Lisa Denton and Barry CourterBARRY COURTER: Lisa, last week was crazy with seemingly every festival lineup around the country being announced within days of each other. Bonnaroo, Wakarusa, Shaky Knees, New Orleans Jazz Festival, Hangout and even our own Riverbend Festival made some announcements. Anyway, it has me in the mood for music, and we have several good shows here this week.
I'm pretty excited the Tedeschi Trucks Band is coming back, this time to the Tivoli Theatre. It's fronted by Derek Trucks, who is a bona fide guitar god and formerly of the Allman Brothers, and his wife Susan Tedeschi, who can pick a little bit herself. I pulled a total fanboy move at Bonnaroo last year and introduced myself to Trucks. I wonder if he'd recognize me in the audience Friday night.
LISA DENTON: I wouldn't be surprised. Your hair is hard to forget -- and I mean that in the nicest way. You making an impression on a big star wouldn't be unprecedented, after all. Didn't John Travolta remember you -- by name -- the second year he saw you at a movie press conference? That's better than Idina Menzel got.
BARRY: That's the way I tell the story anyway. I fear Derek would be pointing me out to security, though, if he were to recognize me. I'm kidding. I wasn't that bad, and he was very gracious, but more importantly, he was amazing during both his set with Tedeschi Trucks and as a member of the Superjam, an all-star showcase during which he played with Chaka Khan, Taj Mahal (both members of the name hall of fame) and Ben Folds.
LISA: Don't forget that the theatrical spectacle that is Shen Yun will be at the Tivoli on Tuesday. That has music and dance -- and 5,000 years of Chinese history. You'd think it would be hard to boil it down to two hours, but apparently they've done it.
This week I'm most looking forward to National Pie Day on Friday. Why they didn't combine Pie Day (1/23) with Pi Day (3/14) I'll never know. I have to think a lot harder about pi than pie, but I'm happy to celebrate twice.
BARRY: What do you get if you divide the circumference of a bowl of ice cream by its diameter? Pi la mode. I also heard that, in Alaska, pi is 3.00 because everything shrinks there; they call it Eskimo pi.
LISA: Ah, math jokes. How about this one: Dear Algebra, Please stop asking us to find X. She's never coming back. And don't ask Y.
But I think we're supposed to be talking about music, yes? Like how bluegrass supergroup Dailey & Vincent will be at Sequatchie County High School in Dunlap on Saturday night, and Forever Bluegrass will bring Monroe Crossing back to Barking Legs Theater on Sunday. Plus, Chris Brubeck's Triple Play will bring a smorgasbord of sounds (Delta blues, Tin Pan Alley standards, New Orleans grooves and jazz gems) to the Presidential Concert Series Tuesday at Lee University in Cleveland.
BARRY: And Corey Smith returns to Track 29 on Friday. Rebelution, with Katchafire, are there on Saturday.
LISA: Finally, even though it's a little late to be making New Year's resolutions, I realized last week that when someone compliments my "beautiful," "adorable," 2-month-old grandson, the proper response is for me to say a polite "thank you," not blurt out, "I know!" I'm gonna work on that.
BARRY: You're going to hear it a lot, so probably a good idea.
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Contact Barry Courter at bcourter@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6354. Contact Lisa Denton at ldenton@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6281.