Each week, the team at WAMM scour through the event calendars to highlight some of the week’s best upcoming shows.
Electric Six, Volk
7:00 P.M., Wednesday April 13th
Growler’s
$15
Turn of the century Detroit was a Rust Belt empire in decline, boasting miles of vacant fields where auto-baron mansions once stood, each back alley ending in a burned-out factory or junkyard. From this unlikely soil sprung the massive success of cherished back-to-basics blues-rock outfit The White Stripes, and in their wake trailed a handful of fellow Motor City garage upstarts, such as the Von Bondies and Electric Six. The latter is most remembered for their ultra-ironic glam-punk evergreen ‘Danger! High Voltage’, featuring incognito backing yelps from Jack White himself. This remains Electric Six’s only real brush with the mainstream, but they’ve soldiered on in high spirits since those days, toughing it out long past similar outfits that once flashed in the pan, sizzled a little, them smoked out completely. Joining these wily vets at Growler’s are the costumed Nashville country glam-punks of Volk, longtime touring buds still hard at work. with absolutely no signs of slowing down.
Will Sexton Trio
7:00 p.m, Thursday, April 14th
Hernando’s Hide-A-Way
$10
Austin native and singer songwriter Will Sexton is known for his acclaimed solo career, which he’s admirably maintained for thirty plus years. As a teenager, Sexton collaborated with Texas music royalty like Stevie Ray Vaughn and Joe Ely, and as a Memphian he’s become a cornerstone of the local rock, Americana, and gospel scenes. His smooth tenor vocals lift his unmistakable Texas songwriter sound into more sophisticated and dynamic genres. Sexton’s arrival in Memphis was a celebrated moment, and the music community is richer for it. Check out the Will Sexton Trio at Hernando’s and expect a classy, thoughtful good time.
Lilly Winwood + Cerena Wages
8:00 p.m, Saturday, April 16th
BAR DKDC
$10
Nashville based singer songwriter Lilly Winwood is fresh off of her debut americana album, “Time Well Spent”, and Memphis based Cyrena Wages is preparing for her debut release sometime in the next year. The two bill evenly, both bringing a specific brand of je ne sai southern rock and country. Backed by some of Memphis’s best musicians, Wages will be aglow for a DKDC crown ready for a Memphis Saturday night.
Waxahatchee, Madi Diaz
7:00 P.M., Saturday April 16th
Growler’s
$25
In 2011, Katie Crutchfield emerged from the mid-aughts Birmingham, Alabama DIY scene with a lovely tape-full of static-drenched folk anthems entitled American Weekend. Since that modest debut (and a relocation to Philadelphia), she’s become a veritable indie institution, incorporating sky-high power-pop (and even some outright flashes of just plain ‘pop’ pop) while never shedding her keen eye for interpersonal dynamics and all too human flaws. Her most recent full-length, 2020’s Saint Cloud, now proudly stands among the very best contemporary albums about addiction, recovery, and finding grace in the aftermath, bearing gifts far too powerful to be water-logged by alcoholism or regret. Nashville-based opener Madi Diaz is an inspired study in contrast, her raw candor and hard-won perspective the result of a long career in the industry’s shadows, writing songs for Kesha and ad campaigns while developing the kind of voice that Pitchfork recently called “a titanium box lined with velvet”. Between these incredible artists, personal demons wither in the face of naked honesty and heart-bursting renewal. Yeah, you’re gonna feel some things, but one thing you won’t feel is alone.
