Wildlife, history, geology, and more will be explored when River Action hosts presentations in this year's Channel Cat Talks and Riverine Walks – “Explore the River Series” celebrations of the Quad Cities' unique culture and landscape taking place four times weekly from May 28 through August 31.

A chart-topping country-music singer/songwriter described by RoughStock.com as “one of Nashville's most talented and loved artists,” Lindsay Ell headlines a May 25 concert at Davenport's Rhythm City Casino Resort Event Center, sharing the soulful talents that led Taste of Country to rave, “There's not another active female in country to compare her to.”

Currently touring in support of their 2019 release Egowerk, the Kansas-based independent rockers of The Faint play Maquoketa's Codfish Hollow Barn in a May 26 co-presentation with Moeller Nights, their latest recording proving that, according to Riff magazine, “the band can still speak truth to power and culture through infectious melodies and electrifying rhythm.”

Indie rock by a four-piece ensemble based in Massachusetts and a solo artist based in Washington will be on the May 26 bill at Davenport's Triple Crown Whiskey Bar & Raccoon Motel, with the venue hosting a Moeller Nights concert featuring the layered vocal harmonies of Dutch Tulips and the singularly thoughtful and soulful sound of Chris Otepka's solo project The Heligoats.

Described by The Obelisk as “among the best in the world at what they do,” the doom-metal musicians of Japan's Church of Misery headline a special Memorial Day concert at the Rock Island Brewing Company, their May 27 set demonstrating why Metal-Archives.com calls the band “a fairly unique and contradictory example of how dark, disturbed, catchy, and even fun this type of music can be.”

An artist who, according to American Blues Scene magazine, “plays a head-spinning variety of styles … never failing to excite the listener,” the Florida-based J.P. Soars and his band The Red Hots play a May 28 concert presented by the Mississippi Valley Blues Society, their engagement at Rock Island's Riverfront Grille demonstrating why BluesSource.com wrote, “Soars can stroke, persuade, bend, and stretch notes from places other guitarists haven't even heard of.”

A thrillingly Americanized version of a controversial German classic serves as the latest presentation by Davenport's New Ground Theatre, with the May 17 through 26 run of author Steven Dietz's American La Ronde the area premiere of a fierce, compelling work in which, according to the Austin Chronicle, “Desire and resentment battle it out in every scene but never in the same way.”

On May 17, a night of uproarious comedy blends with a night of unforgettable music at East Moline venue The Rust Belt, where Fred Armisen – the Emmy Award-nominated actor/writer/musician beloved from Saturday Night Live, Portlandia, and many other TV and film entertainments – headlines the special Moeller Nights presentation Comedy for Musicians but Everyone Is Welcome.

Appearing together in a special event co-sponsored by the David C. Driskell Center at the University of Maryland, noted painter, scholar, and historian Driskell and the Center's executive director Curlee R. Holton will unite for the touring presentation Living Legacy, a special artist conversation being held at Davenport's Figge Art Museum on May 16.

Held in conjunction with the German American Heritage Center's current exhibition Enter the Bauhaus: Philosophy of Modern Design and the centenary of its origins, the Davenport venue will host the May 18 presentation The Bauhaus: An Experiment in Art and Design Education, with Friends of Vander Veer president Wynne Schafer giving guests an in-depth look at the many facets of this historically notable artistic style.

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