Featured photo: Old Crow Medicine Show will perform at Shreveport’s Strand Theatre on Sunday, June 28.
More live music is always a good thing, but here lately – and correct me if I’m wrong – the assortment of touring artists who are passing through Shreveport-Bossier seems to have veered noticeably towards the wildly esoteric. June 2015, honestly, is shaping up to be a great month for live music lovers who are on the market for something different. Here are a few shows that I’d recommend to folks who are looking to have their minds blown:
Bigg Robb at Let the Good Times Roll Festival
Most likely 8-10 p.m., Saturday, June 20
Festival Plaza
The first time I saw Bigg Robb perform live, I walked into Festival Plaza about 20 minutes into his set at Let the Good Times Roll Festival. Robb, a rotund man in an oversized mirror ball suit and top hat, was belting out a song called “Good Lovin’ Will Make You Cry,” and the audience was going haywire. Just when I thought it couldn’t get any crazier, the singer – exceptionally spry for a man his size – leapt from the stage and into the audience, where he climbed onto a table in the first row and sang directly to a couple, who’d been trying to enjoy their nachos before Bigg Robb brought the action to them. A half-dozen costume changes later, my face hurt from smiling and I had been converted – Bigg Robb is the CeeLo Green of Southern Soul.
The Let the Good Times Roll Festival website lists Robb as performing on Saturday night, but does not list a time; I’d guess that he’ll take the main stage at 8:30 p.m., immediately before Genuwine, which would be a perfect spot in the line-up for him. This show is probably best for ages 18 and up.
Old Crow Medicine Show at The Strand Theatre
7:30 p.m., Sunday, June 28
Okay, so this won’t be “Bigg Robb”-level bonkers, but Old Crow Medicine Show – a six-piece Americana group from Nashville who regularly perform on the Grand Ole Opry – are a perfect fit for Shreveport’s historic Strand Theatre, the Official State Theatre of Louisiana. The group started out as buskers – street performers – until bluegrass legend Doc Watson stumbled upon them. In a manner of younger Cajun acts like Lost Bayou Ramblers and Pine Leaf Boys, Old Crow Medicine Show bring a kind of wild, youthful energy to a format – Americana and bluegrass – not always associated with high energy. Feet will be stomped. Hoots will be hollered.
Soul Track Mind at Shreveport House Concert Series
6:30 p.m., Sunday, June 21
Soul Track Mind, who won the Music Prize in 2014, are six guys from Austin who perform fiery uptempo numbers inspired by old-school soul and R&B. Their modus operandi is to jump, shake, dance and blow horns hard enough to raise the roof. In other words: How the heck are they going to pack all of that energy into the Shreveport House Concert Series, a venue that usually hosts quieter singer-songwriters and laid-back folk bands? Finding out the answer to that question is worth the price of admission to what will undoubtedly be a very unique show.
Richard Buckner at Somewhere in Shreveport
8 p.m., Wednesday, June 24
Easily the most unexpected show on this list is the semi-mysterious upcoming Shreveport appearance by Merge Records artist Richard Buckner. A songwriter’s songwriter, Buckner counts among his devotees current indie rock deity Justin Vernon of Bon Iver. With a dozen albums to his name and a dedicated cult following, Buckner’s beautiful voice should be a powerful thing to experience in whatever living room or space this show takes place in.
