Lainey Wilson, Los Lobos, and Stevie Nicks head to the Philly area. Plus, a whole host of Juneteenth music offerings
Take a Hershey Park road trip. And 'Country's Cool Again' in Camden.
This week in Philly music is highlighted by one of the biggest breakout country artists of the decade playing in Camden. You could take a road trip to see the first woman to be inducted twice into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Then there’s a band that should be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at least once, and more noteworthy shows happening on the eve of the Juneteenth holiday and the day itself.
Let’s start with Lainey Wilson. Country station WXTU-FM (92.5) celebrates its 40th anniversary with the Louisiana songwriter who broke out with her 2022 album, Bell Bottom Country, and became the first woman to be named CMA Entertainer of the Year since Taylor Swift won it in 2011. She brings her “Country’s Cool Again” tour to the Freedom Mortgage Pavilion on Friday and her new album, Whirlwind, arrives Aug. 23.
Fans of Fleetwood Mac and 1970s rock should make it a point to see the Broadway show Stereophonic, with songs by ex-Arcade Fire member Will Butler and two female stars who mirror Stevie Nicks and the late Christine McVie. It’s up for 13 Tony Awards this Sunday. And this weekend there’s an opportunity to see Nicks in the flesh. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee as a member of Fleetwood Mac and as a solo artist, is playing Hershey Park Stadium on Saturday, June 15.
Los Lobos seems to like it here. Maybe it’s because the Chicano band from East L.A. has one Philly native member in sax player Steve Berlin, who grew up in Elkins Park and Jenkintown. In any case, the David Hidalgo- and Cesar Rosas-led group who somehow aren’t trendy enough to be enshrined in Cleveland are back in the area just two months after they did a show in Collingswood. They headline the Colonial Theatre in Phoenixville tonight, and play Ardmore Music Hall on Friday. Country and bluegrass vocalist Jim Lauderdale opens both.
Last year, roots-country band John Train released the Philly horse opera Cowboy Dreams. This year, the Jon Houlon-led cowboy outfit is celebrating the 20th anniversary of its album The Sugar Ditch & Other Euphemisms tonight at the Moorestown Music Collective in South Jersey. The special guest is Tom Heyman, guitarist for the late, great Philly band Go to Blazes. The San Francisco-based songwriter will be playing songs from his latest album, 24th Street Blues, as well as ripping up choice Blazes cuts with John Train.
Don Lee Van Winkle, the longtime Philly musician who was a founder of the late 1960s-era the American Dream, died in February. Friends and fellow musicians, including members of David Uosikkinen’s In The Pocket, Kenn Kweder, and Nick Jameson will remember him at the Bridgeport Rib House at 4 p.m. on Sunday.
On Sunday, Ardmore Music Hall brings together the Philly indie rock scene with Philly Loves Wilco celebrating the 20th anniversary of A Ghost is Born. Local luminaries to be on hand are James Everhart of Cosmic Guilt, siblings Julie and Eric Slick, Joey Sweeney, and Chris Forsyth.
A Boogie Wit da Hoodie — the Bronx-born rapper whose given name is Artist DuBose — plays the Wells Fargo Center on Tuesday, stepping up as an arena headliner in support of his new Better Off Alone.
On Juneteenth, artistic works created by this year’s 30 Black Music City grant winners will be displayed at World Cafe Live. Among those winners, Karen Moore, Maurice Chestnut, Owen Valentine, and Amari Rebel & the Movement will be performing at the free event, which will also be streamed at xpn.org.
There’s a compelling triple bill for Juneteenth at Ardmore Music Hall, with the always free-spirited and open-minded New Orleans brass band Soul Rebels, plus James Brown veteran Fred Wesley playing with the New J.B.s, and well-traveled jazz musician Marcus Miller. It should be cooking.
During the day, House Party hip-hop duo Kid ‘n’ Play will perform during a free block party in front of the African American Museum. Rich Medina will spin and Seraiah Nicole will sing. That evening, Robin DG Kelley, author of Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original, will give a talk at American Grammar book store on Front Street and the band Universal Rhythm will perform.
Also on Wednesday, Jon Langford, the great Welsh-born Chicago-based leader of the Mekons and Waco Brothers, and many other strangely compelling projects, plays in Manayunk with his latest, Jon Langford & the Bright Shiners. The band’s folkish Where It Really Started is full of sterling new Langford songs, and the group is playing Harmonie Hall, a charming venue up the hill that’s been booking quality shows of late.