With gifted vocalist and ensemble leader Donovan Tea currently celebrating his astonishing 38th year with the group, the beloved pop vocalists of the Lettermen make their long-awaited return to the Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse on May 9, their ever-popular springtime engagements overflowing with timeless hits such as “When I Fall in Love,” “Put Your Head on My Shoulder,” “Hurt So Bad,” and “Shangri-La.”

Playing the Maquoketa venue in support of their latest EP Four Songs and most recent album OHBAHOY – a collection described by Maximum Volume Music as “such a staggeringly diverse 11 songs that you can only marvel at it” – the Rockford, Illinois-based talents of Miles Nielsen & the Rusted Hearts headline a May 7 concert event at the Codfish Hollow Barn, the band sure to deliver what Americana-UK calls “smooth, well-written, and well-produced power-pop packages.”

For the first time in years, local audiences will again be treated to one of the most awe-inspiring compositions in music history when the Augustana College Department of Music presents its May 1 concert event Handel's Messiah, with the legendary classical piece performed in Centennial Hall by the Augustana Oratorio Society and featured soloists Joseph Barron, Jesse Darden, Kelly Hill, and Emily Truckenbrod.

The frontman and songwriter for Railroad Earth and the songwriter and multi-instrumentalist from Coral Creek will team up for a May 1 evening of newgrass electricity when Davenport venue the Redstone Room hosts Todd Sheaffer and Chris Thompson, the concert boasting two sets of original music, with Thompson kicking off the evening followed by Sheaffer performing solo and with accompaniment.

Two superstar ensembles in the realm of contemporary-Christian music team up for a national tour that makes an April 28 stop at the TaxSlayer Center, with the Moline venue housing an evening with the chart-topping Christian rockers of Casting Crowns and the Dove Award-winning talents of We the Kingdom.

Touring in support of his January album release Frayed at Both Ends, chart-topping outlaw-county singer/songwriter Aaron Lewis and his band the Stateliners perform a May 4 concert at Davenport's Adler Theatre, treating fans to a repertoire that inspired Saving Country Music to rave, “Aaron's voice comes with a familiarity and richness of tone that endears itself to the songs he writes.”

Lauded by the Nashville Blues Society as an artist who "has one of those perfect, whisky-soaked-with-honey voices that is full of the passion and conviction that it takes to be a great blueswoman," Skyla Burrell and her band play Bettendorf's Crawford Brew Works as part of the Bettendorf venue's and the Mississippi Valley Blues Society's fundraising Brews 'n' Blues Concert Series, the ensemble praised by Digital Cafe Tour as "one of the most smokin' blues bands in the United States."

Performing a lovely afternoon of works by composers Astor Piazzolla, Eugène Ysaÿe, Gabriela Lena Frank, Pablo de Sarasate, and Johann Sebastian Bach, Quad City Symphony Orchestra concertmaster and violinist Naha Greenholtz and pianist Marian Lee will fill Davenport's Figge Art Museum with classical delights on May 1, the artists combing their talents for the special QCSO presentation Up Close with Naha & Marian.

Performing in an April 23 art-song recital sponsored by Opera Quad Cities and Trinity Episcopal Cathedral Music, baritone Nicholas Fahrenkrug and pianist Eleonora Apostolidi, appearing as the Apollo Duo, pay a visit to Davenport's Trinity Episcopal Cathedral with the moving and musical Reality & Escape, a program designed to address our current frustrations, losses, and challenges of life, as well as the various ways in which we cope.

Touring in support of their 2021 album Namesake that Folking calls "a wonderful dream of a record," the Midwestern artists of Them Coulee Boys headline a season-opening concert event at Maquoketa's Codfish Hollow Barn, their April 23 set also boasting performances by fellow Midwestern outfits the Wildwoods and Flash in a Pan.

Pages