Praised by Paste magazine as “reliably and thoroughly exceptional” and by Spin for “music as blissful and unhurried as a cat lolling about in a sunbeam,” the indie-rock artists of Real Estate play a June 8 Codfish Hollow Barn concert co-sponsored by Moeller Nights, with their most recent album In Mind inspiring Consequence of Sound to rave, “Everything Real Estate touches turns to bliss.”

Performing what OnMilwaukee.com calls “a supreme blend of traditional country, Americana, and contemporary folk styles,” Wisconsin's alt-country five-piece Buffalo Gospel headlines a Moeller Nights concert on June 9 in support of its new album On the First Bell, a work the Web site decress “worthy of not only a listen, but a permanent place on your playlist.”

Lauded by SputnikMusic.com for her “carefree, earthy experimentalism” and “the polarized emotions she inspires,” dream-pop singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Carla dal Forno brings her North American tour to Rozz-Tox on June 3, the artist's 2016 album You Know What It's Like revered by Pitchfork.com for being a “smoky and ominous” work that “simmers, both musically and thematically, with powerful undercurrents.”

Well-known by his stage name JBM, Canadian folk- and pop-rock singer/songwriter Jesse Marchant headlines a Moeller Nights concert on June 3, the artist having been praised by Filter magazine for his “heartfelt compositions” and “meticulous and carefully crafted sound,” and by ClubDistrict.com for creating a signature style “as weathered and wise as an old home.”

Maquoketa's Codfish Hollow Barn kicks off its summer season with rocking tunes and rollicking laughs on June 1 and 2, as the venue and Moeller Nights present more than a dozen acts in the Turnbuckle II Comedy & Music Festival, described on the venue's Web site as a weekend with “the greatest stand-up comedians in America and the choicest fun-loving rock and roll bands, along with the exploits of elbow-throwing, spandex-trunk-wearing professional wrestlers.”

Praised by Pitchfork.com for “using her mordant wit to confront serious subjects, exorcising trauma with hooks and humor,” alternative-folk singer/songwriter Caroline Rose performs a June 4 Redstone Room concert in support of her February release LONER – a recording that, according to Paste magazine, “is a singular artistic statement from its unforgettable album art all the way down.”

“Ever wonder what a traditional lounge singer would sound like backed up by a punk band?” asked the Los Angeles Times. “The Smoking Popes take that concept one step further: They've created a unique kind of music that some listeneres are describing as 'hyperkinetic tear-jerkers.'” That description is as accurate today as it was during the band's early-'90s beginnings, as The Smoking Popes will prove when the pop-punk and alt-rock musicians play Davenport's Redstone Room on June 1.

Lauded by The Guardian for her “grinding blues, sleazy jazz, and bracing rock with punk immediacy and pop appeal,” Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter Shilpa Ray headlines a Moeller Nights concert on May 26, her signature vocal style described by the Star-Ledger as a “big-voiced blues-rock howler,” and summed up in four words by the New York Times: “That scream is primal!”

Known for both his individual alt-rock compositions and as half of the Brooklyn-based pop/rock duo KaiselCartel, singer/songwriter Benjamin Cartel performs a solo concert at the Rock Island venue Rozz-Tox on May 24, his 2015 album Gothenberg leading American Songwriter magazine to state, “Your heart will be haunted by the tunes, your mind will wonder about those complex lyrics, and you’ll soon be a fan.”

One of the most original forces in American music makes an eagerly anticipated May 19 appearance at the Rock Island Brewing Company, as the venue hosts a night with Tav Falco's Panther Burns, the blues and roots rockers who will soon enter their fifth decade of live performance. Its frontman was described by Robert Palmer in the New York Times as “a singer, guitarist, and researcher of musical arcane who hasn't let his idiomatic mastery and increasing technical expertise compromise the clarity of his vision.” Variety's Deb Sprague, meanwhile, said of Falco: “He was post-modern when post-modern wasn't cool.”

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