Take this as an early warning: If you're into the cerebral, more experimental side of heavy music, you may want to snap up tickets for what (at the time of writing) looks to be the only show at Rozz-Tox in April.

Performing a repertoire featuring Johannes Brahm's Tragic Overture, op. 81, Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4, op. 36, and the newly commissioned Clarinet Concerto by beloved local composer Jacob Bancks, the Quad City Symphony Orchestra closes their 2023-24 Masterworks series with the concert event The Force of Fate, its April 6 and 7 presentations at Davenport's Adler Theatre and Augustana College's Centenniual showcasing the thrilling talents of clarinetist Ricardo Morales.

With his 2023 album Bluebird Days praised by Holler Country as a work that "gives his commercial appeal the firmest songwriter’s massage we’ve heard in his work yet," chart-topping country singer/songwriter Jordan Davis headlines an April 11 concert at Moline's Vibrant Arena at the MARK, the artist's laurels including four Academy of Country Music Award nominations and a Country Music Association Award win for Song of the Year “Buy Dirt” with Luke Bryan.

Currently touring in support of his 2023 album Dirt on My Diamonds Vol. 1, a recording that No Depression deemed "a chewy spread of grown-up blues for fans of all ages," blues-rock singer/songwriter and guitarist Kenny Wayne Shepherd brings his ensemble to Davenport's Capitol Theatre on April 11, the artist's latest also inspiring Rose & Blues Muse to rave that the bandleader is "gifted with a voice that's made for country radio and a knack for co-writing hook-laden, memorable songs."

Dedicated to playing original music by Iowa writers and showcasing the finest jazz musicians jazz composers that the state has to offer, the gifted homegrown ensemble the Iowa Jazz Composers Orchestra featuring Mike Conrad headlines an April 6 concert event at Davenport's Redstone Room, the group famed for programming pieces by such prolific, seasoned veteran composers as Bob Washut and John Rapson alongside those of younger writers including Nate Sparks and Paul Lichty.

Lauded by Noisey for the way his "messy, raw records swirl together outlaw country, blues, Americana, soul, and rock 'n' roll ... in the best kind of way," singer/songwriter Scott H. Biram headlines an April 9 engagement at Davenport's Raccoon Motel, his 2020 recording Fever Dreams praised by Bluestown Music for the artist "honestly laying down his bare soul at the people's feet once again in a way that very few can."

With Glide magazine deeming his 2022 recording This Mess We're In "an introspective and impactful album" and Flood lauding it for its "profound happy-sadness that captures the extremes of the human experience," country singer/songwriter Arlo McKinley headlines an April 5 concert at Davenport's Raccoon Motel, No Depression adding to the artist's praise by calling This Mess We're In a "riveting self-portrait."

Her 2023 album Healing Power hailed by Americana Highways for its "freshness and consistent melodic assets," Canadian folk and roots-rock singer/songwriter Terra Lightfoot headlines an April 11 concert at Davenport's Raccoon Motel, her famed touring partners over the years including The Posies, Toad the Wet Sprocket, Bruce Cockburn, Blue Rodeo, and, in his lone Canadian date for the 2018 Outlaw Music Festival, country icon Willie Nelson.

With its musicians based in Cedar Rapids and its repertoire boasting such hits as “My God Is the Sun,” “The Evil Has Landed,” and “I Sat by the Ocean,” the tribute musicians of Stone Age Queens headline an April 6 concert at Davenport's Raccoon Motel, delivering a salute to Queens of the Stone Age that celebrates the Grammy-nominated rock outfit of more than 25 years running.

With the New York Times raving that the artist "does a remarkably good job of rendering Williams' famous melodies with the silky warble and sob that recreate their touching simplicity," Obie Award-winning actor and musician Jason Petty brings his touring sensation Hank & My Honky Tonk Heroes: 100 Years of Hank to the University of Dubuque's Heritage Center on April 5, the Associated Press adding that Petty's voice "wails and rails a mixture of country and blues that electrifies the house."

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