distribution partnership with Symphonic. Stay connected www.LutanFyahMusic.com

Tuesdays On the Creek
2024-08-20 18:00 - 21:00 | Indian Creek Plaza, 120 S Kimball Ave, Caldwell, Idaho, 83605
Immerse yourself in the heart of Caldwell’s vibrant downtown scene every Tuesday with “Tuesdays on the Creek.” This free summer concert series, running for 20 weeks, offers live music from both local and touring artists, alongside the bustling Farm to Fork Farmers’ Market. Delight in farm-fresh bites and local beverages as you sway to the tunes under the starlit sky. Join us for an evening of community, music, and culinary delights, where every Tuesday becomes a celebration of artistry and agriculture.

Blues Tuesday: Blues to Lose
2024-08-20 18:00 - 20:30 | The Riverside Hotel, 2900 W Chinden Blvd, Garden City, ID, 83714
Blues Tuesday is presented by the Boise Blues Society.

GNL Trivia @ Payette Brewing
2024-08-20 18:00 - 20:00 | Payette Brewing Co, 733 South Pioneer Street, Boise, ID, 83702
Game Night Trivia @ Payette EVERY TUESDAY!
Come check out the most accessible, varied, and fun Trivia Nights designed for anyone who loves to play games!
FREE to play & prizes for the WINNERS!

Farm to Fork Farmers Market
2024-08-20 17:00 - 20:00 | Indian Creek Plaza, 120 S Kimball Ave, Caldwell, Idaho, 83605
Caldwell is home to Idaho’s most diverse crop base, and we are proud of our roots, literally! For generations families have produced award-winning fruits, vegetables, grains and spices. Get the freshest produce to create excellent meals at home or find the perfect gift from local craftsmen or specialty food producers. The Farm to Fork Farmers’ Market is held in conjunction with the Tuesdays on the Creek Concert Series.

Downtown Plays at Cherie Buckner-Webb Park
2024-08-20 10:00 - 13:00 | Cherie Buckner-Webb Park, 1100 W Bannock St, Boise, ID, 83702
JOIN IN ON THE FUN!

Play, relax, and challenge a friend – old or new – to a game with us!

Downtown Boise Association introduces Downtown Plays, a new program that’s friendly to people of all ages. An electric cargo-bike travels throughout downtown – to parks and open spaces – filled with yard games and activities such as cornhole, hula-hoops, giant Jenga, and recurring Story Time with Rediscovered Books at 11:30 am -12:00 pm.
Downtown Plays will be held every first and third Tuesday starting June through August, 10am- 1pm at Cherie Buckner Webb Park. Pop-up booths from Idaho Mountain Touring and GoGo SqueeZ will be joining the fun on select weeks! *Indicate pop-up at different event.

Kansas
2024-08-19 20:00 - 22:00 | Expo Idaho, 5610 North Glenwood Stree, Garden City, Idaho, 83714
With a legendary career spanning five decades, KANSAS has firmly established itself as one of America’s iconic classic rock bands. This “garage band” from Topeka released their debut album in 1974 after being discovered by Wally Gold, who worked for Don Kirshner, and have gone on to sell more than 30 million albums worldwide.
The band is currently comprised of original drummer Phil Ehart, bassist/vocalist Billy Greer, vocalist/keyboardist Ronnie Platt, keyboardist/vocalist Tom Brislin, violinist/guitarist Joe Deninzon, and original guitarist Richard Williams. With no signs of slowing down, KANSAS continues to perform in front of large and enthusiastic audiences.
The band will be performing a set of KANSAS Classics such as ‘Carry On Wayward Son,’ ‘Dust in the Wind,’ ‘Point of Know Return,’ ‘Fight Fire With Fire,’ ‘Hold On,’ deep cuts, and much more.
Details
Gates open at 6:30pm
Show starts 8pm

DANIEL NUNNELEE - June, Baby Fall Tour
2024-08-19 20:00 | Shrine Social Club, 1118 West Idaho Street, Boise, Idaho
Daniel Nunnelee to play an all ages show in Boise on Monday, August 19th at the Shrine Social Club

The Aristocrats - The Duck Tour 2024
2024-08-19 20:00 | Knitting Factory, 416 S 9th St, Boise, Idaho, 83702
The Aristocrats show scheduled for August 19, at The Olympic has been moved 9th St. Parallel at Knitting Factory. All tickets will be honored. If you are unable to attend due to the venue change, please reach out to Ticketweb for a refund by July 27th, 2024

WAXAHATCHEE w/ Tré Burt
2024-08-19 19:00 | Treefort Music Hall, 722 W. Broad Street, Boise, ID, 83702, United States
‘Tigers Blood’ by Waxahatchee
One of the hardest working singer-songwriters in the game is named Katie Crutchfield. She was born in Alabama, grew up near Waxahatchee Creek. Skipped town and struck out on her own as Waxahatchee. That was over a decade ago. Crutchfield says she never knew the road would lead her here, but after six critically acclaimed albums, she’s never felt more confident in herself as an artist. While her sound has evolved from lo-fi folk to lush alt-tinged country, her voice has always remained the same. Honest and close, poetic with Southern lilting. Much like Carson McCullers’s Mick Kelly, determined in her desires and convictions, ready to tell whoever will listen.
And after years of being sober and stable in Kansas City–after years of sacrificing herself to her work and the road–Crutchfield has arrived at her most potent songwriting yet. On her new album, Tigers Blood, Crutchfield emerges as a powerhouse–an ethnologist of the self–forever dedicated to revisiting her wins and losses. But now she’s arriving at revelations and she ain’t holding them back.
Crutchfield says that she wrote most of the songs on ‘Tigers Blood’ during a “hot hand spell,” while on tour in the end of 2022. And when it came time to record, Crutchfield returned to her trusted producer Brad Cook, who brought her sound to a groundbreaking turning point on 2020’s Saint Cloud.
They hunkered down at Sonic Ranch in Tornillo, Texas–a border town known for cotton and pecans–and searched for another turn, waited for a sign. Initially, MJ Lenderman, Southern indie-rock wunderkind (much like Crutchfield when she started out) came to play electric guitar and sing on “Right Back To It.” But as soon as they tracked it, Cook told Lenderman he had to stay for the rest of the album. And he did.
“Right Back To It” is ‘Tigers Blood’’s lead single. A nod to country duets like Gram and Emmylou, winding over a steadfast banjo from Phil Cook. Together, Crutchfield and Lenderman harmonize on the chorus: “I’ve been yours for so long/We come right back to it/I let my mind run wild/Don’t know why I do it/But you just settle in/Like a song with no end.” Crutchfield says it’s the first real love song she’s ever written.
The song “Bored” opens with blase drum beats from Spencer Tweedy that crash under Crutchfield as she throws her voice high: “I can get along/ My spine’s a rotted two by four/Barely hanging on/My benevolence just hits the floor.” Lenderman’s scuzzy riffs and Nick Bockrath’s climbing pedal steel add power to the album’s most ‘Southern Rock’ a la Drive-By Truckers moment.
“365” is a story of recognition told from a hard-won place of self-acceptance/forgiveness. Crutchfield initially started writing it for Wynonna Judd, with whom she has written and performed in the past, until the lyrics started hitting closer and closer to home. The writer Annie Ernaux says, “writing is to fight forgetting.” Like Lucinda Williams, Crutchfield’s lyrics are memoir. Throughout ‘Tigers Blood’ Crutchfield is addressing a “you,” but the ‘you’ in “365” evokes raw closeness, vulnerability. “Ya ain’t had much luck but grace is/In the eye of the beholder/And I had my own ideas but/I carried you on my shoulders, anyways.”
“365” is essentially ‘Tigers Blood’’s aria about addiction, with little to no accompaniment to Crutchfield’s voice. Her backing band is hushed, as if the spotlight’s coming down on her, alone on the stage, giving her testimony. Crutchfield slings her voice with arresting precision, reaching its highest harmony on the whole album. “So when you kill, I kill/And when you ache, I ache/And we both haunt this old lifeless town/And when you fail, I fail/ When you fly, I fly/And it’s a long way to come back down.”
“365” circles back to the beginning of ‘Tigers Blood,’ where Crutchfield’s words ring clear as a bell. Album opener “3 Sisters” starts with Crutchfield singing over hymn-like piano chords: “I pick you up inside a hopeless prayer/I see you beholden to nothing/I make a living crying it ain’t fair/And not budging.” ‘Tigers Blood’ is Crutchfield at her most confident and resilient. Staring straight at the truth, forgiving but not forgetting, not batting an eye.
— Ashleigh Bryant Phillips

Tré Burt
Tré Burt was standing on a stage in Philadelphia in early 2023 when the latest bit of bad news arrived: His grandfather, a native of that very city, was dead. It wasn’t entirely unexpected. For years, Tommy Burt had struggled with early-onset dementia, slipping away a bit more each time Burt saw him. Burt even began recording his grandfather, letting his tape recorder roll as they had some of their final conversations. He wanted to preserve those moments, however repetitious or fragmented they might be, before the opportunity vanished forever. In fact, Traffic Fiction—Burt’s third album on Oh Boy Records and an unexpected musical reinvention rooted in his new and idiosyncratic version of classic soul—also preserves their relationship by committing another key piece of it to tape. The soul that animates so many of these 14 tracks? That was the music shared by grandfather and grandson.
Burt’s California childhood was not easy. His parents split when he was young, so he would often shuttle between their houses in Sacramento and the Bay Area. He was a bit of a wild child, too. From time to time, though, he would accompany his father to work at a plant nursery, riding shotgun in a 1975 Cadillac Seville as they listened to The Delfonics and Otis Redding, Marvin Gaye and The Temptations. Those drives were his sanctuary, that music their blessed score.
But as Burt became a musician himself, he was a peripatetic troubadour, tapping into American folk and blues partly as a matter of necessity—it’s not sensible to busk, after all, with some sophisticated band at your back. Bits of those other roots and compositional ambitions finally emerged on 2021’s You, Yeah, You, the vivid result of Burt’s first proper studio sessions. On Traffic Fiction, they are in full bloom, from the sweet country-soul surrealism of the title track to the skywriting rock of “2 For Tha Show,” Burt as urgent and commanding as he’s ever been. Traffic Fiction is the sound of Burt confidently bending a sentimental past to his present will.
To get to this new alchemy of soul, dub, and more than a little punk, Burt returned to the basics—self-recording in sequestered silence. During a Canadian tour, he set aside a few days to stay in a friend’s spare apartment and write, renting enough instruments from the affordable gear emporium Long & McQuade to build a makeshift studio for his GarageBand demos. The title track soon emerged, its effortless magnetism prompted by a poem he’d written about stupid city congestion and a piece by saxophonist and singer Gary Bartz.
Burt recognized he had found the sound of the next album, so he booked another rural cabin in Canada for 9 days and rented more guitars, basses, and the same keyboard he’d bought during the You, Yeah, You sessions. For the better part of a lifetime, Burt had told himself he didn’t have the chops to sing like those childhood heroes from the Cadillac days. But now, as he built his one-man-band demos before returning to Nashville’s The Bomb Shelter to work with a trusted band of pals and esteemed producer Andrija Tokic, his versions of those sounds poured out in circumspect love songs and joyous tunes of existential reckoning. His grandfather was dying. The world was struggling with a pandemic and the specter of a third world war. But Burt gave himself permission to have fun and be funny, to let these songs lift him and, eventually, maybe others, too.
Traffic Fiction indeed feels like a buoy amid these turbulent times, something that pulls us above the wreckage. The love-or-something-like-it songs are crucial. With its rocksteady motion, rainbow keys, and slippery riff, “Wings for a Butterfly” is Burt’s honeyed plea to at least try a relationship out. Like The Beatles rebottled in Muscle Shoals, the brilliant “To Be a River” crescendos in a litany of all the things Burt knows he can be for someone—“your favorite word, a letter you read.” It is pure infatuation.
Even ostensible breakup songs luxuriate in the wonder of existence. “Santiago” recounts an overseas tryst that ended too soon, Burt jubilantly narrating moments of mirth and lust over go-go keyboards and a beat so simple and propulsive The Ramones would have loved it. And during “Piece of Me,” Burt turns the sting of ending it into an anthem of wishful thinking alongside sashaying organs and rail-grinding guitar. Maybe one more chance is all he needs? “You like me better when I’m in pain,” he sings slyly. “Well, baby, just look at me now.” Amid these warped jewels of psychedelic soul, you’ll find yourself pulling for Burt, hoping the world can come to its senses on his behalf.
Burt first earned notice for his imaginative and trenchant social protest songs, where he’d capture some corrosive element of American life—unchecked capitalism, unwavering racism, so on—in a compelling snapshot. Traffic Fiction isn’t that kind of album, necessarily, though his defiance hasn’t disappeared. Referencing his ancestral homeland of Promised Land, South Carolina, “All Things Right” scorns apathy and bureaucracy, the way we strand each other via our own pursuits. “I’ll never be free/but I can pretend,” he snaps with verve during the verse of “Kids in the Yard,” a mighty theme of self-empowerment. Burt finds the joy even here, pushing past problems rather than succumbing to obstacles.
And isn’t that a crucial role of music, especially now—to show us how to handle our burdens with aplomb and vision, to model the behavior of persevering with élan? At three points during Traffic Fiction, Burt interweaves bits of those recorded conversations with his late grandfather, Tommy. They talk about Stevie Wonder, Burt’s career and the fatigue it can bring, and, finally, the sense that he’s carrying on a family tradition through these records. It’s a reminder not only of what Burt experienced while making Traffic Fiction but also of what he overcame. He found strength in the soul of his youth, and, for that, he’s never sounded stronger.

Jazz Monday - Robyn O’Donahue and Friends
2024-08-19 18:00 - 21:00 | The Riverside Hotel, 2900 W Chinden Blvd, Garden City, ID, 83714
Jazz Monday is presented by the Idaho Jazz Education Endowment
