Performing what Acoustic Guitar magazine described as an “exhilarating all-acoustic swirl” of bluegrass, hip-hop, and gypsy jazz, the North Carolina-based Jon Stickley Trio plays Davenport's Redstone Room on March 2, sharing invigorating tunes that finds their inspiration in musicians as diverse as Green Day, Duran Duran, the Grateful Dead, and Nirvana.

Continuing this season's presentation of thrilling works that debuted across the Atlantic, conductor Mark Russell Smith leads the Quad City Symphony Orchestra in the ensemble's Masterworks V: Postcards from Germany & Austria, a program boasting legendary composers and a special solo by violinist and QCSO Concertmaster Naha Greenholtz.

The relentless universe-building of the Marvel Studios output, with its seemingly endless introductions to (cinematically) new heroes and villains, can be exhausting, so I hardly want to make matters more complicated. Yet after seeing writer/director Ryan Coogler's enthralling, imaginative, fantastically enjoyable Black Panther, I'd be totally on-board with nearly a dozen spin-off series for debuting characters – even characters who expire before the end credits roll. I mean, hey, if Saw's serial killer and that Insidious medium can keep coming back for more … .

Presented at Moline's Black Box Theatre in the style of a radio play complete with live music, sound effects, and actors with scripts in hand, three new episodes of the locally produced podcast All You Care to Eat will be performed by the area troupe Comedy Thingy on February 24 and taped in front of a live “studio” audience.

Serving as the latest stop on the musician's “Hits Deep Tour,” Moline's TaxSlayer Center hosts a February 24 concert with the Grammy-winning, chart-topping TobyMac, whose 13-album discography has made him one of the best-selling artists in contemporary-Christian and hip-hop history.

Global issues of gender oppression, shifting roles, social justice, and more will be explored in the Bettendorf Public Library's latest presentation by the World Affairs Council of the Quad Cities, with the February 27 lecture “Between the Covers: Shaping Feminism in Bangladesh & India” delivered by Augustana College's Associate Professor of English Umme Al-Wazedi.

A chart-topping country singer/songwriter, vocal coach on TV's The Voice, and, according to People magazine, 2017's “Sexiest Man Alive” hits Moline's TaxSlayer Center on February 23 in a concert with recording phenomenon Blake Shelton, who will treat fans to hits ranging from his self-titled 2001 debut to his Texoma Shore smash from this past November.

With his most recent release The Heart described by RenownedForSound.com as “a deeply personal, sentimental, and intimate album that shines through its musical simplicity and emotional perceptivenes,” acoustic surf rocker Donavon Frankenreiter plays Davenport's Redstone Room on February 27, treating audiences to tuneful, upbeat songs that MusicFarm.com calls “hard not to sing and dance along with.”

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