Philly Music this week with The Last Waltz Tour, Orion Sun, Sturgill Simpson, Thee Sacred Souls and more
A week of compelling shows at The Met, Fillmore, Union Transfer, and other intimate venues around Philly.
This week in Philly music is busy with shows to serve as a balm to the soul.
“The Last Waltz Tour” is coming to town, former Philadelphian songwriter Orion Sun returns for a hometown show, Thee Sacred Souls brings a taste of old-school R&B, and Sturgill Simpson kicks out the jams in what should be one of the highlights of this musical season.
Let’s start with Thursday, when Sarah Shook & the Disarmers play MilkBoy Philly. The North Carolina country-punk band was a standout at the Sing Us Home festival in Manayunk this spring, and they’re coming back to the city in support of their 2024 album, Revelations.
That same night, an indie folk artist with an almost identically-named album plays Union Transfer: Leif Vollebekk, who opted for a singular rather than plural spelling in titling his new collection Revelation.
Two fun Philly anniversary album celebrations of note get the weekend going. On Thursday, Johnny Showcase & Friends camp it up in tribute to the 40th anniversary of Prince’s Purple Rain at Ardmore Music Hall.
On Friday, the Philadelphia Tom Petty Appreciation Society celebrates the 30th anniversary of Petty’s 1994 album, Wildflowers, at Johnny Brenda’s. Members of the War on Drugs, Dr. Dog, Strand of Oaks, and more are on the bill.
“Pick Up the Pieces” funk-soul stalwarts the Average White Band brings its farewell tour to the Scottish Rite Auditorium in Collingswood on Friday. The next night, Canadian folk songwriter Bruce Cockburn will play there, along with Patty Larkin.
Detroit singer, rapper, and producer Dwele plays City Winery on Friday and Saturday, and smooth R&B soul man Raheem DeVaughn plays two shows at the Fashion District venue on Sunday.
Orion Sun — the stage name of singer-songwriter Tiffany Majette — is on tour behind her new gentle, becalmed soul-searching album Orion, the first full-length album since 2020’s Hold Space for Me. The Mount Laurel-raised musician, who now lives in Los Angeles, is at Union Transfer on Friday.
Thanksgiving is coming and that means it’s time for the annual commemoration of The Band’s 1976 concert at Winterland in San Francisco that Martin Scorsese filmed as The Last Waltz.
This year’s version, which plays the Met Philly on Saturday, is billed as “Life is a Carnival: The Last Waltz Tour.” The lineup features two rugged voiced country singers in Ryan Bingham and Jamey Johnson — whose first album in 14 years, Midnight Gasoline, comes out Friday.
The band for The Band tribute also includes two members of Petty’s Heartbreakers: Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench, plus bassist Don Was, percussionist and singer Cyril Neville, and keyboard player John Medeski. There appears to be one glaring problem with the all-star lineup, however. It’s all dudes. Not a single woman is on the bill Who’s going to sing the Emmylou Harris and Joni Mitchell songs?
Both bands playing the Fillmore Philly on Saturday night, Thee Sacred Souls and Thee Heart Tones, put an extra ‘e’ in their definite articles. That’s not merely to distinguish themselves from other band who might use the same name.
It’s because both groups are from Southern California — Thee Sacred Souls from San Diego, and Thee Heart Tones from Hawthorne — and both aim to connect to the lineage of Chicano Soul, which hearkens back to 1960s East Los Angeles bands such as Thee Midniters. But never mind the nomenclature: What makes this show a winner is the way both groups’ affection for old-school R&B manifests itself in delectable soul balladry.
That’s evident on Got a Story to Tell, the terrific sophomore release by Thee Sacred Souls, whose core trio comprises Josh Lane, Salvador Sumano, and Alejandro Garcia. It’s also a lane that is explored by Thee Heart Tones — a teenage band fronted by impressive vocalist Jazmine Alvarado who shines on the band’s old-school lowrider soul debut, Forever & Ever.
Monday’s highlight is Orla Gartland, the Irish singer-songwriter who got her start as a YouTuber over a decade ago, while in her early teens, and has increasingly been making music of greater emotional and musical complexity. Her new Everyone Needs a Hero is a stunner. She plays Johnny Brenda’s on Monday.
Unpredictability is part of the Sturgill Simpson brand. The Kentucky-born hombre with the rugged Waylon Jennings-esque voice who broke through with Metamodern Sounds in Country Music in 2014, was nominated for Grammy album of the year for A Sailor’s Guide To Earth in 2016. In 2019, he followed up with a techno-rock assault called Sound & Fury that soundtracked a dystopian Japanese anime film. Then came a flurry of bluegrass records.
Simpson’s new album, Passage Du Desir, is credited to his alter ego, Johnny Blue Skies, for unexplained reasons. But his concert is under his own name, and labeled the “Why Not? Tour.” With a topflight band, his shows have been stretching up to three hours and beyond, and reviews have been glowing. He’s at the Met on Tuesday and Wednesday.