EP Review: Hadley Kennary – Crooked Roots

Hadley Kennary

photo by Jason Lee Denton; photo courtesy of Skye Media

EP Review of Hadley Kennary – Crooked Roots

Show your best and leave ’em wanting more. Sometimes, an EP is a wise move, an ability to present your best, without a weak link. Now, I’m not suggesting that Hadley Kennary doesn’t have ten top-shelf songs that’d leave me just as excited about a full-length album – because I’ve only heard her EP – but I can tell you there’s no sign of weakness among the five tracks on Crooked Roots. The overarching style is pop, from a folky singer-songwriter starting point but with a broader, more mainstream reach.

Hadley Kennary – Crooked Roots

image courtesy of Skye Media

Hadley kicks things off with what could easily be a hit single, “Orbit.” The somewhat stripped-down (though still musically rich) production makes the song a pleasant, moderately energetic listen and plants a seed that’ll have you singing along days later, days after you last even played the record. Catchy, rhythmic, with great pop sensibility. If you listen carefully, you can hear how, with different instrumentation, it could be a Taylor Swift-like pop-country hit with a tweak to the presentation or a more Katy Perry dance-pop hit a lusher music bed and more energetically pop delivery. Instead, the delivery is purely Hadley Kennary, heartfelt and thoughtful, though with perhaps the most pop sensibility of the songs on this EP. Certainly the most immediately catchy, as if you must have heard the song before, but you know it’s just your first listen.

“Crooked Roots” is slower, a little sonically darker, and exceptionally introspective, with a lyrical trend toward hopefulness. It’ll grow on you more slowly but just as deeply as the attention-grabbing disc-opener.

“Possession of Pain” is a poppier song with a lighter presentation, hinting at a danceable beat, though not exactly the right beat to be obvious to dance to, if you know what I mean. (In other words, great for the radio or an at-home/in-car listening sesh; no obvious way to move to it on a dancefloor.) For a song with this dance-ish energy, though, there’s an unusually insistent vocal line, stylistically a bit like P!nk, but with a softer touch.

Hadley Kennary

photo by Jason Lee Denton; photo courtesy of Skye Media

“Everything Hurts” is another of those mid-tempo dance-pop songs – again, the kind of pop music with drums and synth suggesting maybe a dance number… until you try to dance to it and discover it’s maybe just barely too slow to dance to. I’ll retract that a little in this case; I’ve actually been able to dance to “Everything Hurts,” which you would, unfortunately, know if you ever peered through my window while I was listening to it.

Hadley closes out her EP with “Love Like That,” a singer-songwriter pop number that elicits a wistfully, melancholically positive portfolio of emotions.

The song that pulled me in was “Orbit,” with its obvious hit potential and quick catchiness, so definitely make that your first listen, but the rest of the album, quite quickly, grew on me until the entire collection became a favorite segment of my music review queue. So yeah, give these songs a try; they’re exceptionally well-written, so if it’s your musical style, you’ll dig ’em.

More Recently

Hadley is plugging her single “Friends Forever” with Jordan Lindley.

Looking Ahead

The “tour” page of Hadley’s website doesn’t list any upcoming dates, but that’s where you’ll find ’em. And you can read updates about her musical career here on Hadley’s Facebook page or on her Instagram page.

 

Single Review: Cros – “My Kind of Woman”

Cros – "My Kind of Woman"

image courtesy of Frank Roszak Promotions

Single Review of Cros: “My Kind of Woman”

Cros‘ single “My Kind of Woman” is a thumping, blues-based, driving, classic rock ‘n roll-based number, mid-tempo but filled with adrenaline, replete with table-setting horns, energetic keys, and a ’70s-’80s rock ‘n roll beat and delivery. You’ll hear blues-soul background vocals in some places, more traditional blues harmony background vox in others. I’m not sure exactly how to give you a soundalike, but in a playlist, I might pair it with Axe’s “Rock ‘N’ Roll Party in the Streets” as a lead-in and maybe a bluesier rockin’ Tina Turner number to follow. Cros wails enough that “My Kind of Woman” is really not a singalong, though you kind of wish it could be – you’re more likely to sing along with the “my kind of woman” background vocal echoes than with the lead vocals.

In any case, if energetic, mid-to-uptempo, blues-based wailing rock ‘n roll songs are within your preferred listening wheelhouse, you’ll probably really dig Cros’ “My Kind of Woman.” It is, simply put, great fun to listen to.

More Recently

Since the 2021 release of “My Kind of Woman,” Cros’ Spotify page lists two more recently released songs – “Christmas Time Again” in 2022, and, more recently, “Sexy Girl,” which also has a YouTube video. Cros’ YouTube channel also has a 2022-dated video for “Touch,” a song that’s listed as a 2020 release on Spotify. So, beyond “My Kind of Woman,” these are some of Cros’ other cool songs you can check out.

Looking Ahead

If you scroll down Cros’ main web page, you’ll find some upcoming tour dates (whatever’s on his bandsintown page), beginning with an October 20th date in Gary, IN. You can also catch him November 1st and 2nd in Las Vegas, NV. He has three dates, November 3rd through 5th, in Arizona, and late November/early December dates in Florida. Be sure to check his website for more details on those dates and others, as they are added. You can also follow Cros’ Facebook page or his Instagram page to find out more about his goings-on.

 

Album Review: Jimmy Lee Morris – Diamond Rain

Jimmy Lee Morris – Diamond Rain album cover

image courtesy of Jimmy Lee Morris

The Backstory

Diamond Rain is yet another dependably enjoyable collection of well-written songs. I’ve reviewed so much of Jimmy Lee’s music that it’s almost hard to figure out how to describe it again. So that fact, along with the realization that I was falling behind on my reviews, prompted a discussion with Jimmy Lee – who writes for this Blog under the name James Morris. Or does James Morris perform as Jimmy Lee? Regardless, James offered to write about this record himself. (And he answers my question at the start of his write-up, by the way.)

I had planned to preface that with a brief intro, sharing a couple of my favorite songs on the new disc along the way. With apologies to Jimmy Lee, despite having the album for many months before its November 25, 2022 release date, I didn’t get my part written. Of course, I wrote nothing between December 2021 and July 2023, so many artists have received long-delayed reviews in the last few weeks. I’m actually skipping over a few delayed reviews in the queue right now, in part because I just need to write a short intro to be able to share James’ exposition about this very well-crafted, dependably cool collection of songs with you. So, without further ado, I’ll begin with a brief…

Album Review of Jimmy Lee Morris: Diamond Rain

If there’s one thing you can count on from Jimmy Lee Morris, it’s lyrically and musically thoughtful, folk-influenced mostly-light pop that’ll provide an interesting listen while bringing a smile to your face. As always with Jimmy Lee, Diamond Rain sports a great deal of song-to-song melodic variety within a rather tight sonic window, perhaps a surprising feat, but he’s an artist who has delivered it dependably across multiple album releases.

The songs on this release feature the same signature sounds you’ll find on many recent Jimmy Lee Morris releases. But each song is crafted well enough – and Jimmy Lee has a broad enough set of musical influences – that each new album is a welcome new friend.

Personal favorite songs on this disc include the whimsically-musicked opener “Fiction Is The Truth Today,” the fun, funky-tempoed nostalgic “Seventeen,” the encouraging ditty “Talent is Timeless,” the movin’-along, journey-styled song “Wipe the City Dirt from Off our Face,” and the almost Renaissance festival-styled heartfelt strummer “She Is So Precious To Me.” Finally, the album closes with “Don’t Make It All About Something,” leaving the listener to savor the full-on Jimmy Lee Morris experience, exiting with a song that’s joyfully on-brand.

Of course, you’ll have your own favorites, as the disc is solid beginning-to-end.

Now, I’ve promised you more than just yet another Geoff Wilbur review of a Jimmy Lee Morris record. So here’s what you (and James) have been waiting for, written nearly a year ago, it’s a runthrough of Jimmy Lee Morris’ Diamond Rain, in his own words, penned nearly a year ago. Not to give too much away, but it’s a cool peek into his process, and it’s much more interesting than my breezy review.

James Morris‘ Review of Jimmy Lee Morris: Diamond Rain

Today I sat down and had a chat with myself, about my alter ego Jimmy Lee Morris’s new album Diamond Rain which is out 25th November 2022.

The new album was written and recorded towards the end of 2021 and then I’ve sat on it for a year to let the tracks settle. I am always too impetuous with new songs, and once they are done I always seem to rush them out and then want to go back to them and fix all the stuff I hear later that I wish I had done differently.

This time I was determined just to let things lie, and in that way I have routed out the songs that didn’t quite stand the test of time. As a result, four tracks from the recording sessions were left out, and the final release ended up a nice tight little nine-track album that I am not tempted to skip through.

I thought it would be good to take you through each track starting with the opener, “Fiction Is The Truth Today.” In November 2021, I sat and absorbed the brilliant multi-hour documentary Get Back by Peter Jackson, showing for the first time in decades how The Beatles’ recording sessions for their album Let It Be unfolded. It was fascinating from a songwriting perspective to see songs like “Get Back” come to life, created out of the ether over a few days jamming in the studio. I thought I would like to try to approach writing a few songs in that way. Starting with a riff and stringing a few chords together, I started singing any words that created a tune to go over the top of what I was playing. I wasn’t fussed what they were to start with and figured something would come together out of the chaos process.

“Fiction Is The Truth Today” was one of those. I recalled some of the events happening in the news, and of course we were coming out of two years of lockdowns and the COVID pandemic. I thought how strange life had become and how it was more like a bizarre story than reality. I had a song back in the ’80s that was called “Fiction Of Truth,” written from headlines in the papers, and this idea gave me a start to the new song. I remember walking ’round the park in the cold winter months with the tune in my headphones just making up anything that came into my head, which led to some odd lyrics that I then hung current events and references to.

“Seventeen” is the next song on the album and tells the story of events from my younger days. It has verses on my art college days, first band, and first job. All of which happened when I was 17 or maybe 18, but I used a bit of artistic license.

When I get into a groove of songwriting, a few often come out over a very short space of time. This one and the final two songs on the album, “She Is So Precious To Me” and “Don’t Make It All About Something,” were all written in a couple of days sat in front of the fire with my guitar and a note pad. The latter song was inspired by my son sitting behind me on the drum kit, and we started jamming a riff and rhythm which turned into that song. Again, I was singing anything that fitted with the groove and let whatever came out stick and then tinkered with it to finish it off. Once you have a first verse idea, the rest falls into place to suit the mood you have started.

Track three, “Talent Is Timeless” was written earlier in the year as part of a songwriting competition I entered. I was part of the Facebook group and one of the challenges was to write a song on the theme that talent is timeless. I like the discipline of having to write from a given subject. I first did it when I was 16 and was commissioned to write a song about communications breaking down. This was for a local youth theatre group, and I got paid my very first money for making music for that song. I also did it for the title track on my album Wilderness Wood. A local woodland centre had asked the album’s producer whether he would come up with a song for them, and he gave the idea to me. I remember writing it on my journey back home from the studio that evening. So that is how I wrote “Talent Is Timeless” and also discovered that I hated songwriting competitions, as you soon realise that you can’t judge which song is the best; it is too subjective and therefore a waste of time. Never again. I should say that my son plays the Cajon on this one.

The next two songs on the album were written by a performer and songwriter, Roger Brooks, back in the late ’70s and early ’80s. He released them on a tape cassette album to sell at gigs, but they are now also on streaming services for all to hear. I knew Roger back then when I was only 13 or 14, and he kindly took an interest in my early first efforts to write songs, having had a guitar for Christmas shortly before that. He was a gigging musician on the UK folk circuit and mixed in those famous folk circles including the likes of Ralph McTell. I remember playing football on Barnes Green in South West London with them both. As I grew up and life moved on we lost touch, but in 2021 I sadly learned that Roger had passed away quite a few years before. He was only in his 50s, and it shook me up a bit. Things I had forgotten about those years came back to me, and I realized what an influence he had been on me as I started my musical journey. I discovered his music again on Spotify and listened to his songs. I started to play a few of them on my guitar and soon decided to pay a small tribute to him and his memory by recording “In The Diamond Rain” and “Special Reservation.” I would have loved to share stories with him now and for him to see how my music turned out, thanks in some part to him all those years ago.

“Woke Up This Morning” is a bit of a tongue-in-cheek reference to all those blues songs that start with that line. In actual fact, though, I did wake up one morning and saw the light creeping in through the curtains, which made me guess at what time it must be to decide if I was getting up or not. The song wrote itself there and then. It was at the end of making my lockdown album Truth Is The Talisman in 2020, but it was too late to be included on that one. It hung around a while and then came back out for this new album.

The only one left to mention is “Wipe The City Dirt From Off Your Face.” I had to take my car to Exeter for a service just before Christmas 2021. It was going to be there the whole day, so I had to kick around and fill the time. I walked from the industrial estate where I left the car and went via the riverside over bridges past rusting old boats and run-down warehouses. I climbed up the hill to the cathedral and explored the city for the day. The castle ruins, the parks and the Christmas market. I watched as the place filled with people and eventually wandered back to pick my car up the way I came in. All these pictures in my head were so poetical that when I got home I wrote down the journey as it came back to me, and it all streamed out to create a musical picture of events, pretty much as they had happened. Another one that wrote itself. Like I said earlier, when you are lucky enough to get in that songwriting groove, magic can happen. It’s a real folksy acoustic song with just a touch of festiveness about it.

The whole album needed a theme, and so I roped in my lovely other half to play flute across all the tracks. This gave the whole album a “sound” and created a folk feel which permeates throughout. I kept the production simple, restricting myself to acoustic guitar, bass, and drums to fit the flute around. It has, I hope, made for a spacious soundscape. Room to listen to the words and enjoy the stories being told.

I always like to do something different with each record, and so next up after this will be an ’80s style synth album inspired by my first ’80s band À La Tienne. I recorded it hand in hand with this new album to always have a different perspective to keep things fresh. That one is due out in May 2023.

I always seem to be a couple of albums ahead of myself but this new one, Diamond Rain, is out on November 25th, 2022.

Since the Release

Jimmy Lee Morris has released three recordings on his bandcamp site since the release of Diamond RainSynthesis, an instrumental pop release, and Eighteen Ok, marking the 40th anniversary of Jimmy Lee’s synth-pop band À La Tienne, both hit the platform in May 2023, and The Mojo Filter, sporting a melodic bluesy influence, was added in July 2023. The man is prolific!

Looking Ahead

You’ll find live dates occasionally mentioned on the Jimmy Lee Morris Facebook and X pages. Plus, Jimmy Lee has a Facebook page for hat no hat, a duo with his son.

Album Review: Håkon Høye – Nights at the Surf Motel

Håkon Høye

photo courtesy of Rock Rose Music

Album Review of Håkon Høye: Nights at the Surf Motel (Big H Records)

Håkon Høye is a rockin’ Norwegian bluesman whose Nights at the Surf Motel, his full-length second release, is an engaging collection of blues rock songs.

Håkon kicks off the album with the kind of blues riff that would lure any passerby into a blues/rock club upon hearing it. The album-opening song, “Junkyard of Dreams,” is a fun, inviting number, providing the perfect entry point to this record. It has the feel of an enjoyingly bluesy, classic garage rock number.

Håkon Høye – Nights at the Surf Motel

photo courtesy of Rock Rose Music

In fact, opening riffs are a specialty on this disc. Every song starts with a guitar chord or drum beat that, within a split-second, is likely to elicit a “crank this up” response.

Song two, “Stay Awhile,” couples a hypnotic rhythm with the cool lyric, “She said, ‘Come on in, don’t be shy, leave your shoes at the door. Don’t be afraid to stay awhile, ’cause I will keep you warm.'”

Next up, Håkon changes the pace with a funky blues number, the cool, catchy “One Floor Down.” There’s even a hint of a bluesy Gospel influence on “Good Thing.” Next up, “You Must Believe Me” has a lighter feel, mixing Motown-ish harmonies, prominent hornwork, and kind of a dancing, light-touch blues guitar line.

“Sweet Sugar You” returns the record to down ‘n dirty blues, with a nastier, thumping blues rhythm, but Håkon keeps mixing things up, as the next song, “My Darkest Hour,” is much more softly instrumented with a somewhat lo-fi sound.

Håkon Høye – Nights at the Surf Motel

photo courtesy of Rock Rose Music

“Time Will Tell” follows, with a slow, swampy blues flavor, which flows neatly into the beginning of “Wastin’ Time With You” before that song picks up tempo a bit more, showcasing a somewhat disjointed, herky-jerky rhythm.

Håkon closes the collection with the title track, “Nights at the Surf Motel,” a slow-paced, soulful blues number that features modest guitar runs and heartfelt blues vocals.

For me, Nights at the Surf Motel began as a pleasant listen – clearly a quality blues record featuring top-shelf musicians – and then revealed the quality of its blues magic over repeated listens, eventually becoming an anticipated visit on my daily audio journey through my review queue. I’m sure you’ll recognize the quality of this album during your first listen, too; be sure to keep on listening, though, because this collection of songs gets continually better over the course of frequent visits.

Looking Ahead

If one thing’s apparent, it’s that a Håkon Høye live gig must be a must-see. I don’t see any dates listed on the “Events” tab of Håkon’s Facebook page, but it’s not clear if that’s regularly updated. Be sure to follow his Facebook page, though, because gigs are sometimes mentioned there. Also worth noting, Håkon shares some great photos via his Instagram account.

Album Review: Marvin Brooks – I’ll Be Fine

Album Review of Marvin Brooks: I’ll Be Fine (Position Music)

Marvin Brooks is one of the most widely-listenable, broadly-appealing artists in the musical lane that mixes R&B and hip-hop, with this Ghanaian-German artist showcasing several other influences, as well, and displaying a sharp ear for pop sensibilities. There’s plenty of seriousness in the lyrics, jumping back and forth across the line that separates life’s difficulty with hopefulness, providing a depth that sustains multiple beginning-to-end journeys through the album. At the same time, the variety of song tempos, rhythms, and musical influences provide variety across the well-crafted songs, most of which would be enjoyable listens with or without the well-crafted lyrics.

Marvin opens the album with a song that starts the listener off with an uplifted mood and cleanses the musical palate. “Feel It” is a fun, uptempo tune with lots of musical open space upon which a rhythmic, tunefully-spoken-word singing style blends with celebratory, soaring vocals.

Marvin Brooks

photo courtesy of DRPR

The change in tone in “Seven Forty Five” conveys the shift to seriousness, as it’s an introspective number with a pleasantly rhythmic, nearly hypnotic vocal delivery. Though sonically quite different, the next song, “Around Me,” could be described similarly.

“Ghost” is slower and rather ethereal, with a darker rhythm offset with recurring, playful notes and slight tempo shifts, providing the requisite variety throughout the song.

You’ll hear other broader influences on the record, too. Notably, reggae rhythms make a significant appearance, driving one of my several favorites in this collection, the memorably rhythmic “On the Low,” featuring Kataem. It’s a tune you’ll catch yourself singing along with by the second or third listen.

Full-0n Gospel opens and drives “As I Went Down,” with some well-fitting rapped lyrics that recall painful racial history while looking hopefully forward.

“I’ll Be Fine” is another standout track that deserves mention. It’s a well-crafted open letter to family, sincere enough to suggest it’s personally deeply felt, with lyrics like, “Oh mama, I promise everything will be just fine; oh mama, don’t worry ’bout your son, I’ll be alright.” The song moves along very slowly and heavily with depth and gravitas, with musical sensibilities that make it an easy, pleasant listen.

Other favorites on the album are the faster-paced “Shake What Your Mama,” the thoughtfully lyrical love poem “By My Side,” and the hypnotically soaring “Too Close.” In addition, there’s “Unstoppable,” which taps into raw emotion and musically ratchets up in tension over the course of the song, making it a mesmerizing track.

By the time you get to album-closing “If I Fall,” it’s been an emotional ride, so the song’s mellow tone provides a soft landing, but don’t go sleeping on this sweetly sung song, as its lyrics provide the same comfortable calm exit as its music bed.

In summary, I’ll Be Fine is simultaneously a serious album and a fun listen. If you like your music to be satisfying and, at times, soul-searching, you’ll want to hear this disc. And if you just want cool music to enjoy, this is an album for you, too. Marvin Brooks is exceptionally talented, someone whose music needs to be on your radar.

Since This Release

Since I’ll Be Fine, Marvin has released several additional singles, his most recent being “Fire” featuring Worlasi, a song whose YouTube views have soared, suggesting it may be well on its way to being a hit. So once you’ve absorbed I’ll Be Fine, be sure to check out “Fire” and Marvin’s other single releases from the last couple of years. I’d also suggest checking out the review I wrote a couple years ago about the single “You Want It,” by 2WEI, featuing Marvin Brooks and Ohana Bam.

Looking Ahead

Too keep up with Marvin’s latest recordings and artist news, be sure to follow him on Instagram, X (Twitter), and Spotify, and sign up for his YouTube channel.

Album Review: Kyle Culkin – Pork Chops & Blues

Kyle Culkin – Pork Chops & Blues

image courtesy of Frank Roszak Promotions

Album Review of Kyle Culkin: Pork Chops & Blues

“Break me off a piece of that pork chop, baby, break me off a piece of that meat…” I guarantee you’ll be singing along by the end of the first listen to disc-opener “The Pork Chop Song.” Kyle Culkin delivers an energetic disc full o’ rollickin’ blues with Pork Chops & Blues.

I rarely quote from artist bios in my reviews, but when Culkin opened for the B.B. King on his 80th birthday tour, B.B. King proclaimed, “This kid can play!” I can’t argue with B.B.

Song two is a Culkin-penned number, an energetically bluesy “So Damn Old,” with guest axework from Carl Verheyen, whose rock ‘n roll album I reviewed at the blog a couple years ago. The guitars roll throughout this track, a song as blues as blues, and Kyle’s moderately gruff voice concludes, convincingly tired and drained, “You’re as young as you feel, or so I’m told. So I’m sittin’ here wonderin’ why I feel so damn old.”

Kyle slows things down a little with the crooner “By the Blues” before amping up the energy on one “Burn It All Down.” But that additional juice was apparently just a stepping-stone to the next track, as Kyle hits the accelerator even harder during catchy singalong-worthy country-blues rocker “Why Me.” For someone who likes to listen to album in their intended order, this is a terrific three-song sequence.

Next up is “Nothing From Nobody,” a nice addition to this song collection, a change of pace number that treads that fine line between “blues” and “complaining.”

Penultimate song “Can’t Come Down” really slows things down, a sweet soft rock song with just a hint of blues, by far the most appropriate number in this collection for those looking for a slow dance.

Kyle closes the record with “Wouldn’t Change a Thing,” more a big stage soul-pop-rock song than a blues number. It’s an engaging song with a big sound, well-placed at the end of the album, particularly after the previous, palate-cleansing entry.

Pork Chops & Blues is a short, 8-song album, short enough that it leaves you wanting more, which might very well be the point.

Since the Release

Pork Chops & Blues, released in May 2021, isn’t Kyle’s current album. Just a few weeks ago he released a new record, Shotgun Ridge. I haven’t heard that yet – I’m looking forward to giving it a listen – but Pork Chops & Blues is a special album I simply had to share with you. It’s been a favorite of mine for the last couple of years, and if you dig the blues, I’d highly recommend it.

Single Review: Panda Forces – “Tiffany Blue”

Panda Forces

photo courtesy of Nebula Music Nexus

Single Review of Panda Forces: “Tiffany Blue”

Panda Forces“Tiffany Blue” begins with a shoegaze pop vibe but with a bit more energy, and then the song slowly builds, almost imperceptibly until it becomes apparent, around mid-song, that first impressions were deceiving. “Tiffany Blue” is lyrically interesting, deftly crafted, with a very emotionally healthy message. By the end of the song, some of the vocals could be deemed outbursts, as if for lyrically well-placed emphasis.

Tiffany Blue – "Panda Forces"

image courtesy of Nebula Music Nexus

If you have the opportunity, give this song a listen. Better yet, multiple listens. It’s stylistically both familiar and original, and its coolness reveals itself slowly over the course of repeated exposure; before long this will be one of the favorite songs on your playlist. You might also recognize some Breakfast at Tiffany’s references in the song, so listen closely.

More About Panda Forces

Panda Forces

photo courtesy of Nebula Music Nexus

Vocalist Lucy Claire and guitarist Nathan Hoffner comprise Nashville-based Panda Forces. The band self-describes on its website as an alternative band. Vague, I know, but a little perusal of the band’s Spotify and YouTube pages reveals several other songs significantly more energetic than the one I just reviewed (in particular, I’d suggest sampling “Sex Is Ice Cream”), which only makes “Tiffany Blue” that much more interesting, intriguing, and cool.

I don’t see any upcoming shows listed at the “Events” page of the band’s website, but I do see one upcoming show mentioned on Panda Forces’ Facebook and Instagram accounts – the band will be performing tomorrow night, August 5th, at Drkmttr Collective in Nashville. Also, be sure to check back periodically to see if/when additional live dates are added.