Two shows on Friday, April 12th, with Eric & the In Crowd rolling out tunes by Arthur Schwartz and Jule Styne in the 6-8pm segment and the Erik Jekabson Quartet bringing the jazz up to the moment, from 8:30 to 10pm. Bassist Bing Nathan and drummer Mark Lee are pianist Eric Shifrin’s In Crowd this time out, while trumpeter Erik Jekabson has recruited guitarist Jeffrey Burr, bassist Dan Feiszli and drummer Jon Arkin. Bring $20 for whichever band you want to hear, or catch them both for $30. Kids are always free, and teens and students pay $5-10… Donations to our nonprofit Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project help us guarantee the musicians a fair wage. If it’s in your means, please donate!

Author Elijah Wald joins us Saturday, April 13th at 6pm before Pamela Rose and Wayne De La Cruz take the stage at 7:30. Wald is rolling out his new book, Jelly Roll Blues: Censored Songs & Hidden Histories, which gives fresh insight into familiar fixtures like Buddy Bolden and Louis Armstrong, and introduces characters like Ready Money, the New Orleans sex worker and pickpocket who ended up owning one of the largest Black hotels on the West Coast. It’s a journey to a fascinating period when a new generation of Black musicians, dancers and listeners were shaping lives their parents could not have imagined and art that transformed popular culture around the world.

Come for the book event, stay for the soulful combo co-led by vocalist Pamela Rose and Hammond B3 organ wizard Wayne De La Cruz, featuring guitarist Danny Caron, and with drummer Mark Lee taking to the Bird & Beckett stage for the second night in a row…

Or come for the combo and get here early for the book talk. Can’t go wrong either way!

And the second Sunday of every month, which this one is, features bands in an Americana vein, and if that doesn’t evoke Bob Dylan, then Johnny Cash ain’t a troubadour. Rolling Thunder — Brian Bloom on guitar and vocals, Charlie McCoy on bass, harmonica and vocals, Steve Capper on keyboards and vocals, and Joe Mockus on drums — drives deep into the Dylan Songbook for two sets from 5-7pm this Sunday, April 14th.

As is generally the case at Bird & Beckett, byob and a twenty for the band and you’ll be ok.