Fan-Friendly Blues to Kick off Downtown Concert Series

Friday night the Museum of Early Trades & Crafts kicks off the summer's free Downtown Concert Series with featured band Al Gold & the Suburban Rhythm Kings.

This is the second year the Museum has organized the Downtown Concert Series. Nine concerts are scheduled for every other Friday through Oct. 1, up from six concerts last year. The lineup of bands for this summer offers "a big variety of music," said April Lyzak, the Museum's Coordinator. "There's something for everybody."

Concerts begin at 6 p.m. at Main Street and Green Village Road in downtown Madison, rain or shine. In the case of the former the concerts will take place inside the museum.

For this year's inaugural concert, the Suburban Rhythm Kings will serve up blues "styled after the music of the old Chicago blues clubs," said frontman Al Gold. Gold lived in Chicago when he was a student in his 20s during what he called the "golden age of Chicago blues."

"I would go to these little neighborhood clubs and I was just in awe of these players," Gold said. ""The musicians would let you sit in with them, show you things.

"That's what's different about the blues. Really anybody who wants to can speak with them, rather than rock music where they write music in their bedrooms and if they get recognized they play to big audiences and no one can get near them."

The Suburban Rhythm Kings have been playing together as a band for five years, but they started as a group of friends who played "on each other's gigs" for five years before that until they decided to form a group. Gold promised they'll stick around after the concert in case anyone wants to talk to the band, just as the musicians he went to see in Chicago used to do.

Sponsors of the Concert Series are Blue Ridge Mountain Sport, Provident Bank, Madison Honda, Whole Foods and The Star Ledger. These businesses will all have tables set up near the concerts, and the Museum, which usually closes at 4 p.m., will remain open until the concerts end. The line-up for the rest of the 2010 Downtown Concert Series is:

• June 25: Richard Reiter Swing Band (Swing)
• July 9: The Imposters Band (Rock)
• July 23: CHIA's Dance Party (Colombian)
• August 6: Kati & the Lil' Swing Band (Delta Blues)
• August 20: Bill Jayne & Friends (Rock)
• September 3: The Mood Swings (Classic Rock)
• September 17: Moss Points North (Rock/Folk/Alternative)
• October 1: The FrostKings (Blues/Swing/R&B)