Downtown Brew has five, count ’em, five killer shows this week. It’s like a machine gun full of music being fired into your ears.

- PHOTO COURTESY OF PK
- ALT.ROCK CONTENDERS: PK, a fairly new local act, has a new EP and a show on Feb. 5 at Downtown Brew to promote it.
Do you know Bob? Well, it’s his 64th birthday on Friday, Feb. 6, which is when reggae fans can bob and weave to the sounds of Resination and Native Elements during an 8 p.m., 21-and-older, $8 presale ($10 at the door) show. It’s hard to believe, but Resination has been together for almost a decade. Impressive!
Southern fried hip hop act Nappy Roots, a platinum selling act whose latest release Humdinger shot to No. 7 on Billboard’s hip hop chart, plays Downtown Brew on Saturday, Feb. 7, during an 8 p.m., 18-and-older, $16 presale ($18 at the door) show. Hear classics like “Awnaw,” “Round da Globe,” and “Po Folks.” Venomous Voices opens.

- PHOTO COURTESY OF TODD SNIDER
- THE KING OF COMEDY : Americana singer-songwriter Todd Snider is both amazing and hilarious. See him Feb. 8 at Downtown Brew.
Finally, on Tuesday, Feb. 10, DT Brew hosts Long Island post-hardcore band The Sleeping, who are taking a break from their tour with Funeral for a Friend for an all-ages, 7:30 p.m., $12 presale show. Their new album, What It Takes, hits the streets on Feb. 17, but fans who stop by can expect to hear a few cuts a bit early. Tour mates Emarosa and This is Hell will open.

- PHOTO COURTESY OF AMY OBENSKI
- SANTA CRUZ GAL : Earthy folk/rock/R&B artist Amy Obenski brings her organic sound to Linnaea’s Café on Feb. 5.
With inspiration as diverse as jazz, classical, rock, and R&B, Amy Obenski’s style can’t be neatly summed up. Suffice it to say, the result is an eclectic, earthy sound. On her newest album, From The Deep, one hears piano, cello, viola, bass, drums, mandolin, and even accordion, but when Amy Obenski plays Linnaea’s Café on Thursday, Feb. 5, listeners will hear her sweet and sultry vocals accompanied by keyboards alone. In 2007, her song “Carousel” was heard on Grey’s Anatomy, taking the song to No. 23 on the iTunes Folk Chart. She plays at 8 p.m., with a $5 suggested donation.

- PHOTO COURTESY OF FOUR SHILLINGS SHORT
- TWO PEOPLE, 20 INSTRUMENTS : Folk duo Four Shillings Short brings their diverse sounds to Coalesce Bookstore on Feb. 6.

- PHOTO COURTESY OF CORINNE WEST
- TRAVELING TROUBADOURESS : Corinne West returns to Música Del Río House Concerts in Atascadero on Feb. 6.
Irish fiddler Kevin Burke plays on Friday, Feb. 6, at 8 p.m. in Cambria’s Painted Sky Studio. Burke, a 30-year veteran of the traditional Irish music scene, was a member of the seminal 1970s Irish group the Bothy Band. The longtime Portland resident won a 2002 National Heritage Fellowship, the country’s highest honor in the folk and traditional arts. Burke will be joined by native Oregonian Cal Scott, who’s played in folk, rock, and jazz ensembles for three decades. He’s also recorded and produced more than 20 CDs, including nine with The Trail Band, an American roots folk group. Tickets are $18 (927-0500).
The San Luis Obispo Symphony, featuring cellist Zuill Bailey, plays at 8 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 7, at the Christopher Cohan Center. This will be Bailey’s first performance since the release of Russian Masterpieces for Cello and Orchestra, and he’ll perform Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s “Variations on a Rococo Theme, Op. 33,” which also appears on his new recording. The concert will also include Robert Schumann’s “Symphony No. 3 in E-flat,” “Rhenish” and Camille Saint-Saëns’s “Cello Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Op. 33.” The concert costs $12.50 to $65 (756-2787), or you can attend the 1 p.m. dress rehearsal for free. Evening ticket holders are also invited to attend a 7 p.m. pre-concert Lecture: “Symphonic Forays.” On a side note, Conductor Michael Nowak apparently plays a draconian taskmaster-of-a-conductor in The Soloist, the new film starring Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr. Clearly typecasting!
Several of Cal Poly’s student ensembles will perform traditional and contemporary chamber music at 8 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 7, in the Old Mission Church in San Luis Obispo. Hear the Wind Quintets, Wind Dectet, Saxophone Quartets, Trombone Choir, Clarinet Quartet, String Quartet, Brass Quintet, and Brass Ensemble. Tickets are $8 and $10, available by calling 756-2787.

- PHOTO COURTESY OF RAS DANNY
- NODS TO BOB : To keep the Bob Marley birthday celebration going all weekend, Ras Danny, who like Bob was part of the Jamaican Trenchtown scene, will play Mr. Rick’s on Feb. 7.

- PHOTO COURTESY OF JIM CONROY
- THE BIRTHDAY BOY : Cambria songsmith James Conroy has a couple new CDs coming out and a couple gigs to promote them. See him Feb. 7 at Gina's Coffee House, and Feb. 10 at the Crooked Kilt Irish Pub. And wish him happy birthday; he’s turning 60!

- PHOTO COURTESY OF Kimberly Moody
- MAGIC FINGERS : SLO native Kimberly Moody, frequent guest organist on the world-famous Tabernacle organ in Salt Lake City, returns to town for a solo recital on the Forbes Pipe Organ at the Performing Arts Center ON
Glen Starkey just can’t get enough minimalism. Explain his idiocy to him at gstarkey@newtimesslo.com.
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