Chicago singer-songwriter Steve Dawson’s main band is Dolly Varden, which has been making smart and soulful folk-rock for twenty years, but he has a second group now. His new album, due for release on September 30, is the self-titled debut of Steve Dawson’s Funeral Bonsai Wedding, a collaboration with three local jazz musicians who are noted for their inventiveness: vibraphonist Jason Adasiewicz, drummer Frank Rosaly and bassist Jason Roebke. Adasiewicz’s chiming vibes function like the lead instrument in this outfit, filling the space normally occupied by guitar riffs or keyboard chords. At times, those metal tubes seem to be ringing out in reply to Dawson’s plaintive and pleading vocals. But for all of the “Astral Weeks” touches, these tunes are essentially the same sort of solidly grounded songs Dawson has always written. The highlights, like “The Night of the Liquor Store Fire,” pull evocative flashes of memory from Dawson’s real life. When this band plays live, expect those autobiographical poems to stretch out into even jazzier and more rocking jams. (Robert Loerzel)
September 12 at Constellation, 3111 North Western, 9:30pm, $12, 18+
Cooling It: A Preview of Colleen Green at Cole’s Bar When Green strums power chords or chiming notes on top of her backing track, you might think you’re at Ramones karaoke night and Madonna is taking her turn.
For “Want” of a Change: A Preview of Rufus Wainwright at Ravinia Park Rufus Wainwright isn’t the first singer-songwriter to reinterpret earlier work through an orchestral lens. And much of Wainwright’s third and fourth albums, “Want One” and “Want Two”—whose twentieth anniversaries are the prompt for this new tour—is fully scored. But when Wainwright hits the Pavilion stage at Ravinia tonight, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra will be behind him.
Brutal Finesse: A Preview of King Crimson at Ravinia There have been few new compositions from King Crimson these past two decades, but the live arrangements of songs from its catalog are often strikingly different than the recorded versions.
