Performing a singular blend of Chicago blues, New Orleans funk, Grateful Dead-style psychedelia, and jazz fusion, and also touring in support of their recent albums Solo Guitar and JMB4, the gifted musicians of the Joe Marcinek Band play Davenport's Redstone Room on March 9, a night also boasting the significant musical talents of special guest Jason Hann of String Cheese Incident.

Lauded by Living Blues magazine as “21st Century blues at its best,” the Memphis-based artists of the Ghost Town Blues Band perform a March 4 concert at the Moline Viking Club presented by the Mississippi Valley Blues Society, treating audiences to the soulful, electrifying effects of, as Living Blues stated, “what can happen when the past is distilled through young sensibilities, voices, and instruments.”

With Pitchfork deeming the artist a "Nashville spitfire [who] flits easily between country, bluegrass, and rock," singer/songwriter Lillie Mae headlines a March 6 concert at Davenport's Raccoon Motel, her most recent recording Other Girls lauded by Pop Matters as "the album that will garner Americana/alt-country artist Lillie Mae the attention she richly deserves."

Lauded by the San Francisco Chronicle as “audacious,” “ambitious,” and “welcoming, playful, and imaginative,” the thrillingly experimental, all-female dramatic comedy Fefu & Her Friends enjoys a rare area staging at Iowa City's Riverside Theatre from March 10 through April 2, with the works of its playwright Mariá Irene Fornés described by Vulture as “so glittering and various and powerful that it deserves cases of books.”

Presented on March 16 as part of the Davenport Public Library's 3rd Thursday at Hoover's Presidential Library & Museum series, the virtual program The Hoovers & Mining will find National Mining Hall of Fame director Elizabeth Dinchel exploring the roles that Herbert and Lou Henry Hoover played in the mining industry, including their translation of 1556 book in Latin cataloguing the state of the art of mining, refining, and smelting metals.

While Cocaine Beat is both less stupid that it could have been and less stupid than it should have been, I had a surprisingly agreeable time – and so did a high-schooler friend of mine, and my 50-something bestie, and my octogenarian mother.

A sparse set is on the Village Theatre stage for the New Athens Players' debut of Spotlight on Susan Glaspell, and this minimalistic choice is to be lauded, as letting the words and stories take the forefront was an excellent decision; there’s a lot of meat that doesn’t require extensive visual splendor to make a point.

Sarah Marinda Loguen Fraser was one of the first female African-American physicians in the United States. Yet at the Davenport Public Library's Fairmount Branch, Fraser's lesser-known yet intensely significant daughter will be the subject of a March 8 presentation in Gregoria Foster Goins: A Worthy Subject in Her Own Right, a fascinating lecture by Augustana College's associate professor of history Dr. Lauren Hammond Ford, Ph.D.

One of the most popular and beloved storybook characters of all time will be given a delightful showcase at the University of Dubuque's Heritage on Center with the arrival of the touring off-Broadway smash Paddington Gets in a Jam, this tale of the charming, accident-prone talking bear lauded by by the New York Times as “hilarious,” “captivating,” and “charming,” and by Broadway World as “the hottest family show in town.”