Nathaniel David Utesch, the guiding light that illuminates Metavari, has taken one of those travel-routes on his way to his present sound that are full of odd detours and strewn with photos that are better left undiscussed. What he has related along the way, over the course of years, is every bit as good as enough for a narrative. Except where noted, all quotes derive from an e-mail exchange conducted with Utesch.

And the band is appearing on 29 September at Rozz-Tox for Year Two of All Senses Fest (9:30 to 10:15PM). So, there’s that.

Lauded by the New York Times for her “hale and limber voice” and her “mining of emotional subtleties within a song,” Americana singer/songwriter Amy Helm plays Davenport's Redstone Room on October 7 in support of her September 21 release This Too Shall Light, an album American Songwriter praised for its “subtle, organic, but vibrant spirituality that aims straight at your heart” and for Helm's “restrained yet obvious passion.”

I met and spoke with Raj and Bacon on Thursday, 20 September, at Rozz-Tox (2108 3^rdAve, Rock Island). After playing a number of schools in the QC during their too-brief stay here, they will return to DC on Saturday. I’m already looking forward to seeing them again…

With the Washington Post praising their “ability to create the best rock, jazz, bluegrass, and the rest in sonorities that are rich, transparent, balanced, and, blessedly, lightly aplified,” the Grammy-winning, genre-hopping chamber musicians of the Turtle Island Quartet serve as the latest guests in Quad City Arts' Visiting Artists series, their October 6 concert at Rock Island High School sure to demonstrate why the San Francisco Examiner hailed their “zest, imagination, and brilliant technique.”