Tuesday, November 11
Who: Margo Price
Where: The Commonwealth Room
What: Even though Margo Rae Price is as close as she’s ever been to being a well-known name in music — with five studio albums and counting — it’s been one of those slow (and increasingly satisfying) builds. The country singer-songwriter, producer and author released her debut album Midwest Farmer’s Daughter on Third Man Records in 2016. Expect a fun night, likely with more than its share of boots being worn.
When: 8pm
Saturday, November 15
Who: Lucius
Where: The Depot
When: 7pm
What: When I spoke with Lucius’ Holly Laessig, I accidentally slipped and called their latest self-titled album “domestic.” As I backpedaled my way out of that one, she gave me permission to call it that, sharing why: “We have been on the road so much, living on wheels, so grounding ourselves and growing gardens and having kids and dogs … it does slow you down in the best of ways. It opens up other parts of your creativity and perception of what is magical and what is beautiful. I think that is absolutely where we’re at right now.” Watch for our full conversation to publish early next week.
Tuesday, November 18
Who: The Beths
Where: Metro Music Hall
When: 7pm
What: The Beths — the New Zealand-based quartet of vocalist Elizabeth Stokes, guitarist Jonathan Pearce, bassist Benjamin Sinclair, and drummer Tristan Deck — released their latest, Straight Line Was A Lie, earlier this summer. Stokes broke out a Remington typewriter every morning for a month, writing 10 pages’ worth of material, mostly streams of consciousness. The best bits made it into the album, which they’re eager to share live. Opening themselves up to a wave of creative input proved therapeutic. “Writing so much forced me to look at stuff I didn’t want to look at,” Stokes says. “In the past, in my memories. Things I normally don’t like to think about or I’m scared to revisit, I’m putting them down on paper and thinking about them, addressing them.”
Wednesday, November 19
Who: Neko Case
Where: Live at the Eccles
What: When I spoke with Neko a few weeks ago, she mentioned that, in addition to touring (and writing a book! and releasing an album!), she’s also working on a musical based on Thelma & Louise: “Even though I’ve been doing it for almost 10 years, I still know nothing about Broadway and its machinations. I’ve never seen anything so intensely whittled down and added to,” she said. “The change is constant, and it makes you OK with cutting things out. It’s a massive relief to not be so precious about things you have come up with. I also realized I was the target audience for Thelma & Louise when it came out, and saw it in the theater several times. They were real people to me. I would fight to the death for them.” Watch for our full interview to post later this month.
When: 8pm
Thursday, November 20
Who: 3rd Annual Trash Moon Collective Hootenanny
Where: The Commonwealth Room
When: 7pm
What: What started as a festive and antic-filled fundraiser to raise money in the local bluegrass community is now an annual celebration of Salt Lake City’s bluegrass, old time, and country music scene. Expect members from some of the hottest ‘grass bands in town — Pixie and the Partygrass Boys, Theoretical Blonde, the Pickpockets, Pompe n Honey — to come together for one special night. If you’re unfamiliar with their names, know this: they’re some of the best and hardest working musicians in the industry. Period. You’ll love it a lot.
Friday, November 21
Who: The Darkness
Where: The Depot
When: 7pm
What: When I spoke to Frankie Poullain, longtime bassist of The Darkness, we tripped over a mutual musical love in the midst of chatting: Neil Young. He’d seen him not long ago and couldn’t stop talking about it: “I might be completely wrong, because I don’t really know much about that kind of music, but I get the sense he’s the godfather of it, the guy who set the template. He’s got everything. He’s got poetry. He’s got his own guitar style. He invented a way of playing that no one else could play. He’s just unbelievable, the supreme artist. McCartney and Dylan are obviously great, but for me, Neil Young is somehow more important. I don’t know why. He’s like John Donne. A classic. A metaphysical poet.” Watch for our full conversation later this month.
Friday, November 28
Who: The Aces
Where: The Depot
When: 7pm
What: Color me curious on this one. I don’t know enough about The Aces, but they’ve been on my radar ever since I saw their guitarist Katie Henderson sing with her brother Kyle (Desert Noises) at Fork Fest some years back. They were incredible! Is this the poppiest pick of the month? For sure. That’s hardly a bad thing.
Saturday, November 29
Who: The Mountain Goats
Where: Metro Music Hall
When: 7pm
What: The Mountain Goats’ John Darnielle shared with me that the title for his new album, Through This Fire Across from Peter Balkan, came to him while he was fast asleep. He woke up, wrote it down, and promptly went back to sleep. “That’s what’s so cool about it,” he said. “My subconscious sent me something. Anything your dream brain sends to you is inherently deep, right? When you start to unpack your dreams, you go, this isn’t about something that’s directly going on with me, but it speaks to something. I loved the long title. It was teasing out some details from my cerebellum.” Watch for our full conversation to publish later this month.
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