The California Honeydrops
April 1st | 10:00pm | $5

All bands that even begin to proclaim themselves as “blues bands” are inevitably historians in their own right, and that adage is rarely truer than with outfits like Oakland’s California Honeydrops. They are a proverbial train ride through the last century of American music, winding and weaving through several decades of history and multiple corners of the country in melding foot-stomping blues, crooning jazz, scorching soul, R&B, swing, doo-wop and dashes of Americana into a sonic buffet. They could easily pick one of these various styles and settle into it – but the journey this band takes and the vast reaches they explore are far too much fun to come to rest.

For fans of: Ray Charles, Louis Armstrong, Sam Cooke

LISTEN:  “Miss Louise” :: Spreadin' Honey

Ferraby Lionheart
April 2nd | 11:00pm | $5

Hailing from L.A. by way of Nashville, Ferraby Lionheart exudes almost as much as an intriguing character as he does a polished musician. Shrouded in curious mystery with the classic demeanor of the back country troubadour and subtle hints of suave, the wafting allure of his persona is a fitting compliment to his soaring and swaying balladry that is tickled with silky smooth ‘60s-tinged soul and played with almost irreverent precision. He’s a bit more off the beaten path than a Mason Jennings, but makes it look just as easy.

LISTEN:  “Harry & Bess” :: Jack Of Hearts

Henry Wolfe
April 2nd | 10:00pm | $5

Los Angeles folk musician Henry Wolfe crafts sweet, honest, no-frills piano and acoustic guitar driven pop and imbues it with a snappy modern edge. The result is a throwback Americana feel that has made groups like Mumford & Sons so endearingly popular.

Charlie Wadhams
April 2nd | 10:00pm | $5

Rex Aquarium ex-frontman Charlie Wadhams is one of those musicians with an impeccable ear for swirling pop melody. As a solo artist, he employs fluid cadences that have a whimsical, jazzy influence to them and his nimble guitar playing give his voice plenty of room. And though Wadhams’ croon-worthy, cotton-soft vocals seem to float on their own, they’re grounded by his romantic and introspective songwriting.

The Ferocious Few
April 8th | 11:00pm | $5

There is something to be adored about a band that beams with pride at its own depravity, and allows the spirit of their insanity to mangle up their amps into a twisted ball of sonic fervor, like a discarded sheet of paper bound for the wastebasket. The San Francisco duo of Francisco Fernandez and Daniel Aguilar took their teeth-gnashing, blues laced punk and went from staging audio assaults on a street corner of the Mission District to undeniable cult status, like a stripped out version of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club that was kicked out of obedience school.

LISTEN:  “Porcelain Doll” :: Juices

Buster Blue
April 8th | 10:00pm | $5

They’re as much an orchestra of the American frontier as they are a band – which makes it all the more fitting that they recorded their epic wagon train of an album, “When the Silver’s Gone” inside Nevada’s historic Piper’s Opera House. Throwing accordions, banjos, horns (and possibly the kitchen sink) around with abandon, the combustive and undeniably endearing result of Reno’s Buster Blue is like that of an Old West saloon marooned in a freak folk festival.

Toshio Hirano
April 9th | 11:00pm | $3

There is little that can be done to reconcile the dueling realities of a physically inconspicuous, white-collared man in his late 50’s who originally hails from Tokyo, Japan, singing dusty roads country music inspired by country and Americana music legend Jimmie Rodgers – but that’s only before he starts to play. Toshio Hirano has become a sliver of legend in his own right around the Bay Area, performing red white and blue cut American roots music inspired by Rodgers and others with the kind of poise, grit and heart that inspired the genre in the first place.

LISTEN:  “Georgia” :: Toshio Hirano

The Alkali Flats
April 9th | 10:00pm | $3

This Sacramento ensemble is the kind of group that fans of old-fashioned, hillbilly honky tonk should be holding their hosannas for— their songs are lean, crisp, and imbued with 1920’s empty-bottle Americana. And though the Alkali Flats keep their feet tapping with a hefty catalogue of up-tempo songs, they sweep currents of heartbreak and melancholy under their sunny melodies in tracks like “I Can’t Keep You In Love With Me” and “A Short Life (And It’s Troubles)”.

Mirah
April 14th | 10:00pm | $5

Deceptively effortless is the approach behind this perplexing songstress from San Francisco. The rhythms swaying behind her, whether they be organically bred on acoustic guitar or grown in a lab through the keyboards, evoke images ranging from an autumn picnic in the park to the soundtrack of some sort of tragic indie film that few will ever see. Her playfully sultry approach will earn her consistent comparison to Regina Spektor, and it would be equally fair to pair her with Ani DiFranco.

LISTEN:  “Sweepstakes Prize” :: You Think It's Like This But Really It's Like This

Girls In Trouble
April 14th | 9:00pm | $5

Poetry and folk rock often collide with each other, but folk rock and religious text? That’s a new one. Girls in Trouble, the pet project of singer-songwriter Alicia Jo Rabins is a lusciously textured storybook song cycle about women in the Old Testament, delivered with creative splendor along with her husband, Aaron Hartman. The results are deeply rooted in the history of the text, but with a wanderlust spirit in seeking to find the connection to women of modern day.

Frontier Ruckus
April 15th | 11:00pm | $5

The “frontier” is that desolate open space and collage of evolving landscapes that appears to be puzzlingly infinite as you float ambivalently across it. The “ruckus” is the occasional chaos, despair and often fear caused by trying to find out just where the infiniteness ends. Say hello to Michigan’s Frontier Ruckus. Led by intensely captivating vocalist Matthew Milia, they’re a folk and bluegrass themed portrait of that haunted version of America we often don’t let our minds wander to, but can somehow find the beauty in when we do go there.

For fans of Neutral Milk Hotel, Neil Young, Iron & Wine

LISTEN:  “Pontiac, The Nightbrink” :: Deadmalls & Nightfalls

Buxter Hoot'n
April 15th | 10:00pm | $5

Buxter Hoot’n has been described by the SF Bay Guardian as “a glimpse into the future of San Francisco's slightly psychedelic songwriting scene.” The band draws influences from tradition and rock, blues, folk and world sounds. Their first album Here in America received rave reviews from Relix Magazine. The band just released their latest album In Another Life in March, which was recorded on the 2-inch tape machine owned and used by The Grateful Dead to record their In the Dark album.

Boca do Rio
April 22nd | 10:00pm | $5

San Francisco-based Boca Do Rio has been extolling the pleasures of South American Mardi Gras indulgence over polyrhythmic Brazilian beats for years, and the hype surrounding their buoyant homage to the polyrhythmic foundations of samba and reggae speaks for itself. The group produces lively jazz-infused samba, accented by Latin American percussion and flourishes. Though each member shares their take on the Brazilian tradition, they emphasize vibrant cohesion over individual virtuosity and the result is a pulsating sound, made for easy listening and a fiery good time.

For fans of: Sergio Mendes, Antonio Carlos Jobim

LISTEN:  “Pra Bahia” :: Boca do Rio

Diego’s Umbrella
April 23rd | 10:00pm | $5

This playful Bay Area six-piece outfit produces high-energy “gypsy pirate polka”, which is code for a downpour of nimble guitar-playing, voracious drumming, and sporadic yelps and shrieks boiled into a colorful and exhuberant concoction. Recently, three of their songs were featured in the 2009 Lionsgate comedy Still Waiting. With vocals and a rocking sound oddly reminiscent of Gwen Stefani on No Doubt’s Tragic Kingdom album, the band is always a crowd pleaser. Be sure to stick around for their rousing rendition of Europe’s “The Final Countdown”.

For fans of: Golgol Bordello, Devotchka

LISTEN:  “Kings Of Vibration” :: Double Panther

Sister Crayon
April 28th | 11:00pm | $5

Perhaps the most captivating element of Terra Lopez’s intensely layered vocals lies in the complete inability to really explain why they are so captivating. She has the kind of chops that challenges genre (or even gender) preferences when it comes to vocalists. Richly textured, dripping with sensually twisted tones and shrouded in beautiful mystery, Lopez is the architect of this Sacramento based quartet that casts a strong wind across any lines drawn in the sand between folk, rock and electronic music, making the lines fade away and intertwining it all into a knee-weakening and daring package.

LISTEN:  “Souls Of Gold :: Souls Of Gold

Superhumanoids
April 28th | 10:00pm | $5

Although common are the bands that will claim to, rare are the bands that can legitimately find themselves at home in any of the last five decades of popular music – or at least can find a nice apartment to rent for awhile. Superhumanoids pack it all it: Sunshiney ‘60s pop harmonies, flips of ‘70s garage rock, loads of slightly sub-pop new wave electronics from the glory days of the ‘80s, a little of that alt-pop weirdness that bounced around the ‘90s, and the never-say-die electro club rock culture of the ‘00s.

Lovers
April 28th | 9:00pm | $5

There are two vocalists that come to mind when listening to Lovers vocalist Carolyn Berk: Mazzy Star’s Hope Sandoval and the Moldy Peaches’ Kimya Dawson. If one were to take the softer side of Dawson (the side most prevalent in the “Juno” soundtrack) and the jagged side of Sandoval (the one songs like “Fade Into You” only scratched the surface of), the result would be something like this electro-fueled indie rock act from Portland.

Casey Neill & The Norway Rats
April 29th | 11:00pm | $3

Making their way down from Portland, Casey Neill & The Norway rats describe their sound as “folk punk with Irish undercurrents”. Casey has toured the Pacific Northwest, the US, Canada, Japan and Britain, playing on stages like New York's Town Hall, San Francisco's Great American Music Hall, and Glasgow’s Celtic Connections Festival. The band’s album Brooklyn Bridge even garnered attention from Steve Earle, who says their music is "songs with stories well told. This is what it's all about.”

LISTEN:  “Riffraff” :: Memory Against Forgetting

Miss Lonely Hearts
April 29th | 10:00pm | $3

Miss Lonely Hearts is a misnomer for this all-male Davis quartet. Singer Wyatt J. Hesemeyer leads the way with his syrupy backcountry voice and the group’s barely-there arrangements prove to be cunning ploy and keep their sound dark-toned and grounded in bluesy alt-country tradition. Though their songs can be unrelentingly tragic and bitter in both sound and content, the group keeps it simple and their songs will be lodged in heads where they belong, long after the group has finished playing.

Sallie Ford & The Sound Outside
April 30th | 11:00pm | $6

Sallie Ford & The Sound Outside are one those ensembles that can be slotted into several genres—dark Americana, alt-country, indie folk— all of which leave out a paramount component that would seem to define the band as much as any fancy name ever could: the quartet is influenced by twelve-bar jazz blues. Accompanied by her three-piece band, singer Sallie Ford’s emotive warble draws from the likes of the most famous twelve-bar jazz blues singer, Billie Holiday yet invokes the North Carolina landscape of her Asheville upbringing. Her blend of Americana twang and soulful blues is unmistakable and perfectly replicates the expansive Appalachian crags and peaks. Ford isn’t shy about nodding her head to her influences either: she can namedrop e.e. cummings and Joni Mitchell in one breath, backed by her ensemble’s gale of troubadorial Americana melody.

For fans of: Billie Holiday, Bessie Smith

LISTEN:  “Danger” :: Not An Animal EP

The Souterrain
April 30th | 10:00pm | $6

Aside from the Bob Dylans and Tom Waits’ of the world, most musical lyrics are not often thought of as “poetry.” Songwriters like Lauren Norton of Davis’ the Souterrain are out to reverse that line of thinking. Norton, a Master’s student in creative writing at UC Davis, holds nothing back in using her written word as a fourth instrument along with her vocals, Sam Shirley’s acoustic guitar and David Sachs’ upright bass, in creating a tapestry of free-formed folk jazz powered by lyrical impressionism and boldly creative refinement.