On Stage: The legendary Al Kooper

Also: U.S. Reggae acts swarm into Philly

By Denny Dyroff, Staff Writer, The Times

There are only a few artists in the realm of rock music who genuinely deserve to be called legends. Al Kooper is one of them.

Kooper, who will perform on October 22 at the Sellersville Theater (24 West Temple Avenue, Sellersville, 215-257-5808, www.st94.com), is a highly-talented singer, songwriter, keyboard player and guitarist — and one of rock’s most respected producers.

Unlike many of today’s artists, Kooper is not locked in to the standard process of making an album and then touring exhaustively to promote it.

“I’m not writing any new songs,” said Kooper, during a phone interview Monday afternoon from his home in Massachusetts. “I know I’m not going to make another album. I haven’t written anything in a while — maybe two or three songs since my last album.”

Kooper’s last album was “White Chocolate,” which came out in 2008.

“I am planning in a four-CD box set of everything unreleased from everything I’ve worked on,” said Kooper. “I could write a book — but I’d have to think about that. I already did the autobiography thing. It went up to 2008 so I guess I could bring it up to date.”

Kooper was just a teenager in New York when he was a member of the Royal Teens who had a Top Five hit in 1958 with “Short Shorts.”  He began doing session work and co-writing songs with other musicians.

The New York-based Kooper played the signature organ riff on Dylan’s “Like A Rolling Stone” and was a founding member of Blood, Sweat & Tears but left after the band’s milestone debut album “Child Is Father to the Man.”

Kooper released a number of solo albums and did session and production work for many of rock’s top acts — such as playing keyboard on the Rolling Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” and producing Lynyrd Skynyrd’s first three albums, including the band’s debut album that included “Free Bird.”

“People still ask me to do session work,” said Kooper, who has had health and vision problems in recent years. “The most difficult thing is talking me out of the house. I don’t play that many shows anymore either. But, when they come dancing in front of me, I accept the dance.

“In my live shows, it’s just me with my guitar and keyboards. I change the set list around a lot. I like to play songs from my various solo albums. This time around, I’m doing a lot of songs from the Blood, Sweat and Tears album. I do them more like they were when I originally wrote them on keyboard.

“I enjoy doing solo gigs because it allows me to tell the stories of the songs. I’m a frustrated comedian and it’s nice because I can make people laugh. Performing solo breaks down the performer/audience role. People get who I am as a person which you never get with a band show. It’s a nice intimate evening.”

Video link for Al Kooper — https://youtu.be/N-Q7TrGqN1k.

The show at Sellersville will start at 8 p.m. Tickets are $29.50 and $45.

On October 22, the TLA (Theatre of the Living Arts, 334 South Street, Philadelphia, 215-222-1011, http://www.lnphilly.com), will present a show featuring two of America’s top R&B artists — Raheem DeVaughn and Leela James.

With shows in 25 major cities across the United States, the two will be performing hits off of their recent chart-topping albums alongside fan favorites from their entire catalogues as part of “The Love ‘n Soul Experience Tour.”

Three-time Grammy Award nominated 368 Music Group & Entertainment One recording artist Raheem DeVaughn is billed as “one of the most exciting R&B artists of the 21st century.”

 His fifth studio album “Love, Sex, and Passion,” which came out in February, debuted at #1 on the Billboard R&B chart and #2 on Billboard’s Independent Album chart. It has been fueled by the radio hits “Queen” and “Temperature’s Rising”.

“The new album dropped in February and it’s been doing well,” said DeVaughn, during a recent phone interview from his home in the Washington, D.C. area. “It did great on Billboard charts. ‘Queen’ was the first single and that got as lot of traction. ‘Temperature’s Rising’ is doing real well right now.

“To be an indie and to do that is something. I was on Jive Records for 10 years and that was a great journey. Now, I’m independent and it’s great to be still popular after 10 years. Even when I was on a label, I still operated as an indie. I did five albums in 10 years and still play songs from all five albums.

“I’m a cultural artist. I make music that influences the culture — on a lot of levels. I’ve opened up lanes for a lot of artists with things I’ve done like mixtapes. I’m one of the forefathers of mixtapes for R&B and soul.

“I’m always working and recording. I was in the studio until 5 a.m. this morning. In this business, you’ve got to keep working. You’re only as good as your last project.”

In addition to his musical interests, DeVaughn is involved in various philanthropic initiatives run by his charity organization, The LoveLife Foundation. Launched in April 2014, the foundation currently focuses on youth education, HIV/AIDS research, and domestic violence prevention. Throughout the tour, Raheem and the LoveLife Foundation will be hosting their national “Queen for a Day” campaign against domestic violence.

Joining “The Love ‘n Soul Experience” as the opening act is the exciting new talent V. Bozeman. After his debut as the co-star of the hit Fox TV series “Empire,” Bozeman is currently preparing her highly anticipated debut album “Music Is My Boyfriend.”

“I’m a fan of the show and a fan of her voice,” said DeVaughn. “I’m also a big fan of Leela. I toured with her earlier this year. We have the same management and we have the same style. We even recorded a song together on one of her previous albums.”

Video link for Raheen DeVaughn — https://youtu.be/vZ_8wpPqEtg

The show at the TLA will start at 8 p.m. Tickets are $27.

Three of the top American reggae bands are Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad, Iration and John Brown’s Body. Ironically, all three are coming to the area for shows within a three-day period — all at different venues.

On October 22, Iration will perform at the Fillmore Philadelphia (1100 Canal Street, Philadelphia, 215-309-0150, www.thefillmorephilly.com) while John Brown’s Body will do a show at the Ardmore Music Hall (23 East Lancaster Avenue, Ardmore, 610-649-8389, www.ardmoremusic.com).

On October 24, Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad will play at Underground Arts (1200 Callowhill Street, Philadelphia, http://undergroundarts.org).

American reggae pioneers John Brown’s Body are fresh off an intense set of summer festival plays including California Roots, Reggae On The Mountain – California, Gathering of the Vibes, Reggae on the Rocks at Red Rocks Amphitheater in Morrison, Colorado, among others.

The band is touring in support of its recent dub release “Kings And Queens In Dub” which came out in April on Easy Star Records. The album offers 12 re-produced dub tracks from the band’s 2013 release “Kings and Queens” and features dub producers Dubmatix, UK legend Dennis Bovell, Yesking, Lord Echo (The Black Seeds), Dubfader (10 Ft. Ganja Plant), Ticklah (Antibalas), Michael G (Easy Star All-Stars) and others.

The line-up of John Brown’s Body features Elliot Martin (lead vocals), Tommy Benedetti (drums), Dan Africano (bass), Jay Spaker (guitar), Jon Petronzio (keyboards), TJ Schaper (trombone), Drew Sayers (saxophone) and Sam Dechenne (trumpet).

“We’re just cruising along,” said Benedetti, during a recent phone interview from his home in Boston. “Everything’s good. We had a nice summer of festivals. We have some good stuff going on.”

John Brown’s Body first arrived on the scene in the mid-1990s. The group released its debut album “All Time” in 1996 and followed with “Among Them” three years later. The band’s last studio album of new material was “Amplify” in 2008.

“The core of the band has been around since the beginning and the horns have been with us five or six years,” said Benedetti. “We have a real family vibe in the band. We strive for consistency and the band is really tight right now.

“We did ‘Kings and Queens’ two years ago and then the dub version of ‘Kings and Queens’ earlier this year. We also did some new recording in Boston earlier this year so we should be releasing some new music pretty soon.

“The tracking is done and it’s going into the mixing stage now.  Right now, I don’t know if it will be and EP or if we’ll wait until we have enough for an album. We recorded five or six tracks in Boston and also did three tracks in Denver.”

John Brown’s Body always does good work in the studio but the band’s real strength is its rousing live show.

“We’re fans of music,” said Benedetti. “We’re players. We love playing for people. We love songs — good songs and good melodies. We’ve had two lime-up changes recently but everyone is still family.

“We did the dub version because we love dub music. We love to hear all our songs dubbed out. Between Drew and the label guys at Easy Star, they reached out to all these different producers around the world and they were psyched to get in on the project.

“The finished album has all the songs in the same running order as they were o n the original album. We did it the classic Jamaican way. We’re one of the few American bands to have ever done that.”

Video link for John Brown’s Body — https://youtu.be/zvfdBsCPU9E.

The show in Ardmore will get underway at 8:30 p.m. Tickets are $15.

Other upcoming shows at the Ardmore Music Hall are Control for Smilers (Phish Tribute) and Pure Jerry (Jerry Garcia Band tribute) on October 23, Melvin Seals & JGB (Organist, Jerry Garcia Band) and Stoop Kids on October 24, and David Duchovny and Bird Watcher on October 28.

The Ardmore Music Hall will also have its first-ever family concert on October 25 at 11 a.m. featuring Alex and the Kaleidoscope. Additionally, the venue will host Ardmore Beer Hall II on October 24 at noon featuring more than 30 craft breweries, live music and tasty food.

Iration, which is now billed as an alternative band, digitally released its new album “Hotting Up” on August 28 and is now headlining “Hotting Up Tour” in its support. The tour will also feature The Green, The Movement and Hours Eastly.

The band began as a reggae band formed by six friends who grew up together on an island. But, the island is not Jamaica — or even another Caribbean island where the sounds of live reggae music constantly fill the air.

 The band is from Hawaii, the home of traditional slack key guitar music and highly commercialized hula songs.   Even though the members if Iration attended the same high school in Waimea, Hawaii, they did not come together to form a band until they were all attending college in California.

What started out as a hobby grew into a band. The group currently includes Joseph Dickens (drums), Joseph King (engineer), Cayson Peterson (keyboards), Micah Pueschel (guitar, vocals) and Adam Taylor (bass). In 2013, Iration announced that vocalist Kai Rediske had quit the band.

“I do most of the songwriting,” said Pueschel, during a recent phone interview. “Kai was a good writer and it was nice to have someone to bounce ideas off.  Micah Brown, who replaced Kai, is a god singer and writer. He wrote ‘Stay Awake’ on the new album. It’s always nice to have another songwriter.  We started working on ‘Hotting Up’ last winter.

“After the ‘Rebelution Tour’ last summer, we had a few months off so we had time to gather ideas and write songs. We did a lot of pre-production with our new producer David Manzour. He’s a lot more hands-on and he co-wrote some of the songs. We recorded it in two different spots — East-West Studio in Hollywood and Santa Barbara Sound Design. Both were great studios.

“When I’m writing, most of the time, I’ll start with a guitar and strum around until I find something I like. I’ll go from there and sing gibberish in places where lyrics should be. Other times, I’ll get a phrase that I put on my iPhone.”

Iration has branched out beyond the world of domestic reggae.

“I think our sound has definitely come around to a broader spectrum of sound — less reggae,” said Pueschel. “It’s a wider range of music but still has the elements of reggae. We’ve always been a band that listens to everything. We like good songs. We’re not genre purists.

“We all are familiar with Hawaii’s great music. If you grew up in Hawaii, you’ve listened to Gabby Pahinui, Koala Beamer and Cyril Pahinui. That’s the sound you grew up with. You hear slack key (music) all the time. We go back to Hawaii a few times a year. On our nee song ‘Lost and Found,’ we use a slide guitar for the sound of Hawaiian steel guitar and we have ukulele on it.”

Video link for Iration — https://youtu.be/yZxM4R4GOYw?list=PLksQvtgGE_POc9lFe0xP9_Xiju-4bon2w.

The show at the Fillmore will start at 7 p.m. Tickets are $22.50.

Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad — Chris O’Brian, Dylan Savage, James Searl, Dan Keller and Tony Gallicchio — is also a reggae-based band that makes a variety of music. Three of its five albums have been straight-up reggae. But, “Country,” which was released in 2012, and its new album “Bright Days,” which came out in May on Easy Star Records, are Americana albums.

With the release of “Country,” Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad (GPGDS) proved its musical identity to be as indefinable as the band’s name. The Rochester, NY-based quintet was known as a reggae-jam band, relentlessly touring on the back of their debut album “Slow Down” (2006). The band has since released two reggae albums, “In These Times” (2012), and “Steady” (2014), which debuted at #1 on the Billboard Reggae chart.

“Bright Days” has nine original songs ranging from “American Beauty”-era Grateful Dead sounds to African-inspired instrumentals to early Neil Young. The album features guests G. Love on harmonica and renowned mandolin player Eric Robertson.

Milt Reder, the owner of Rear Window Studio, played guitar throughout the record. Reder, who has worked with Susan Tedeschi, Bo Diddley, and others, provided a Zen atmosphere with his playing and guided GPGDS to accomplish the goal of recording songs that had never been rehearsed or worked out previous to the studio session.

“James and I and my brother Matt formed the band around 2002 in upstate New York,” said Chris O’Brian, during a recent phone interview. “We grew up together and played rock-and-roll — and some high school kid funk. Then, our music went to reggae and stayed there.

“It’s mostly what we’ve been putting our energy into — real roots reggae. Dylan is a life-long reggae fan. He listens to it all the time. James studied the Rastafarian religion in college and went to Africa. We went to Jamaica as a band in 2007 and played gigs down there. We were in Negril the whole time.”

Somehow, Americana slipped in through the side door.

“Our focus is still reggae,” said O’Brian. “Our live show is strictly reggae. We just got out of the studio making a reggae record. The shift to releasing Americana stuff is because we’ve been playing it for years. But, we don’t assume that our reggae fans are going to like our Americana music.

“Americana is all over the place. People enjoy it so we must have done something right. The jam band link is huge. I give it a lot of credit for the association of our two styles of music. We did an eight-show acoustic tour of ‘Country’ but we’re not trying to be something we’re not. Our live shows are pretty much just us skanking to reggae sounds.”

Video link for Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad — https://youtu.be/MD9DBV–xUM.

The show on October 24 will start at 10 p.m. Tickets are $17.

Christian Lopez, who will play a show with his band on October 22 at the Lansdowne Folk Club (84 North Lansdowne Avenue, Lansdowne, 484-466-6213, http://folkclub.org), is a 20-year-old with the soul of a 65-year-old Appalachian mountain musician hidden away inside — steeped in the roots of his West Virginia upbringing on the shores of the Potomac River in the Eastern Panhandle of the state.

On his debut album “Onward,” he emulated the sound produced by the region’s resident pickers and strummers and wrote all but one of the songs on the disc. Some of the key tracks are “Leaving It Out,” “Seven Years,” “Morning Rise” and “Oh Those Tombs.”

“My mom started me on piano when I was five years old,” said Lopez, during a recent phone interview from his home in Martinsburg, West Virginia. “But, I didn’t really get into music until my dad gave me his classic rock album collection when I was 13. He knew I loved music and they were sitting in a storage unit not being used. That music started to really hit me. I grew up a crazy AC/DC fan and Creedence fan. I was into a lot of 80s bands a lot of hair metal. At the same time, I loved The Band. They made me pick up acoustic guitar. I was also into Willie Nelson, the Outlaws, Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings. I was on a folk rock/country/folk path.”

Before long, Lopez was making his own music.

“I was around 15 when I started to write songs,” said Lopez. “I always sort of had a band in my head when I was writing the songs.  Joe Taxi was my first band. We started to travel and get some gigs. We even got a spot on the Warped Tour.

“Later, those two guys left and I put together the Christian Lopez Band which is Chelsea McVee on banjo and vocals, Mark Schottinger on bass and Pete Teselsky on drums. Chelsea and I have been playing together for awhile and then my manager helped me find a bass player and a drummer. With these guys, it felt like a good fit. We made the album last December in Nashville with producer Dave Cobb at Low Country Sound Studio.

“I had been sending him recordings by phone but we didn’t really dig into the songs until we got in the studio. The recording went quickly. Fresh and fast — that’s how he likes to do it. We recorded most of the songs live in the studio. By recording the songs live, there was more energy and it was stripped down to a more organic flavor.”

Video link for Christian Lopez Band — https://youtu.be/6rhaU_uY-EU.

The show in Lansdowne will start at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $17.

Transviolet, which will visit the area on October 23 for a show at Underground Arts (1200 Callowhill Street, Philadelphia, http://undergroundarts.org), is one of the top new pop bands to emerge this year.

The band — Sarah McTaggart, Judah McCarthy, Michael Panek and Jon Garcia — is so new that its debut recording the “New Bohemia” EP (Epic Records is just a few weeks old. Transviolet is so new that its current tour with Mikky Ekko is the band’s first time on the road.

“Our first show ever was in Costa Mesa a few weeks ago,” said vocalist Sara McTaggart, during a phone interview last week from tour stop in Ohio, “But, we’ve been rehearsing for a long time.

“We started working on the EP a few months ago — around April. I do most of the songwriting. I also collaborated with our producer Alex Reed. They’re my stories.”

McTaggart definitely has stories.

“I graduated from high school in Paso Robles (CA) and three weeks later moved to Grand Cayman,” said McTaggart. “When I was in Grand Cayman, I set up a profile on a musicians’ site. I said I lived in San Diego.

“Mike found me online. He sent me a track and it was better than what I had been hearing. I was immediately sold. I started writing stuff over his track. I liked the challenge. I recorded vocals on this shitty little microphone.

“After a few months, I decided to move to San Diego. John and Mike were living in New York City and Jeff, our guitarist, was living in Rochester (NY). The guys all knew each other from going to high school together in Rochester.

“I moved to L.A. and so did Mike and John. Jeff came out for a week tryout and it went really well.  He went back to Rochester, sold everything he owned and drove back across the country. When we added Jeff, the sound changed quite a bit. The real start of Transviolet was when we all moved to L.A.”

It didn’t take long for the band to develop its own take of adventurous pop music — especially with McTaggart’s writing skills.

“When I’m writing, sometimes I feel like a medium,” said McTaggart. “I write on piano, guitar and ukulele. My writing is different for every song. At times, I’ll get a melody first or maybe it will start with a story. We’ve got about 60 songs written already. We picked the best four for the EP and we’ll pick 11-13 for the album.

“As a writer, with each song, you learn something new. My biggest influences are the Beatles, Radiohead and Nirvana as well as Lana Del Rey and Tame Impala. I also like Imogen Heap a lot. And, Freddie Mercury is a god.”

https://youtu.be/b_aQgB7xkjA.

The show is slated to get underway at 8 p.m. Tickets are $15.

Next To None, a progressive metal band featuring Max Portnoy on drums, Ryland Holland on guitar, Kris Rank on bass, and Thomas Cuce on keyboards and lead vocals, will be in Philly on October 23 for a show at Bullshooters (14000 Bustleton Avenue, Philadelphia, 215-437-1208, https://www.facebook.com/Bull-Shooters-Saloon).

The band, which is based in the Lehigh Valley, is touring in support of its recently-released debut album “A Light In The Dark,” which was released on the InsideOut label on June 29. The album was produced by Winery Dogs’ drummer Mike Portnoy, formerly the drummer for Dream Theater — and father of NTN’s drummer Max Portnoy.

“We’ve been working on the album for three-to-four years,” said Max Portnoy, during a recent phone interview from his home in the Bethlehem area.

Ordinarily, this wouldn’t be a surprising statement from a band member. But, it is when Portnoy and Rank are only 15 and Holland and Cuce are just 16.

At the ages of only 12 and 13, the boys began writing their own music and performing live around the area. About a year later they went into the studio to record their first three-song self titled EP.  At that point they really started to promote themselves through social media and playing live shows around the Pennsylvania area.

“I knew Cliff and Ryland since first grade at school,” said Portnoy. “We were in Spanish immersion and we were the main kids that jammed. We were also in a program at the School of Rock. I met Thomas in sixth grade. We played at a lot of parties.

“I’ve been banging on drums ever since I was born. I started lessons when I was five. I was around 10 when I got super serious about it. My dad is my biggest influence. I grew up watching Dream Theater on stage and in the studio. I didn’t deliberately try to copy him but, because it’s in my blood, I play like him.”

When the teenagers got in the studio this year, they approached the recording process like veterans.

“We had everything rehearsed before we went in the studio,” said Portnoy. “We recorded the album at this little studio in Bethlehem. The people there were awesome. For our live show, a large portion of our music is the same as it is on the album.

“With my frills, I’ll improvise a little. We might extend a section for a little bit. But, mainly, we want to play the songs like they are on the record. It already has a jamming feel to it.

“The songs are written by all of us. All the songs that we recorded are on the album. Since the album, we’ve started writing new songs. But, we’re not playing any of them in our live show. Some of the songs don’t even have vocals yet.”

Video link for Next To None — https://youtu.be/jfF9qV0igWE.

The show at Ortlieb’s will start at 9 p.m. Tickets are $10.

On October 23, Quiet Hollers — Shadwick Wilde, Nick Goldring, Aaron West, Ryan Scott, Jim Bob Brown — will visit the area for a show at Ortlieb’s (847 North Third Street, Philadelphia, 267- 324-3348, www.ticketfly.com). Then, on October 24, the band will play Tellus 360 (24 East King Street, Lancaster, 717-393-1660, www.tellus360.com).

According to the band’s website, “Quiet Hollers are a cult/gang/band and ragtag group of misfits playing weird, sad music for weirdos like you.”

The band is fronted by Wilde, an accomplished artist and songwriter who used to be a punk rock guitarist-for-hire for the likes of Dischord Records’ Iron Cross, before moving to Louisville and forming Quiet Hollers.

“Quiet Hollers,” the bands’ sophomore album, was engineered and mixed by Kevin Ratterman (My Morning Jacket, Murder By Death, Grace Potter) and runs the proverbial gamut of the band’s eclectic influences — 90’s college rock, post punk and alt-country, to deliver heady, literate, hook-laden narratives.

“When it first started, it was just me on acoustic guitar,” said Wilde, during a recent phone interview from his home in Louisville. “There is only so much that can be said with a guy and an acoustic guitar.

“What are the differences between two albums? I’m a big fan of the mentality of not making the same record twice. The songwriting wasn’t started to go to rock from Americana but that’s the way the band has gone. The first album was more Americana — traditional Kentucky instruments.”

The albums are definitely very different.

“I don’t know that I noticed a shift in my songwriting,” said Wilde. “It’s just something that sort of happened.  In my early stuff, I had to make a clear distinction from my previous punk stuff to Americana.

“As my songwriting has grown, it became less important to define genre. I still primarily write with acoustic guitar. A lot of the songs were just written with a melody in mind and some were written with lyrics in mind.

“I feel like it’s a mistake to have too much going on in a song. The first LP was too busy. With the new record, all the instrumentation was written before we recorded it. It lets the song speak a little more clearly without noise around.”

The band’s live show is more current.

“We only do one or two songs from the first record — ‘Road Song’ and ‘Their Dark Robes’ are the two,” said Wilde. “My goal was more to be a band that wasn’t just Americana, alt-country or indie rock. My identity as an artist comes from songwriting and artists should be always conscious of not repeating themselves.”

Video link for Quiet Hollers — https://youtu.be/1glXHx1kmy8.

The show at Ortlieb’s, which also features Morning River Band and Mark Lanky, will get underway at 8 p.m. Tickets are $10 at the door. The show at Tellus 360 will start at 7 p.m. and features a $5 cover. 

The Flash (102 Sycamore Alley, Kennett Square, 484-732-8295, http://www.kennettflash.org) will present Tapestry Revisited – A Tribute to Carole King with Lori Citro & The Accidentals on October 23, and Trespass – The Music of Genesis on October 24.

Doc Watson’s Public House (150 North Pottstown Pike, Exton, 610-524-2424, docwatsonspublichouse.com) will have music by Northermn Rednecks on October 24.

The Steel City Coffee House (203 Bridge Street, Phoenixville, 610-933-4043, www.steelcitycoffeehouse.com) will host Steve Zinno and Shawn Cephas on October 22, Matt Spitko on October23, Don McAvoy & The Great Whatever  on October 24 and Patty Larkin on October 25. 

Chaplin’s (66 North Main Street, Spring City, 610-792-4110, http://chaplinslive.com) will host Slave Dog, Space Caravan and Seption on October 23 and Dave Karaban, Alex O’Brien and Bryan Freedman on October 24.

Burlap & Bean Coffeehouse (204 South Newtown Street Road, Newtown Square, 484-427-4547, www.burlapandbean.com) will present Malcolm Holcombe with Chelsea Allen on October 22, Peter Mulvey with John Francis on October 23and Michael Braunfeld with MaryLeigh Roohan on October 24.

Melodies Café (2 East Ardmore Avenue, Ardmore, 610-645-5269, www.melodiescafe.com) will host Jeremiah Tall, Nathan Earl & Rachel Joy, John Hufford and Doug Wartman on October 23 and Eloise Sharkey on October 24.

World Café Live at the Queen (500 North Market Street, Wilmington, 302- 994-1400, www.queen.worldcafelive.com) will have John Gorka on October 22, Box of Rain on October 23 and the October Songwriter Showcase on October 24.

The Grand Opera House (818 North Market Street, Wilmington, Delaware, 302-652-5577, www.thegrandwilmington.org) will present Last Comic Standing on October 22 and Chris Cornell on October 23.