As this week winds down toward a holiday weekend, music fans in Louisville have a lot to look forward to with a diverse lineup of musicians from the classic to the little known and the up-and-coming. Even if your wallet could take the hit ($85, $125, $245), Neil Young's show at the Palace on Wednesday is sold out, but on the same night -- for free even -- you can catch Backyard Tire Fire, California band ALO, and headliner Josh Rouse at WFPK's Waterfront Wednesday. These shows are always a lot of fun, and if you've got some nice weather, it's great evening to spread out a blanket, drink some beer, and dance barefoot in the grass if you've got a mind to.
WFPK has been playing Backyard Tire Fire's (let's just go with BTF) single "Brady," an infectiously catchy song that you can check out on their Web site. They offer pretty traditional Southern rock with shades of alt-country. BYT's latest album Good To Be was produced by Los Lobos' Steve Berlin. They'll get under way at around 6:00 p.m.
Next up will be ALO, a four-man rock band from California and Jack Johnson's sometime backing band. Johnson also produced their latest release, Man of the World. I've just started listening to some of the song, and clearly, these are four very strong musicians each of whom also has his own musical projects.
Josh Rouse is an indie rocker, hailing from Nebraska, but who pulled up stakes and moved to Valencia, Spain with his wife Paz Suay. His new album, El Turista, reflects those new influences just as one would think for someone trading in cornfields for the Mediterranean coast. The album is described as a song cycle, sung mostly in Spanish and picking up Brazilian and Afro-Cuban accents.
