BEN PRESTAGE
At 8 p.m. Thursday, June 7
Huc-a-Poos, 1213 U.S. 80, Tybee Island
Back in Martin County, Florida, where I lived before moving to Savannah four years ago, we used to go out to hear Ben Prestage all the time. "I grew up in rural Florida, on a 14-mile-long dirt road, near the headwaters of the Everglades," he says in his online biography. "It was 7 miles either direction to the nearest paved road, and when you got to pavement, you still weren't near a town. It was panther, gator, and cottonmouth country."
Ben is a one-man band, a blues guitar player of visceral playing and a vocalist of guttural ooze and grit. He is truly amazing on both counts. And he's got a cool beard.
He plays both bass and snare drum with foot pedals - something he picked up while busking on Memphis streetcorners.
"I started playing drums with my feet as an attention grabber," he says, "but soon found out that the drums played with foot pedals actually enhaced my music dramatically. Not only were people listening and buyin' discs, they were now dancing and hollerin' to boot.
"Now I am to the point where, if you close your eyes, you would think there was a professional drummer with a full-size drum kit behind me."
Add to this his stunning ability to create something alive from a cigar box guitar, a steel Resonator or a fiddle ... this is a guy you do not want to miss.
Watch a video of Ben playing his song "One Crow Murder" live: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ct9W4jdqjg
THE DISTRICT ATTORNEYS
With Modern Skirts
At 10 p.m. Friday, June 8
The Jinx, 127 W. Congress St. $8 advance, $10 at the door
This Savannah Stopover-sponsored show brings together two of Athens' shimmeriest pop bands on one groovy bill. Modern Skirts, of course, played Congress Street Social Club last week, and the band was profiled on this very page. Their combination of strong, keyboard-driven melodies, riffy guitars and clever vocal harmony arrangements have held them in good stead among fans of pop innovation since 2004.
One of the many highlights of the '12 Stopover back in March was the Ships of the Sea set by the District Attorneys (they opened for the great Cheyenne Marie Mize and the even greater Milagres).
The D.A.s' music is guitar-based pop, very melodic and hooky, but - check the just-release debut album Slowburner - drenched in gauze and reverb, making it both in-the-moment and dreamlike. This should be an absolutely killer show.
CHECK IT OUT
Roger Moss and Eric Jones celebrate the release of the Sentimental Strain CD with a 6–9 p.m. show Thursday (June 7) at Blowin’ Smoke ... This week we pay our respects to Wes and our other buds at Hang Fire as they celebrate the club’s 6th anniversary. The big bash, Saturday the 9th, has a Kung Fu theme – classic films will play all night long, and the DJ will weave Asian music into his sets as things progress. Free buffet from 7 to 9 ... The AfroBeat/funk band Orgone from L.A. visits Live Wire Music Hall Tuesday (June 12) ... At the Wormhole Tuesday: Whaleboat, Vancouver, Each and Every Opus, Louis Lewis ...