Hot Buttered Rum The band's instruments - including mandolin, fiddle, banjo, guitar - suggest folk and bluegrass. But the centerpiece of Hot Buttered Rum's second studio album, last year's Well-Oiled Machine, is "Waterpocket Fold," an instrumental tune clearly built on the intricacies and interplay of jazz and classical music.

drunk_dead_gorgeous.jpg Rock and roll, in its conventional hard-rock form, seems to have all but disappeared. Who practices this archaic type of musical expression, with its earnest guitar-bass-drums-vocals format and no acknowledgment of irony or speed metal, alt country, world music, hip hop, emo, or any other musical fashion of the past 20 years except grunge? Pearl Jam seems the last vestige of this noble tradition with both credibility and market presence.

Trend-chasing is less prevalent at the local level, of course, and Kewanee's Drunk Dead Gorgeous - playing at Penguin's Comedy Club on March 16 - creates unapologetic guitar rock that's heartfelt and played with passion. With its emphasis on acoustic guitars, the band's new-ish album, The Great Disillusion, sounds a lot like a collection of power ballads.

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Jazz drummer Leon Joyce Jr. and his trio will be featured with special guest vocalist Dee Alexander at the third-Sunday jazz workshop and matinée concert at the River Music Experience's Redstone Room on March 18.

Joyce will conduct a workshop on drum performance starting at 3 p.m., with admission $3 for students and $5 for adults. The matinée performance begins at 6 p.m., with admission $10 per person. The trio also includes Chuck Webb on bass and Curtis Robinson on guitar.

Jen Chapin It's no surprise that Jen Chapin was pulled in several directions.

Her father, the late Harry Chapin, is most famous for writing and performing "Cat's in the Cradle" but was also a humanitarian, co-founding World Hunger Year (http://worldhungeryear.org) in 1975. (He died in an automobile accident in 1981.)

Jen Chapin, who will perform at the Redstone Room on Saturday, March 17, is following her own social-justice calling. She chairs the World Hunger Year board of directors, and will lead a forum on "Music & Social Action" at the Unitarian Church of Davenport on Sunday, March 18.

Terence Blanchard With all due respect to The Departed, the actual best picture of 2006 was one that didn't come to a theatre near you ... or, for that matter, to a theatre near anyone else.

Director Spike Lee's When the Levees Broke, a four-hour "requiem" focusing on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, has a scope, grandeur, and emotionalism that put the rest of 2006's output to shame - the documentary, available on DVD, made its debut on HBO last August - and much of its power can be traced to the extraordinary contributions of jazz musician Terence Blanchard, the acclaimed trumpet player here as the latest Quad City Arts Visiting Artist. (Blanchard will give a public performance at the Capitol Theatre on March 10.)

Bobby Conn He has the magisterial licks and unbound ambition of Billy Corgan without the self-seriousness. He has the expressive, expansive palette of Andrew Bird but with an arena-rock heart. He's an insatiable omnivore like Mike Patton, stirring everything together into a sometimes-ugly stew, but without the aggressiveness and with most of the rougher edges buffed off. He has a fascination with twee '60s pop, and with muscular prog rock.

As season-ticket sales decline, the Quad City Symphony Orchestra is looking for ways to reach new audiences. This year's season has emphasized collaboration with local arts organizations, and nowhere is this more apparent than in this weekend's performance with Ballet Quad Cities.

Radical Turf presents Showcasing acts from around the United States (including a number of Quad Cities-area contributors), Hello Future? is the latest compilation from Radical Turf, the label of local musician and producer Jeff Konrad. Touted as a "grab bag" of electronic-oriented music, Hello Future? is just that: There are some treats that are keepers and some that will stay in the bottom of the bag.

Robert Irving III Keyboardist Robert Irving III, Miles Davis' musical director for most of the 1980s, will be performing a concert and leading a workshop on Sunday, February 18, at Davenport's River Music Experience.

Both the workshop and evening performance - organized by Polyrhythms - will feature Irving with saxophonist James Perkins, drummer Ernie Adams, and bassist Marlene Rosenberg.

Bella HristovaImagine if you will: You're six years old. You've been playing the violin for six months. And you're about to make your professional debut on live television.

For most youths, this would be the recipe for a panic attack. But not for acclaimed violinist Bella Hristova, here as Quad City Arts' latest Visiting Artist. After all, the Bulgarian native had her cat to comfort her.

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