Borrowed Beams of Light releases its excellent, Kickstarter-funded LP Stellar Hoax tonight at the Southern. Check out John Ruscher’s review of that album here; Hoax is loosely based on the Voynich Manuscript, a visually striking 15th century work described as the "world’s most mysterious manuscript." Use superlatives much? Eternal Summers, the duo declared Virginia’s best new group by the Boston Phoenix in its annual roundup of national bands, opens.
Stream Borrowed Beams’ Stellar Hoax here.
Tonight Ash Lawn Opera opens with The Barber of Seville. Under new direction the fest is looking to attract a new, younger audience (sometimes by including kids in the performance) while holding onto those who loved the performances at Monroe’s estate. I sat in on a rehearsal of the wit-packed Italian classic and interviewed the fest’s new director in this week’s Feedback column. Ash Lawn Opera runs through early August with The King and I and more.
Also up tonight is an exciting last minute performance by the mandolin player Jesse McReynolds, one-half of the famed Jim & Jesse bluegrass duo. McReynolds is a legend in the world of bluegrass music, and tonight’s C’ville Coffee gig is a rare chance to see a bluegrass giant—by that we mean a longtime member of the Grand Ole Opry and NEA-grant winner—in a tiny room.
Jesse McReynolds performs "Night Train to Memphis"
The Brooklyn-based Elephant 6 collective-affiliated band The Ladybug Transistor plays Sunday at the Southern with the closest thing we’ve got locally to Ladybug’s trumpet-laden indie pop, The Hilarious Posters. The Ladybug Transistor released a new album, Clutching Stems, earlier this year on Merge; sample the title track below.
Ladybug Transistor’s "Clutching Stems."
What else is going on this weekend?
