the hum / By Bob Doran

Sons of Harry Smith

Sunday night at the Red Fox, T-S A&E dude Chris Durant throws a “Hip Hop Birthday Bash” with his crew, Republican Duck Hunters, plus Aquifer and The Joint Chiefs of Stash, who tell me they are “Del Norte County’s premier freestyle rock band.” Here’s an idea for a b-day present for Durant: a new name for his band, whose topical reference to the Cheney/Whittington quail hunting incident is now 2 1/2 years old.

Got a note from NightHawk vocalist Marcia Mendels letting me know, “Clint Warner is going to join us for our gig this Friday at Bear River Casino. Ever since Clint filled in for Steve Delay last fall, we’ve wondered how much fun it would be to have both of these rocking guitarists on stage at the same time, and this Friday, we’re going to find out!”

On the reggae front you have Jamaican veteran and dancehall pioneer Sugar Minott playing Friday at Humboldt Brews with support from semi-local Stevie Culture and Itawe. Saturday at Six Rivers Brewing it’s Brit-born chanter Pato Banton, once again backed by The Mystic Roots Band.

Last time Saul Kaye was up here he was with his rock band. Lately he’s been playing solo doing songs from his latest disc, Jewish Blues Vol. One. He explains, “You say Jewish blues and usually people laugh and say, what is that? The content is Jewish with songs written from the perspective of slaves in Egypt, and the Prophets and other characters from the Old Testament.” Musically he draws from country blues and Chicago blues emulating guys like Muddy Waters and Robert Johnson. Saturday Kaye hits a couple of brewpubs in Humboldt playing at 3:30 at Humboldt Brews, then from 7-9 at Six Rivers (before Pato). “Brews and blues is the theme of this tour,” he notes.

Our favorite raconteur Jeff DeMark tells a few stories, old and new, at Muddy’s Hot Cup Saturday, backed by members of UKEsperience. He explains that the impetus for the ukulele back-up was a piece he read a few years back at “In a Town This Size,” a gathering of local literary legends held at CR. The story touched on that strange uke-wielding musician Tiny Tim. “This summer I read that story out at Dell’Arte with backing music by Curtis and Nick from Kulica. Jason from UKEsperience was watching the show. He liked it and wanted to work with me. It’s taken a while to do it.”

With the Jambalaya packing dancers in Sunday nights for Deep Groove Society‘s Sundaze, an expansion to Saturdays was in order. DJ Dub Cowboy put togther mission:CRITICAL teaming with The Middle Agent and J-Sun from Deep Groove. “The music is primarily a mix of Jamaican dancehall with hip hop and underground dubstep and jungle mixed in,” says Dub C. “The result is an intense and motivating blend of sounds accompanied by intelligent visual stimulation,” which is to say some sort of light show.

The Metal Shakespeare Company returns to the Alibi on Saturday with thirtythreeandathird opening. Formerly known as Dagger of the Mind, Portland’s MSC’s name explains the concept: It’s a metal band using the Bard’s words for lyrics. Jason “Lord Simms” from MSC tells me excitedly, “We have some new costumes! We now do the “my kingdom for a horse” scene from Richard III and the Mercutio/Romeo/Tybalt battle scene from Romeo and Juliet! We are now officially authenticated as a reasonable artistic endeavor by performing at the illustrious Oregon Shakespeare Festival where we shockingly went over extremely well, selling out of merch and signing autographs for many a 4th grader.” Wanna get in on the action? They’ll be offering a part in Macbeth to some special audience member.

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