Category Archives: Music

Sessions at South on Main features The Salty Dogs tonight

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IMG_6086Next for the South on Main February Sessions, curated by Amy Garland, The Salty Dogs take to the South on Main stage!

The Salty Dogs are a four piece band that enjoys playing and recording original country music. The Little Rock based band has released 3 full-length studio albums including their current EP – Too old to fight. The band was formed in 2003 and was named the “Best Original Band in Arkansas” by the Arkansas Times. Since then, the band has played countless shows sharing the stage with such likes of Junior Brown, Hank Williams, Jr., Old Crow Medicine Show, The Gourds, Pete Anderson, David Rawlings, Robert Earl Keen, Kinky Friedman, Kelly Willis and many more.

The band’s music has been featured on TLC‘s hit TV show, Trading Spaces, on the award winning Sundance Channel hit show, Rectify, and most recently the motion picture release, Valley Inn. 

Sessions with The Salty Dogs starts at 8:30 pm on Wednesday, February 10.

Mardi Gras on South Main

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2016 Mardi Gras ParadeJoin in one of Little Rock’s most beloved festivals, the SoMa Mardi Gras Parade on South Main!

At noon today (Saturday, February 6)

Floats, bands, stilt walkers, puppets…the parade will have it all! Also featuring music and beer in the Bernice Garden, and of course the highly anticipated Root Cafe Beard Judging to be held after the parade. Special events will be going on all along South Main, so come celebrate Mardi Gras in SoMa!

SoMa Mardi Gras 2016 events:

The Bernice Garden will be hosting the Root Café’s 4th Annual Beard Judging and a Mardi Gras Biergarten featuring Stone’s Throw, Lost Forty, Flyway and Diamond Bear. The Lemon Cakery, Hot Rod’s Weiners and Kincaid’s Coffee will also be set up.

The Green Corner Store- free Mardi Gras face painting from 11-12
Customers in Mardi Gras outfits from recycled materials can register for a great door prize.

Loblolly Creamery- creating a special Mardi Gras ice cream flavor and will have Mardi Gras sundae specials. Also will have an ice cream photo booth.

Root Café- The 4th annual Little Rock Beard Contest judging after the parade at the Bernice Garden. Judges will be Mayor Mark Stodola, Capi Peck of Trio’s and Amber Brewer of Yellow Rocket Concepts. Renee Shapiro will emcee.

Boulevard Bakehouse- Mardi Gras cookies and king cakes for sale.

Sweet Home & clement- free Mardi Gras beads, hot apple cider and gingersnaps.

South Main Creative- free make-and-take recycled craft workshop from 2:00-3:00.

Midtown Billiards- beads and étoufeé.

Esse Purse Museum and Shop- Flyway beer on tap, sponsored by Tonic Media. 10-50% off select items.

Pianist to celebrate classic and contemporary in UALR recital Feb. 5

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University of Arkansas at Little Rock professor Linda Holzer will perform a piano recital, “Ear-Opener! A Celebration of the Known and the New,” at 7:30 p.m Friday, Feb. 5, in Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall.

Admission is free and open to the public.

Holzer enjoys presenting concerts that combine familiar repertoire with works that “deserve to be heard more often.”

Accompanied by baritone Ferris Allen, Holzer will open the concert with the premiere of a poignant new work, “Prayers and Blessings,” by composer Gwyneth Walker.

It is a setting of three texts: “Ubi Caritas,” “Lord Make Me an Instrument of Your Peace,” and “Gaelic Blessing.”

“We think this piece is a musical antidote for a turbulent world,” said Holzer.

The remainder of the program will feature solos by Holzer including the majestic piano Sonata in E Minor by celebrated composer and Little Rock native, Florence Price.

She will also perform selections by Scarlatti, Mozart, and Bach.

Holzer, a UALR faculty member since 1995, is an active soloist and chamber musician who has played in 30 states, and most recently, abroad in Melbourne, Australia. She was a featured performer at the Australasian Piano Pedagogy Conference held at the Victoria College of the Arts. An advocate for contemporary music, Holzer was featured in performance and as host on a special KLRE broadcast last summer, “A Celebration of American Music.”

For more information, contact the Music Department at 501.569.3294.

Mavis Staples in concert at new Pulaski Tech venue tonight

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mavisLegendary Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee Mavis Staples is bringing her stirring brand of classic soul music to Pulaski Technical College on Feb. 5 at 8 p.m. as part of the college’s week-long grand opening celebration of its new Center for the Humanities and Arts, located on the Main Campus at 3000 West Scenic Drive in North Little Rock.

Staples is known for her soul/gospel classics that she performed with The Staples Singers, such as “I’ll Take You There,” and “Respect Yourself.” Her thirteenth studio album, “You Are Not Alone,” won the Grammy Award for Best Americana Album at the 53rd annual Grammy Awards in 2010.

She is a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award recipient and a 2016 Grammy nominee. She has been named one of Rolling Stone’s Top 100 Greatest Singers of all Time. Her latest album, “Livin’ On A High Note,” features Neko Case, Justin Vernon, Nick Cave, Ben Harper and other guest artists. It will be released Feb. 19.

The concert will be in the college’s new theater. Doors open at 6 p.m. and a cash bar will be available. Reserved tickets are $65, $75 and $100 and are on sale now by clicking here: http://www.pulaskitech.edu/mavis/ – See more at: http://www.pulaskitech.edu/current_news/default.asp?ID=1851#sthash.EhoonNag.dpuf

Black History Month Spotlight – Taborian Hall and Dreamland Ballroom

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The new Arkansas Civil Rights History Audio Tour was launched in November 2015. Produced by the City of Little Rock and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock allows the many places and stories of the City’s Civil Rights history to come to life an interactive tour.  This month, during Black History Month, the Culture Vulture looks at some of the stops on this tour which focus on African American history.

Completed in 1918, Taborian Hall stands as one of the last reminders of the once-prosperous West Ninth Street African-American business and cultural district. West Ninth Street buildings included offices for black professionals, businesses, hotels, and entertainment venues. In 1916, the Knights and Daughters of Tabor, a fraternal insurance organization, hired local black contractor Simeon Johnson to enlarge an existing building to accommodate their activities, other offices and a ballroom.

During World War I, black soldiers from Camp Pike came to the Negro Soldiers Service Center here. In World War II, Taborian Hall was home to the Ninth Street USO, catering to black soldiers from Camp Robinson. By 1936, Dreamland Ballroom hosted basketball games, boxing matches, concerts and dances.

A regular stop for popular black entertainers on the “Chitlin’ Circuit,” Dreamland hosted Cab Callaway, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, B.B. King, Earl “Fatha” Hines and Ray Charles. Arkansas’s own Louis Jordan also performed here. Between the 1960s and 1980s, West Ninth Street declined, and many buildings were demolished. In 1991, Taborian Hall was renovated to house Arkansas Flag and Banner. Once again, Dreamland Ballroom hosts concerts and social events.

The app, funded by a generous grant from the Arkansas Humanities Council, was a collaboration among UALR’s Institute on Race and Ethnicity, the City of Little Rock, the Mayor’s Tourism Commission, and KUAR, UALR’s public radio station, with assistance from the Little Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Art+History Throwback Thursday – Arkansas Arts Center in the 1960s

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On February 9, Little Rock voters will have the chance to say Yes to improving the Arkansas Arts Center, MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History, and MacArthur Park.

Leading up to that election is a good time to look back at the development of these entities over the years.  Today, some mid-century images of the Arkansas Arts Center.

AAC 1960sThis includes the cover from the May 1963 dedication week, a jazz album produced by the Arkansas Arts Center, a scene from an early Beaux Arts Ball, and the original Arkansas Arts Center logo (as it appeared on a matchbook).

Music of Mozart and Mendelssohn tonight at ASO River Rhapsodies concert

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ASO NewStart this February off right by getting your tickets to the third installment of the River Rhapsodies Chamber Series. This concert will include the works of Mozart and Mendelssohn. It starts at 7pm on Tuesday, February 2, in the beautiful Great Hall of the Clinton Presidential Center.

Tickets are $23.

PROGRAM

Dohnányi – Sextet in C Major, Op. 37
Mozart – String Quartet in A Major, K. 169
Mendelssohn – Piano Trio No. 2 in C minor, Op. 66