Music

Ronnie Baker Brooks

The Redstone Room

Friday, May 25, 8 p.m.

Performing with his father and brother as the Brooks Family Blues Dynasty, Chicago-based singer/guitarist Ronnie Baker Brooks will be among the headliners at this year’s Mississippi Valley Blues Festival, so I guess you could consider his May 25 Redstone Room concert something of a Quad Cities warm-up.

Then again, with the All Music Guide describing Brooks as “a monster guitarist with an ample supply of technique and passion,” and the Boston Herald calling his most recent CD “ferocious and unrelenting,” I’m thinking the temperatures in the Davenport venue might be significantly higher than “warm.”

Music

Rhythm Unleashed: The Music of Mark Mellits

The Redstone Room

Saturday, May 19, 8 p.m.

The latest presentation in the Quad City Symphony’s Signature Series finds four of the orchestra’s members performing Rhythm Unleashed: The Music of Mark Mellits, taking place on May 19 at Davenport’s Redstone Room. And if that seems like an ill-fitting venue for a symphony offering, you should know that according to the New York Press, Mellits’ compositions suggest “what classical music has in common with rock and pop.”

You should also know that according to the All Music Guide, “Mellits apparently draws considerable inspiration from food” ... but then again, who doesn’t?

Music

Andre Williams & the Goldstars

Rock Island Brewing Company

Saturday, May 5

Venerated R&B musician Andre Williams plays the Rock Island Brewing Company on May 5, and describing his glorious growl of a voice, punk musician Lux Interior said, “Andre Williams makes Little Richard sound like Pat Boone.” The same is oftentimes said of me ... but I think that’s just because when I sing, everyone I imitate sounds like Pat Boone.

Music

Big Bill Morganfield

The Muddy Waters

Friday, April 20, 9 p.m.

Legendary blues musician McKinley Morganfield, better known by his nickname Muddy Waters, was born on April 4, 1913. Some 99 years and two weeks after his birth, the late great’s son Big Bill Morganfield will not only headline a local blues concert on April 20, but a concert taking place at the Bettendorf venue called The Muddy Waters. Man, that’s some kind of birthday acknowledgment. For my dad’s last birthday, I got him socks.

Music

Local H

Rock Island Brewing Company

Friday, April 6, 9p.m.

Before embarking on an East Coast tour that takes the duo to New York, Massachusetts, and Delaware, the alternative rockers of Local H will, on April 6, play a concert at the Rock Island Brewing Company.

Rock Island? Hey, that’s where I live! “Rock Island! Woo-hoo! Ye-e-e-e-ea-a-ah-h!!!”

Sorry. Just thought it’d be fun to act like one of those concertgoers who does that sort of thing.