Here they are, nine necessary know-abouts for the week ahead. It’s the merry-month-of-May B9:
- You know who’s breaking out? Santa Cruz bluegrass soon-to-be-star A.J. Lee and her band Blue Summit. They fill up the room at Moe’s Alley on Saturday.
- I really dig what I’ve heard so far from singer-songwriter Rayland Baxter, who rolls into the Rio on Tuesday.
- Drop in on local mystery novelist Leslie Karst as she chats about her new book with fellow author Elizabeth McKenzie at Bookshop Santa Cruz.
- Big weekend in local theater as Jewel Theatre opens its final production, the spirited and poignant “Always … Patsy Cline.”
- If you’ve ever heard “Archie, Marry Me,” you don’t have to be convinced about the charms of the fab Canadian indie band Alvvays (and yes, it’s pronounced “always”).
- One of the great voices in Texas country, Butch Hancock, visits Soquel’s Ugly Mug with his son, guitarist Rory Hancock, on Wednesday. I mean … wow!
- The Tannery World Dance & Cultural Center gets to showcase its ambitious and talented young performers at the Crocker Theater at Cabrillo College.
- If you didn’t catch the astonishing one-person performance of Patty Gallagher in “An Iliad” last year at Jewel, guess what? You got another chance.
- Yes, he plays with a serial killer mask and a KFC bucket for a hat. Yes, he’s got seriously amazing guitar chops. Isn’t it about time you discovered Buckethead?