The Sacramento Beat: Benefit concert to help rebuild musician’s home, recording space

We’re starting out this month’s concert rundown by talking about the one show we truly wish we didn’t have to.

In late June, the 900-acre Rices Fire tore through the Nevada County home of Kevin Welch (frontman of local Brazilian funk rock act Boca do Rio and also part of Big Sticky Mess). The fire took with it the newly-built recording studio and musical oasis Welch had painstakingly curated on the property.

The Viva El Fuerte! Fire Fundraiser Concert will go down at 5 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 7 at the Wild Eye Pub in Grass Valley (535 Mill St. www.wildeyepub.com), with both bands and other acts performing to raise funds for the resilient Welch’s rebuild. A GoFundMe page (dubbed the “El Fuerte Fire Fund”) remains open for donations, and there will also be a silent auction the evening of the show. More info at www.facebook.com/events/572020340977142.

It’s quite the loaded early-August weekend in Grass Valley, with a trio of gigs at the Center for the Arts (thecenterforthearts.org) including New Orleans soul-funk-jazz flamethrower Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue (8 p.m. Friday Aug. 5. $72-$82). Blues legend Taj Majal and his quartet (8 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 6., $70-$80) will be in town and another NOLA mainstay in rock-blues-soul singer/axeman Anders Osborne (7:30 p.m. Sunday Aug. 7, with Rivvrs. $35-$45). Osborne rolls into town a day after co-topping the cozy Petaluma Music Festival bill (should ya fancy a road trip) with his touring BFF and Sacramento’s own Jackie Greene (www.petalumamusicfestival.org).

Staying with the Big Easy thing for a minute: We truly have no idea how we ended up with a co-headline bill of New Orleans legends Rebirth Brass Band and the wistful Greg Loiacono (co-chair of Northern California royalty Mother Hips), but holy cow are we here for it! Sometimes the shared bills that seem most divergent are the most delicious, but this pairing actually makes a wee bit more sense from a spin of Americana maestro Loiacono’s most recent solo offerings (see “Giving it All Away”). The new album showcases a level of swampy soulful humidity that we haven’t quite seen from him yet, a welcome companion to Rebirth’s mercury-spiking Bayou brass inferno (9 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 13 at Harlow’s. $25 adv./$30 door. www.harlows.com).

The beer-slinging gang at Ruhstaller Farm (6686 Sievers Rd. in Dixon ... you know, those hop vines visible from I-80) have some delightful offerings on deck this month, beginning with the weekend-long Days Between festival, celebrating the music and life of Jerry Garcia. The rotating cast begins with Hattie Craven, Love Mischief and Dead Valley (5 p.m. Friday Aug. 5), bleeds into J.B. Barton Band, Saints of Circumstance, Musers, John Paul Hodge and others (noon Saturday Aug. 6), and rounds out at noon Sunday with Joe Craven doing “Jerry stories” along with the Quitters and others. As the Deadheads always say, never miss a Sunday show! Later in the month, Ruhstaller hosts the International Jug Band Festival, hosted by the California Jug Band Association, with eight bands slated to perform (1 p.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday Aug. 20), and also welcomes the likes of Achilles Wheel (Friday Aug. 12), Anthony Arya (Sun. Aug. 14) Jessica Malone Band (Friday Aug. 19) and Misner & Smith (Saturday Aug. 27). All shows are free, donations are accepted. ruhstallerfarm.com/events.

For the foothill folks who need their Jerry fix, Nevada City’s seminal Jerry Bash offers up Deadbeats, Wolf Jett, Broken Compass Bluegrass Band, Sugar Mountain and Bob Woods & Juliet Gobert (2 p.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday Aug. 6 at Pioneer Park, 421 Nimrod St. $25 adv./$30 door. minersfoundry.org)

Based on what we hear in singles trickling out in July like “See” and “The Pearl,” Los Angeles retro-psych troupe Hooveriii (pronounced “Hoover Three”) have a real gem for us with their new record “A Round of Applause,” out on July 29. With tumbling bass lines and progressive-tinged, nebula-traversing guitars, it’s as though they crash-landed in the L.A. basin sometime in the late ‘60s, snapped up every record available at the time (and perhaps a baggie or two) and laid in wait, now emerging primed and ready to have a hand in whatever comes next. Pastoral psych-pop act Petite Amie joins the brain-bending party (8 p.m. Sunday Aug. 7 at Starlet Room, with Petite Amie. $12 adv./$15 door. www.harlows.com).

An August 10 record release party for “A Sure Cure for the Blues,” a live album recorded in March at the nearby Sofia, from Sacramento veteran Mick Martin and his “dream” Big Blues Band highlights the August Blues & Bourbon slate at the recently remodeled Starlet Room (all shows 6:30 p.m. Wednesdays. www.harlows.com). Also up are Albert Castiglia (Aug. 3), Terry Hanck Band (Aug. 17), Mitch Woods & His Rocket 88s (Aug. 24) and Harold Sessions Trio (Aug. 31).

Here’s how it works at year-by-year ‘80s tribute extravaganza Don’t You Forget About Me, Volume 5: there are 10 bands, each one is assigned a specific year from the 1980s, and plays songs released in that year (with the Moans sneaking in a full Ramones set). Working through the decade are local standouts in California Stars, CTX, the Get-Sets, Hard Luck Daddies, Jem & Scout, Leaping Blennies, Los Sindes, Mavis Beacon Teaches Crime, the Natalie Cortez Band and Poly Holiday (7 p.m. Saturday Aug. 20 at Starlet Room. $12 adv./$15 door. www.harlows.com)

A January rescheduling casualty from the first of the Omicron surges (what’s old is new again, it seems), the scintillating one-two punch of headliner Fruition and opener Goodnight, Texas is back on the books at Harlow’s. You’d be hard pressed to find two acts that more exquisitely or affectionately stitch acoustic and electric music together. Fruition, with their mishmash of rock, soul, alt-country and bluegrass, is a group you could slot into any music festival at either 2 p.m. or 2 a.m. (whether your audience is being held upright by drug-fueled adrenaline or Tommy Bahama loungers). The wistful Goodnight, Texas (fronted by former Stone Foxes co-captain Avi Vinocur), with lavish compositions and immaculate harmony, comes off like a lumbering coal-fired railway tour across the western states, seemingly bred in an era when rail travel wasn’t a fun or kitschy alternative, it was all that was available (8 p.m. Wednesday Aug. 24 at Harlow’s. $15 adv./$18 door. www.harlows.com)

Americana roots rockers Dead Winter Carpenters, a Northern California roots music staple and national touring act, are doing a mighty cozy gig (by their standards) at Placerville’s Green Room Social Club. Don’t sleep on tickets for this one (7 p.m. Thursday Aug. 25. $20. clubgreenroom.com).

And finally, something that is not actually a concert (no need to check on me, I swear I’m not unwell), but we’d be remiss not to mention Looking Through A Glass Onion: Deconstructing The Beatles’ White Album, a multimedia presentation by Beatles freak and professional Fab Four lecturer Scott Freiman. In this session, Freiman will deploy audio and video clips and various anecdotes to explore the creation of the 1968 double-album’s 30 iconic songs. Wait, did I just call “Piggies” iconic? Perhaps you should check on me after all (7 p.m. Tuesday Aug. 30 at the Crest Theatre. $15-$40. crestsacramento.com/events).

Grab Bag: Former Hot Water Music frontman Chuck Ragan and the Camaraderie links up with Nat Lefkoff, Two Runner and the Bard and the Bird at Goldfield Roseville in a benefit concert for Cast Hope, a nonprofit providing outdoor youth outings (5:30 p.m. Saturday Aug. 6. $20. goldfieldtradingpost.com); Amp-blasting doom sludge duo Telekinetic Yeti rolls into Cafe Colonial with White Hills (7 p.m. Sunday Aug. 14. $15. www.cafecolonial916.com); Guitar virtuoso Jesse Cook visits the Crest Theatre (8 p.m. Wednesday Aug. 17. $35-$85. crestsacramento.com/events); Ethereal emotional supernova (and frequent Avett Brothers collaborator) Jessica Lea Mayfield sails into Goldfield Downtown (6:30 p.m. Thursday Aug. 18. $18. goldfieldtradingpost.com); We’re not sure how, but if you act fast, you might score a ticket to either of the two gigs from Durand Jones & the Indications (Friday-Saturday Aug. 19 & 20), or even to Shakey Graves (Sunday Aug. 21) at Ace of Spades (www.aceofspadessac.com).