In 1992, the District of Rock Island hosted its very first outdoor festival with the debut of its Caribbean-themed celebration Ya Maka My Weekend. Twenty-six years later, the District's longest-running annual tradition will continue with the 2018 Ya Maka My Weekend on August 11, an event boasting a marketplace, arts and crafts vendors, ehtnic food of all flavors, and concert sets by four sizzling ensembles of musicians.

Performing blues, folk, country, and Americana music that, according to NPR, “evokes the old-timey spirit of a thousand crackling 78 RPM records” whose “energy makes them feel new and alive,” Midwestern singer/songwriter Pokey LaFarge plays an August 9 Moeller Nights concert at Maquoketa's Codfish Hollow Barn, the artist's most recent album Manic Revelations described by Paste magazine as “all sass and swagger, with plenty of juke-jump energy to spare.”

Delivering what Glide magazine called “a night of superb musicianship capable of time travel and otherworldliness,” acclaimed drummer Kofi Baker, son of legendary Cream drummer Ginger Baker, brings his three-man ensemble to the Redstone Room on August 10, his Kofi Baker's Psychedelic Trip trio reinventing the music of Cream and inspiring MusicEnthusiast.net to rave, “Across the board, these guys nail the sound and the feel without – and this is important – seeming like some Las Vegas tribute band. They're the real deal.”

A two-time winner of Nashville Scene's citation for “Best Local Album,” pop singer/songwriter Tristen serves as the latest visiting artist in the Moeller Nights series, her most recent album Sneaker Waves described by NPR as a work that “abounds in toothsome melodies and glistening layers of guitar and synth” as the artist herself “bears quietly lacerating witness to vulnerability.”

Headlining a two-day music festival at the Codfish Hollow Barn, the South Carolina-based ensemble SUSTO brings its Americana and alt-country stylings to Maquoketa on August 10 and 11, the artists' Fine 2Day Fest demonstrating the skills that led SoundingBoardBlog.com to rave, “The band brings a level of passion and thoughtfulness to their performance, and the way they play engulfs your attention and resonates a sense of authenticity. You can see how this is one of those bands who truly love to play music.”

Held in annual celebration of the legendary cornet player and Davenport native, the Bix Beiderbecke Memorial Jazz Festival will, for the first time, find the majority of its concert sets taking place at the Rhythm City Casino Resort Event Center, with the venue, from August 2 through 4, hosting no less than 26 individual sets by seven assemblages of thrilling jazz artists.

Led by rock legend Buzz Osborne, who has been touring with his band for 35 years, the sludge-metal and hardcore-punk musicians of The Melvins make a return appearance at the Rock Island Brewing Company on August 6, with AllMusic.com writing of the iconic group, “Their ability to combine punk with a strong Black Sabbath influence had a major impact on everything from grunge to alternative metal to doom metal and stoner rock.”

With the band having opened for the likes of Lyle Lovett, Emmylou Harris, the Zac Brown Band, and the Goo Goo Dolls, Davenport's Redstone Room hosts an August 8 concert with the Celtic-rock talents of Gaelic Storm, an assemblage of vocalists and multi-instrumentalists lauded by the Examiner for their “high energy, consistent interaction with the audience, and exceptional musical performance.”

Lauded by Living Blues magazine as “21st Century Blues at its best,” the Memphis-based artists of the Ghost Town Blues Band perform an August 4 Harley Corin's concert 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.”

Touring in support of his new album Lifted that LouderThanWar.com called “suffused with summer sunshine and bursting with optimism in the face of global fear and loathing,” indie-rock and Americana musician Israel Nash performs as the Moeller Nights headliner on August 4, the artist recently praised by Rolling Stone as a “singer-songwriter who mixes folk, rock, and psychedelia” who “is proving a master of sonic textures.”

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