Here they are, nine necessary know-abouts for the week ahead. It’s the hot-August-nights B9:
➤ You might remember the country music supergroup back in the day known as the Highwaymen, consisting of Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson. On Friday, audiences in Santa Cruz get a local taste of that kind of supergroup coolness when a quartet of Santa Cruz dudes takes the stage as the Coastal Highwaymen. They are all musical artists in their own right — James Durbin, Anthony Arya, Dylan Rose and Nick Gallant — and they’ll spend the evening at the Kuumbwa Jazz Center sharing songs and stories about songs in a songwriters’ round. During the show’s second set, the foursome will jam together on a Coastal collaboration. You want a big dose of Santa Cruz music circa 2025 all in one sitting? This one fits the bill.
➤ How to describe the New York-based Budos Band? The group has as many players as a baseball team, and their sound goes aggressively after the funk beat, with blasts of psychedelia, prog rock and 1970s-flavored Afro-soul mixed in as well. It’s a big, brash, cinematic sound that’s as badass as they come. The band brings their chaos and clamor to The Catalyst on Friday.
➤ Weed lovers, rejoice. You’ve found your troubadour. He is Collie Buddz, whose love for puff is evident by his name and by such original songs as “Spark Up” and “Sensimilla.” The Bermuda-born reggae/dancehall star is set to light up — figuratively speaking — Felton Music Hall with back-to-back shows Saturday and Sunday, just a couple of days after his birthday (Thursday!). Be sure to sing him “Happy Birthday,” if you can remember the words.
➤ The R.Blitzer Gallery in the Old Wrigley Building on Santa Cruz’s Westside is the site for a dazzling new exhibit for those with a love of creative photography. The show is called “Through Our Eyes,” and it features more than 100 images from eight outstanding local fine-art photographers in color and black-and-white. The exhibit opens this weekend and there’s a big opening reception planned for Friday afternoon.
➤ Kinda hate to acknowledge it, but the summer is frittering away. This week marks the penultimate (an English major’s term for “second to last”) Midtown Fridays summer block party. The event lights up the neighborhood every Friday afternoon, beginning at 5 p.m. at 1111 Soquel Ave., the big parking lot next to the fire station. This week’s live band is Jive Machine. Don’t let the summer get away with block-partying.
➤ San Francisco folksinger and songwriter Andy Cabic has built a nice career recording under the name Vetiver, emerging from the same vibe as neo-folkies Devendra Banhart and Joanna Newsom. Cabic brings his distinct, mellow, even tender sound to the Garden Stage at The Crepe Place on Friday. I can’t think of a more fitting, relaxing end to a late summer workweek.
➤ A late summer Sunday afternoon sounds like a great time for some live blues. Moe’s Alley brings the blues at 4 p.m. on Sunday with the magnificent San Jose guitarist Tommy Castro and his band the Painkillers. Castro has played Moe’s about 500 times (that’s a rough estimate), so he knows the room and he knows the audience. Kill your pain while the sun is still up.
➤ Pirates, storms at sea, desperate escapes, undying love. It’s all baked into the rarely performed Shakespeare saga “Pericles,” one of three offerings at Santa Cruz Shakespeare this summer. The production has only one more week, so if you haven’t had your annual immersive Shakespeare experience, there’s no time like, say, Saturday afternoon under the trees at the Audrey Stanley Grove.
➤ Singer-songwriter Eliza Gilkyson has certainly hit it on the head with the title of her new album, “Dark Ages,” the title track of which names names and kicks hiney. Gilkyson drops in Thursday at the Kuumbwa Jazz Center to spread the word about “Dark Ages” with the great guitarist Nina Gerber by her side.
