by Frank Ricci
ANI DIFRANCO
TUES APR 28 | 8 PM | VICTORY NORTH
In the mid-to-late ‘90s, a burgeoning feminist singer-songwriter industrial complex unleashed a wave of talented artists. Breakout stars like Sheryl Crow, Jewel, Alanis Morissette, Fiona Apple, and Sarah McLachlan were selling millions of records, getting airplay, and spurred the three Lilith Fair summer concert tours. Adjacent to this, but not exactly part of the mainstream mix, was punk folk artist Ani DiFranco.
Former music magazine Rolling Stone pandered hard, calling her a “superstar” when she herself would likely not agree, but she was building a fanbase and creating a bespoke sound that endured. Her acoustic guitar work is percussive, she talk-sings, she bends syllables, and the vibe is anti-coffeehouse folk.
Lyrically, her topics covered politics, sexuality, class struggle, and relationships often doomed by myriad circumstances. Unlike the Lilith Fair lane, her music was more guttural and complex, with funkier basslines, horns and jazz chords sprinkled about.
While mainstream music focus has shifted eleventy thousand times since then, she’s been doing her thing consistently in this millennium. After releasing 10 studio albums in the 20th century, she’s released 11 since 2001, all on her own Righteous Babe label, keeping her firmly in control of her art and business.
She’s also toured regularly, appeared for five months on Broadway in 2024, and has garnered mostly positive reviews for her latest LP, Unprecedented Sh!t. On it, she adds loops, electronics, and distorted vocal effects that push the hard folk template like a veteran artist should. Experimentation is well-earned when you’ve succeeded in a brutal business for more than three decades. The time may be right for a new generation of fans to discover her unique sound.
SICARD HOLLOW
SAT MAY 2 | 8 PM | BROUGHTON STREET BOWL & BREW
One has to hope bluegrass purists aren’t tormented by the jamgrass and newgrass acts getting so much attention. Traditionalists are understandable, but like any fans of only one way to play a certain style, pining for it can come off like a joyless zoning board aficionado wailing for strict compliance.
Sicard Hollow ain’t those guys. The Nashville quartet play progressive bluegrass with elements of jam, rock, and just enough punk energy to keep the mandolin player from living in a cardigan sweater.
Typical for the genre, the tempo is upbeat and wild, and the fiddle is wielded like a weapon. They call it psychedelic punk-grass rock, resisting institutional parameters like metalheads resist hippies. Defying even that, the soul of the band includes a little of each. If you missed borderline madman Billy Strings’ recent two-night stand at Enmarket, this is hardly a consolation prize. They’re the type of act that might be opening for his next arena tour.
CROWDER + SEPH SCHLUETER + PATRICK MAYBERRY
THU APR 30 | 7 PM | JOHNNY MERCER THEATRE
Christian music has a long history in most popular genres. Metal had Stryper in the ‘80s, alt-rock had Jars of Clay in the ‘90s, Randy Travis brought gospel into his country in the ‘00s, and EDM had Capital Kings in the ‘10s. Crowder is a Christian artist who combines folk, electronics, and rock for the current decade. After his David Crowder*Band ended in 2012, his solo work has fused banjo stomp, folktronica, and rootsy Southern rock into a winning formula, hitting No. 1 with Grave Robber on Billboard’s Christian Airplay chart in 2024.
A casual listen recalls early Beck tracks like Loser and Beercan. The look is trucker hat-big beard biker, but the lyrics are unapologetically pro-JC. The electronics allow him to expand the sonic textures into spaces one would not expect. His 2025 single, The Rock, uses beats, percussive elements, and vocal effects that veer into contemporary urban radio pop.
A pair of openers complement the headliner properly. Seph Schlueter takes an emotional singer-songwriter approach, dabbles with electronics, builds to inspirational choruses, and sounds a bit like the Talbott Brothers. Patrick Mayberry experiments less, offering a warmer, more traditional worship music experience.
SISTER HAZEL
FRI MAY 1 | 8 PM | DISTRICT LIVE
One of the forty billion examples of unfairness in the music industry is the label “one-hit wonder.” Even worse, since music industry executives are often the ones choosing the single, that one hit is rarely the band’s best. Examples are endless, but artists from Sister Hazel’s era plagued by the same madness include Harvey Danger, whose brilliant Where Have All the Merrymakers Gone? LP includes the alt-rock hit Flagpole Sitta, probably the album’s eighth-best song. Semisonic is almost entirely known for Closing Time, a song beaten to death like few others, but not even close to the best song on Feeling Strangely Fine. Sister Hazel’s All for You was so everywhere, you wouldn’t be surprised to catch a dedicated drill rap or powerviolence fan singing along. You, the reader, might be thinking you don’t know it, but you definitely do. Everyone does.
The upside is that such a monster hit creates fans who dive deeper and end up loving the rest of the catalog. Lots of them. So many that almost 30 years later, Sister Hazel has lasted right along with some of their more well-known mid-rock, bar-band contemporaries like Gin Blossoms, Better Than Ezra, and Toad the Wet Sprocket. Radio rock isn’t going anywhere, and a show that builds until the song everyone came to hear creates drama and suspense like a good movie.
BIRDLEAF + INFINITE FREEFALL
FRI MAY 1 | 6 PM | STARLAND YARD
Starland Yard is on a roll, and this weekend is First Friday, so they’re keeping it up for the larger than usual crowd. Local psych rock act Birdleaf is made for live performance. With plenty of jam band DNA in their bloodstream, songs are extended thoughtfully with risks taken that usually pay off. Guitarists Finnegan Murphy and Reid Garboury are rightfully confident whether they are strumming hard riffs or using the space supplied by the rest of the band.
At their best, they turn what might sound like Blind Melon into a modern interpretation of the Grateful Dead, only with more edge and fewer “hearing the colors, maaaan” trips. Birdleaf released a live show at the Yard on Valentine’s Day this year, so it’s a venue they are familiar and comfortable with. So comfortable, nine of the 14 songs clock in at over six minutes. You might only miss one if you head to the bar for an adult beverage.
Charleston’s Infinite Freefall present their psychedelic sound from a different alt-rock angle than Birdleaf. The songs tend to be more atmospheric and can veer into a more aggressive mood, building to walls of shoegaze guitar that wash over the steady, krautrock rhythms. Maxton Stenstrom’s vocals also stand out.