Category Archives: Music

Iron Tongue and Adam Faucett & the Tall Grass tonight at 7 at Ron Robinson Theater

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RRT TongueLocal heavy rock group Iron Tongue joins forces with the huge voice of songwriter Adam Faucett & the Tall Grass for a night of powerful original music.

Iron Tongue is a group of veteran musicians with diverse backgrounds. Their soulful heavy rock songs of pain, regret and heartache recall their influences of Blue Cheer, Grand Funk, Kiss, Deep Purple, Buddy Guy, and Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Adam Faucett & the Tall Grass hail from Little Rock. Faucett possesses a voice that the Onion A.V. Club warns “knocks your brain into the back of your skull.” Faucett has drawn comparisons from Tim Buckley to Cat Power to Otis Redding. Called “one of the greatest, most thoughtful lyricists the state has to offer” (Arkansas Times), Faucett has pushed the borders of his “part folk, part blues, part elemental rock stomp, part unidentifiable cosmic holler” (Arkansas Democrat Gazette) with his new album, Blind Water Finds Blind Water, presenting his most arresting and beautiful songs to date.

The concert starts at 7pm at the Ron Robinson Theater. Tickets are $10.

Local Live tonight features QNote at South on Main at 7:30pm

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llsom qnoteTonight at 7:30pm, join the Oxford American magazine for this week’s Local Live concert at South on Main, featuring QNote!

As always, Local Live is free and open to the public. To guarantee a table/seat for this popular series, call ahead at (501) 244-9660. Local Live is made possible by the generous sponsorship of the Ben and Jane Hunt Meade.

Quincy “QNote” Watson is a Little Rock native with global awareness. He combines his Southern background and his many travels into songwriting, rapping, producing, engineering, and playing various musical instruments. He’s played nationally as well as locally, including at his Alma Mater Philander Smith College.

In addition to his technical aptitude for music, he is also a performer, a part of the rap duo Griff and QNote. Several of the songs from Soul South Age were performed on the historic steps of Little Rock Central High School to honor the Little Rock Nine and their sacrifices for social justice. He is also a member of TP and the Feel, fusing the genres of Jazz, Contemporary, Hip Hop, and R&B. As a solo artist and producer, QNote remains in that vein, using his craft for a purpose, employing music as a healing agent for truth and justice.

Big Band in Little Rock tonight!

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som rosenLittle Rock musical mainstay, bandleader, and trumpter-extraordinaire David Rosen (of Rosen Music Company) will bring his 18-piece big band to the South on Main stage for a night of jazz. Enjoy an evening of timeless jazz classics from the 30s, 40s, 50s, and beyond.

This is a ticketed event with a $10 cover charge payable in cash only at the doors beginning at 5:00 PM when South on Main opens to the public.

Music will start a 7:00 PM.

25th Anniversary of Nichols & Simpson organ at Christ Church celebrated tonight with Evensong and Organ Recital

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Kleinschmidt

Kleinschmidt

Nichols & Simpson, Inc., Organbuilders has a stellar world-wide reputation as a manufacturer and tuner of organs.  And they are located in Little Rock.

Many of the churches in Central Arkansas have Nichols & Simpson organs.  One of those is Christ Church at Capitol and Scott Streets. To commemorate the 25th anniversary of the dedication of that organ, the church has scheduled a Evensong service to be followed by an organ recital featuring Michael Kleinschmidt.

The choir of Christ Church will sing Evensong. The music will include the “Magnificat” and “Nunc Dimittis,” “Collegium Regale” by Herbert Howells, and “Psalm 150” by César Franck.

Michael Kleinschmidt, canon musician at Saint Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral in Seattle, will be the organist. An organ recital by Mr. Kleinschmidt will follow the service.  From 2010 until March of this year, he served as canon for cathedral music at Trinity Cathedral in Portland, Oregon.  He previously served at Trinity Church, Copley Square in Boston, All Saint’s Parish in Boston and St. Thomas Fifth Avenue in New York. He holds degrees from Eastman School of Music and Oberlin College Conservatory of Music.

Kleinschmidt is an accomplished organist, having played in recital across the world, including an All-Bach concert at Saint Mark’s on the Flentrop Organ in 2012. He also has a keen appreciation for the ministry of music in children, and serves on faculty of Royal School of Church Music summer courses.

A festive reception will follow the Evensong and recital.

 

Celebrate the Arts Council’s Arkansas Living Treasures tonight at Historic Arkansas Museum

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2fan ham 0715Tonight’s 2nd Friday Art Night at Historic Arkansas Museum is a special event! In collaboration with the Arkansas Arts Council, a sister agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage, it celebrates the work of those who have been designated Arkansas Living Treasures.

“Art. Function. Craft. The Life and Work of Arkansas Living Treasures” – See the works of Arkansas’s finest and most fascinating artists and artisans practicing, preserving and progressing traditional craft. Hear about their personal artistic journeys in a series of documentary shorts. This exhibition, and corresponding film series, is a collaboration of Historic Arkansas Museum and the Arkansas Arts Council, which gives the Arkansas Living Treasure Award to those who excel in the practice of a traditional craft.

Since 2002, the Arkansas Arts Council has recognized Arkansas Living Treasures, Arkansas artisans who excel in the practice of a traditional craft and who have passed the tradition on to the next generation. For the past four decades, Historic Arkansas Museum’s Arkansas Made has systematically documented, collected and preserved the work of Arkansas artisans who lived and worked in the state from the early 19th century to present day. In 2013, the Arkansas Arts Council and Historic Arkansas Museum collaborated to produce a series of short films that celebrate the lives and work of each Arkansas Living Treasure.

In addition, the evening will feature award-winning Arkansas fiddler,Clancey Ferguson. Historic Arkansas Museum’s Year of Arkansas Beer continues with Saddlebock Brewery of Springdale.

The festivities run from 5pm to 8pm.

32nd Democrat-Gazette Pops on the River tonight with ASO and fireworks

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popsonriverPops on the River, presented by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, is the state’s largest Fourth of July celebration and takes place this year on Saturday, July 4th in downtown Little Rock.

Pops on the River, in it’s 32nd year, is FREE to the public and will begin at noon outside the main gates of the First Security Amphitheater in the River Market Pavilions with a Kid’s Pavilion and Car Pavilion. The event will also have a marketplace with shopping, food trucks, a car show and other activities below the River Market Pavilions.

The event is free to the public and a portion of proceeds benefit a local charity. This year’s benefiting charity is Easter Seals of Arkansas. Pops on the River is also sponsored in part by the Little Rock Convention and Visitor’s Bureau, Chick-fil-A of Central Arkansas, Arkansas Flag and Banner and Landers FIAT.

There is a Military Appreciation Tent as well as musical performances throughout the day. The “Oh Say! Can You Sing?” finalists will also perform this evening.

Activities begin at noon.  Gates to the amphitheatre open at 5:30.  Chairs, blankets are encouraged. Open amphitheater seating is available, but limited. No coolers or outside food or drinks. No pets or fireworks allowed.

5:30pm – 9:30pm – Salute to the Troops. Sponsored by CHI St. Vincent (Riverfront Park) Record a video message to our men and women in the military in our Salute the Troops tent.

8:30pm – The Arkansas Symphony Orchestra (First Security Amphitheater) Conducted by Philip Mann. The Arkansas Symphony Orchestra performance is one not to miss.

9:30pm – Fireworks Celebrate our nation’s independence with the Pops on the River Fireworks finale – shot over the Main Street Bridge and visible to all of downtown Little Rock.

 

Museum of Discovery unveils new musical bi-polar Tesla coil today

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11659315_10153372349360138_6462500919140238842_nThe Museum of Discovery unveils a word record treat for the eyes and ears today with the new Guinness World Record musical bi-polar Tesla coil!

Also, on July 4, active and retired military can be admitted free to the museum and can bring up to three additional people for free.

 

The tesla coil – named after its inventor Nikola Tesla, the developer of the alternating current system of electricity used today – is a device that creates high-voltage electricity at a high frequency visible to the eye.  The Museum of Discovery’s coil emits electrical discharges to a variety of songs and will share the record for the world’s largest bi-polar tesla coil with the coil at the Hands On Regional Museum in Johnson City, Tennessee.

The device, which can produce 200,000 volts of electricity, was built by Goodchild Engineering in Arizona and donated to the Museum of Discovery by Richard Mathias, founder and president of Tesla Coil Museum Exhibit Program, LLC, through a matching grant program from the General Electric Foundation.

“This world-record tesla coil will literally illuminate the work of this pivotal inventor and help the Museum of Discovery successfully fulfill its mission of igniting a passion for science, technology and math in our very interactive, hands-on environment,” said Kelley Bass, museum CEO. “We are grateful to Richard Mathias and the GE Foundation for making this opportunity possible for our museum and our visitors.”

The coil will is housed in a new theater in the museum’s Discovery Hall.

There will be a $2 additional fee to experience the show in the Tesla Coil Theater. Through the end of July, it will be free for members.  After that, members will pay an additional $1.