There is a special spring edition of the Playing With Fire (PWF) concert series happening Saturday, April 18, at Slowdown, 6 p.m. The event is still free and this spring edition features a new favorite of promoter Jeff Davis, who presents the U.S. debut of the U.K.’s Elles Bailey. Davis was telling me at the end of last summer how much he loves Bailey and how he was working on bringing her to Omaha. He loves being the person to introduce favorite international artists to the U.S. and he’s done it again with Bailey.
Bailey has at least a half-dozen U.K. Blues Awards to her credit, including “Vocalist of the Year” in 2024 and 2025. Reviewers praise Bailey’s gritty, soulful voice and her ability to deliver songs with an emotional intensity that resonates with the audience. Bailey makes a connection with audiences that critics repeatedly call captivating, even “spellbinding.”
This show is the kickoff to PWF’s 22nd year. Doors at Slowdown open at 5 p.m., music starts at 6 p.m. Iowa’s old-school acoustic blues duo Cedar County Cobras opens. They represented Iowa in the 2025 International Blues Challenge in Memphis where they made it through to the semi-finalists round. Jenni Grouws takes the spotlight in the second set. Grouws is Davis’ current Music House residency artist. The Iowa-based vocalist and songwriter has become a local audience favorite and she will be fronting a full band for this show.
Find all the details at playingwithfireomaha.net and facebook.com/playingwithfireomaha. You’ll also find everything you need to know for the three-night August PWF concerts happening Thursday, Aug. 13 through Saturday, Aug. 15. August performers include King King from Scotland, Meena Cryle & Chris Filmore from Austria and Rozedale from France. The lineups also include Canadian/U.S. artist Colin Linden, who has 25 of Canada’s Juno Award nominations and nine wins to his credit along with a Grammy for producing Keb Mo’s Oklahoma, the 2020 Grammy winner for Best Americana Album. Make your plans now to catch the charismatic U.S. project Halo Rider, which features the amazing, transcendent blues-roots fiddle player Anne Harris and the gritty, soulful vocalist/guitarist Markus James in a remarkable collaboration with Larry Thompson on drums.
We’ll talk more about these shows as they get closer but you can dig into the full schedule on the website, playingwithfireomaha.net. Mark your calendar now for those August shows, which are also set for the Slowdown.
The PWF events are all free but the Slowdown venue requires all attendees have a photo ID. Anyone 17 or under must have the city’s Music Venue Parental Consent Form on file with the venue. See theslowdown.com/all-ages/ for details.
BSO Member Appreciate Event
The Blues Society of Omaha (BSO) hosts a membership appreciation event featuring Alligator Records artist Selwyn Birchwood Thursday, April 16, 6 p.m. Admission for current members or those who join at the door is $10. General admission is $20. The BSO promises extra table seating for this show. Birchwood is touring with his new 2026 Alligator release “Electric Swamp Funkin’ Blues.” The Rock & Blues Muse website says of the record, “In one sense, we hark back to the early days of Hendrix-like blues rock, while in another sense, the sound is forward-thinking and contemporary. Only Birchwood could pull that off.” Guitar World magazine says “Blues star Selwyn Birchwood is the real deal. He puts his own fresh spin on the blues, taking the tradition and making it into something new.”
The B. Bar Music
The B. Bar presents Melody Trucks & the Fitzkee Brothers featuring Jackson Stokes Thursday, April 2, 7 p.m. Trucks is a vocalist and percussionist who is continuing her father Butch Trucks’ legacy of jam band and Southern rock sounds. MusicFest News calls Trucks “a powerful, unstoppable force.”
Other shows on The B. Bar schedule include Sailing in Soup Friday, April 17, 5:30 p.m. and a double-bill of Kris Lager Band and Ro Hempel Saturday, April 18, 7 p.m. Friday, April 24, 5:30 p.m., Lincoln’s Church of Blues featuring Josh Hoyer, Levi William, Dave Boye and Joe Gourlay is up. The Pocket Architects plug in at 9 p.m. See all the scheduled shows at thebbaromaha.com.
Zoo Bar Blues
Lincoln’s historic Zoo Bar also hosts Selwyn Birchwood Wednesday, April 15, 6 p.m., the night before his Omaha appearance. In an article published in late March, the Houston Press proclaimed, “He’s one of the most exciting, innovative, and expansive contemporary blues players on the scene today.” The article went on to quote Birchwood as saying, “It’s not ‘Delta Blues’ or ‘Grandpa Blues.’ And you’d be hard pressed to find a band that sounds like my band… I’ve been searching for my own sound, and I feel confident saying that this is it and this is what I do.” Show some audience support for one of the brightest lights on the contemporary blues scene and get out for one of Birchwood’s local shows.
With the start of more bands touring as the weather warms up, The Zoo calendar is full of options. Melody Trucks & the Fitzkee Brothers featuring Jackson Stokes play Saturday, April 4, 9 p.m.
The multi-talented Vanessa Collier takes the stage Wednesday, April 8, 6 p.m. Her most recent disc, 2024’s “Do It My Own Way” showcases Collier putting some sassy vocals front and center along with her great sax work as she pays tribute to Memphis soul in the 1960s, particularly the sounds of Stax and Hi Records.
Josh Hoyer’s Colossal 4 is scheduled Friday, April 10, 5 p.m. Mark your calendars for Church of Blues Friday, April 17, 5 p.m., the return of Igor & The Red Elvises Thursday, April 23, 6 p.m. and keyboard wizard Bruce Katz Friday, April 24, 5 p.m. Jason D. Williams, generally accepted to be the son of Jerry Lee Lewis, deliver’s Lewis’ fiery piano boogie in a show Sunday, April 26, 5 p.m. Then Wednesday, April 29, 6 p.m. is a double-bill of roots music featuring Scott Severin & Stateleigh Holmes with Jeremy Mercy & The Rapture Oprhans.
Collier at Holland Music Club
Vanessa Collier is also set to play the Holland Music Club Friday, April 10, 7:30 p.m. She is a multiple Blues Music Award nominee and was honored with two awards in 2025 for Blues Instrumentalist – Horns and Contemporary Blues Female Artist. She is nominated in three categories in this year’s Blues Music Awards, most notably for the prestigious B.B. King Entertainer of the Year Award. She’s also nominated in the Band of the Year category and in the Contemporary Blues Female Artist of the Year category. The Blues Music Awards will be announced in a May awards ceremony in Memphis. See ticketomaha.com/events for advance tickets.
James McMurtry at Waiting Room
One of America’s and Americana’s finest contemporary songwriters, James McMurtry is set to play Waiting Room Thursday, April 30, 8 p.m. McMurtry is calling his current touring configuration James McMurtry & The Martial Law Review. Austin’s BettySoo opens the show. BettySoo was recognized as the best in the Folk/Bluegrass category in the Austin Music Awards handed out in February.
McMurtry’s 2025 release “The Black Dog & The Wandering Boy” hit many critics’ “best of 2025” lists with Pitchfork noting “The Austin, Texas, songwriter tells big stories through the smallest details.” Rolling Stone magazine ranked McMurtry’s recording higher on their list than artists like Brandi Carlile and Lukas Nelson, putting McMurtry’s release at #14 for the year, and stating without hesitation, “The greatest storyteller in the Lone Star state returned with another knock-out collection of songs…‘The Black Dog and the Wandering Boy’ is a gut-punch mix of sweeping tales of American original sin…and the indignities of aging,” adding “McMurtry keeps getting better and better as a songwriter in his middle age, and his latest collection makes that even more clear.” Advance tickets are recommended. See etix.com.
For many years, James McMurtry and Jon Dee Graham shared the Wednesday night bill at Austin’s Continental Club, and I’m sad to report that Graham has recently passed away.
Jon Dee Graham Remembered
Hoodoo favorite Jon Dee Graham, a personal hero and beloved friend for 20 years, passed away on Friday, March 27, at his home in Austin. Graham often said, “words are approximate, at best,” and that is all too true here. What I can say is that he was one of a handful of musicians whose music set the world right for me when it all seemed wrong, his “false hope is still hope” mantra and his reminder that “fear is the enemy” becoming lifelines for me when things got rough. His music was a constant inspiration, but getting to know him was an even greater gift.
Graham played Omaha venues and Lincoln’s Zoo Bar pretty regularly in the 2000s. He’d often sit in on The Zoo’s open jams too. He last played Omaha in the summer of 2019, just a few days before he suffered a heart attack in Chicago that doctors said had left him “dead” for five to seven minutes. Graham fought his way back from that incident hoping to start touring again, only to suffer in 2022 what doctors told him was “a neurological event of unknown origin.” The stroke-like event caused him to collapse, resulting in injuries that left him in extreme pain with spinal damage that took several doctors to correctly diagnose. Finally in 2025 he underwent multiple spinal surgeries with the hopes of gaining improved mobility and decreasing his pain. He was slowly returning to his regular Wednesday night residency at Austin’s Continental Club, a gig he’d held down for over 30 years.
In a Feb. 27, 2026 Facebook post he wrote: “This last year saw me flatline twice, cut wide open four times, and rebuilt from the inside out. I won’t explain but if you know me you know it’s near impossible for me to give up…I haven’t yet and don’t ever intend to.”
That show was a day-early birthday celebration for Graham who concluded the post with “Come give me a hug and let’s dance and sing and laugh and cry together…come toast the glory and mystery of this night and this life.”
Unfortunately, a few weeks after his celebratory 67th birthday show, Graham was back in the hospital again on March 21 according to a Facebook post by his family. By March 24, Graham reported on his social media that he was “Home… Turns out I’ve got a long and complicated road ahead. I will be resting mostly but I will be at The Continental Club tomorrow night at the regularly scheduled Wednesday services. Thank you again for caring. I can’t express how much it means to me.”
He played that March 25 gig and those in attendance report he ended his set with one of his most beautiful and moving songs, “World So Full.”
On Friday, March 27, the family posted unthinkable news, with his son William writing “This morning he died after we waited outside for EMS to try to revive him, the cardinals, that he loved so much, suddenly came in droves and were chirping. Some say that means the angels are here.”
The family later disclosed that Graham, who had often been walking with a cane, somehow likely got set off balance by his beloved dog and took a fall, hit his head and was apparently dead instantly, according to the coroner’s report. It’s some small comfort that after a year of long hospital stays he was at home and his beloved dog was by his side. I can imagine him laughing his distinctively uproarious laugh at the true absurdity of such an end after all he’d survived.
Graham was not only a much-beloved Austin musician and fifth-generation Texan, he had fans across the country and in Europe and Japan. He played in one of Austin’s first punk bands, The Skunks, was part of iconic Austin Americana-tinged rock band The True Believers with Alejandro Escovedo and went on to a storied solo career beginning in the 1990s. He was inducted into the Austin Music Hall of Fame three times: as a solo artist in 2000, again in 2008 as a member of The Skunks, and again in 2009 as a member of the True Believers.
As social media flooded with the grief and remembrances of fans and friends, Austin’s Paramount Theatre posted to Facebook, “Jon Dee Graham wasn’t just part of the scene, he was the scene. From punk roots to alt-country influence, his sound helped shape generations of music in this city and beyond.”
For anyone who is interested, there is a Go Fund Me to help the family with a stack of medical bills from this past year plus the unexpected costs of final expenses. Any donations will help his loved ones manage this difficult time.
You can find much of Graham’s music on Spotify, with physical CDs available on Amazon. So many of his live performances have been captured in audience recordings that are posted to YouTube. Here’s a performance clip from March 2024 at C-Boy’s in Austin where Graham and his band, the Fighting Cocks, tear through two of his iconic songs “Big Sweet Life” and “Something Wonderful.”
Graham’s son William, also a musician, revealed that they had been working together on a record of new work by Graham during the last year. The younger Graham wrote on Facebook, “It brings me joy to know that he isn’t quite done yet and I hope it does the same for you.” He added that the completed record will be available on Strolling Bones Records, with release details to come.
Hot Notes
Jazz guitar master Pat Metheny is set to perform Wednesday, April 8, 7:30 p.m. at the Holland Performing Arts Center. Find tickets at ticketomaha.com.
Devotchka is a Hoodoo favorite and not blues at all, but a band conjuring an intoxicating mix of eclectic sounds. Theremin, anyone? Devotchka plays Waiting Room Thursday, April 9, in a “Tribute to the music of Little Miss Sunshine” tour. The Denver-based band got a big break when their music provided the score for the 2006 movie and was nominated for a Grammy. Their show is an uplifting celebration.
Iron & Wine plays The Astro Theater Wednesday, April 29, 8 p.m. with Improvement Movement.
Popular blues-rocker Anthony Gomes is up at Waiting Room Friday, May 1, 8 p.m. Blues Rock Review says that his 2025 release and 14th studio recording Praise the Loud, “is an electrifying experience delivered with copious amounts of energy, virtuosity, feel and swagger.”
Waiting Room hosts a fundraiser for local community members Vic and “Fletch” Fletcher Sunday, May 3, 1-9 p.m. to assist with living and medical expenses as Vic continues to deal with worsening MS that has left her wheelchair-bound and using a speaker box to amplify her voice. Friends have gathered together for this big event with a “hootenanny” theme and performances by The Mercurys, VVilloughby, Lloyd McCarter & the Honky Tonk Revival, The Prairie Gators and Dr. Webb. Until her MS slowed her down, Vic was always the first person on the dance floor at many Omaha shows I’ve attended through the years and she maintains a strikingly positive attitude as she lives with MS. For more information check the Facebook event page.