News & Notes

Keen on the Snorty Horse

Snorty Horse Saloon owner Steve Green confirms that country music star Robert Earl Keen is coming to play at the bar April 6 with the Ryan Bingham Band opening the show. (See our Tunes feature profile of Ryan Bingham Band bassist Jeb Venable for more about the band.) According to Green, it’s the completion of a personal dream to bring Keen into his bar for a concert. However, he says it will take some rescheduling. The original lineup for that night was Ryan Bingham & Dead Horses with opening act Pete Gile; Gile’s set has now been cancelled.

Bye bye Bogart

Citing a creative dead end, the members of Bogart announced last week on their MySpace page that the group would be splitting up after one last concert. The members of the band—Ben Bogart, Josh Head, Matt Taylor and Daniel Zender—say that the split is amicable and that they will continue to collaborate with each other musically; it just won’t be among all of them together. The final concert will be March 30 at the home of friend and fellow musician Nathaniel Carroll, who is scheduled to perform as an opening act along with Faatherton. The show is free and starts at 7 p.m.

Upcoming Blues Down Under shows

You may notice a trend among the performers for Blues Society of the Ozarks’ latest Blues Down Under season: all of them are past performers from the Greater Ozarks Blues Festival. That means showgoers will get another chance to see performers such as Reba Russell (April 21, $12.50 in advance, $15 at the door), Ronnie Baker Brooks (April 28, $17.50 in advance, $20 at the door), Walter Trout and the Radicals (May 10, $15 in advance, $17.50 at the door), zydeco crowd favorites Chubby Carrier and the Bayou Swamp Band (May 18, $10 in advance, $12.50 at the door) and Ana Popovic (June 22, $12.50 in advance, $15 at the door). Tickets for all the Blues Down Under shows are available at the Shrine Mosque Box Office.

The Western Paradise returns

Concept-rock group (and NPR darlings) The Western Paradise, originally from Springfield but now based in Chicago, will play its first show in its hometown in eight months when it comes to the Outland May 17. The band, whose as-yet-unnamed upcoming album was mentioned as GO’s “What’s Next” pick for album of the year in our January 3-16 issue, begins a 15-date tour of the Midwest and East Coasts that night with opening acts Fetch and the Joe Murphy Band. Door time will be 9 p.m.; the cover charge for the show was unconfirmed at press time.