Jackson Free Press

Nothing screams a need for a weekend road trip or vacation like the coming of spring. Our current dissatisfactions with our daily jobs must surely stem from lone and breezy clouds floating just out of arms reach. Outdoor festivals are officially in swing and its marker time for the calendar. With Fondren's "Arts Eats and Beats" only a week away (next Thursday, 4/20) it's time to start juggling the options.

Our online calendars can help you plan to see Radiohead at Bonnaroo in Tennessee in June, or for the ROCK 93.9 Fairgrounds Crawfish Festival May 5-6 with LIVE, Staind, Puddle of Mudd and others. Area Be-Bop tickets are also on sale for Ricky Skaggs with the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra on April 29, the same day as Bob Dylan and Merle Haggard at the Coliseum and the Double Decker Music Festival in Oxford.

Here's a quick cheat guide for those who haven't been able to keep up with the club owners re-naming sections of their club, depending on the type of entertainment. Gators is also know as the Swamp, The new Club Sapphire is in the Old Mikhail's Northgate; The Joint is known as Galaxy on electronica nights. The new club Fire down from Hal & Mal's has a new club Ice on the same property with a separate entry door. 88 Key's is in the old Metrocenter Widow Watson's; Serpentine Fire is new club next to Executive Place on Bailey Avenue, and the Voodoo Lounge is the new name for the ballroom at Mardi Gras on South State Street.

It's Thursday night jazz with the Barry Leach Group at Hal & Mal's this Thursday. It's free in the restaurant. Unity Mississippi hosts Eric Himan and Levi Kreis in the Hal & Mal's Big Room Friday, 9 p.m. $10. All proceeds go to OUToberfest and Safe Harbor. The wildly animated Blues guitarist Michael Burks jams down all weekend at the 930 Blues Café.

It's been a while since Memphis Hip-Hop Rocker's Free Sol have been in town. They are that fantastic high energy eclectic blend of R&B/Funk/Hip-Hop laden with 93.9 approved heavy rock and roll. Check them out in the Hal & Mal's Red Room this Friday night.

The 73-year-old Blues veteran Big George Brock will blow his harp for you this Saturday night at Vicksburg's Horizon Casino. Joining him will be Bill Abel and His Blues Band, 9-1 a.m. free. Other highlights this weekend include Southern Swamp Boogie The Electric Mudd at Martin's on Saturday. You can also catch Virgil Brawley doing a regular Friday lunch gig at Fenian's each week, 11:30-1 p.m. The party band and old Dock favorites U.S. will be at Headliner's this Saturday. Every Saturday night Mississippi Vibes will host the open mic poetry at Seven*Studioz, 8 p.m. $5.

For more of that Oxford Southern Rock sound the Hal & Mal's Big Room is the place to be Saturday night for Daybreakdown and ex-Kudzu Kings' Pithecanfunkus Erectus 10 p.m. $10. These guys include all the North Mississippi Hill Country heavy weights who have played in various bands together for quite a while, so the tight energetic jam they create is top notch. Check out old school Don's ex-Radio London/Windbreaker Jeff Lewis groove his R.E.M. influenced Paisley Pop tunes in the Border's Books Café, 7 p.m. free.

Next Tuesday, April 18, 6-7 p.m. the Mississippi Museum of Art will host their monthly Unburied Treasures series, where scholars discuss the art, literature, and music created in a geographic region of the state. Free with museum admission.

Next Thursday at Fondren's Arts, Eats and Beats will be Wooden Finger and Scott Albert Johnson on the Fondren Corner Building parking deck, followed by the annual "Party at the Pix" in the Pix/Capri Theatre with music by Tommy Brian Ledford, El Obo and Cary Hudson, $10, 8 p.m. It'll be a great night with great weather to wander through Fondren and check out everything they have to offer. After Arts, Eats and Beats head to Hal & Mal's for Ivan Neville & Dumpstaphunk. It features Tony Hall of the Dave Matthews Band, Nick Daniels and Raymond Weber of Trey Anastasio Band; Ian Neville from the Neville Brothers and Funky Meters and the equally legendary Skerik of MM&W. 10 p.m. $10.

Herman Snell