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Weekend spotlight: Singer/songwriters everywhere you turn

It’s a big weekend for guitar-wielding storytellers.
Canadian singer/songwriter Kathleen Edwards is back in her home away from home Saturday, performing on the Bayboro Brewing stage.
Edwards, whose most recent album, Covers, collects songs written by Jason Isbell, Tom Petty and others, purchased a house in St. Petersburg four years ago. “I came to St. Petersburg for a couple weeks in 2020 and I fell in love with it,” she told us then. “My husband and I loved the town; we just thought Central Avenue was such an interesting mix of amazing small businesses. We love the galleries, and we love Vinoy Park, and we love what’s happening there. It just seems like St. Pete really has something special.”
She and her band will play at 8 p.m.; tickets and info are at this link.
Folk music legend Claudia Schmidt brings her guitar and dulcimer to the intimate Craftsman House Gallery Saturday. Scmidt, whose music blends blues and even jazz with Americana sounds, was a frequent performer on radio’s A Prairie Home Companion. Call the gallery at (727) 323-2787 for tickets.
England’s historical folksinging bard Al Stewart (“Year of the Cat,” “Roads to Moscow,” “Time Passages”) makes his semi-regular appearance at the Capitol Theatre Sunday. Sharing the bill is Massachusetts’ own Livingston Taylor (“Carolina Day”), of the famously musical Taylor family. Tickets for this concert can be found at this link.
At Skipper’s Smokehouse Sunday: Texas singer/songwriter James McMurtry, one of the shining literary lights of Americana since the early 1990s. McMurtry and his band play at 8 p.m., following an opening set by Betty Soo (tickets can be found here). “James McMurtry may be the truest, fiercest songwriter of his generation,” according to Stephen King.
Tonight’s scheduled double bill with bluesmen Paul Thorn and Marc Broussard at Ruth Eckerd Hall has been moved (due to the winter weather) to May 31.
All this jazz

Joshua Redman. Publicity photo.
Tonight (7-9 p.m.) at DRV Gallery in Gulfport: An intimate performance by Tampa Bay’s premiere jazz trio, La Lucha. Artist and gallery owner Deserie Valloreo will join the trio for a few tunes as guest vocalist. Music from 6 to 9 p.m., with tickets on sale at this link.
Saturday brings acclaimed jazz saxophonist Joshua Redman to Largo’s Central Park Performing Arts Center. Named the Jazz Journalists Awards’ 2024 Tenor Saxophonist of the Year, Redman and his band – including vocalist Gabrielle Cavassa – hit the stage at 8 p.m. Tickets are at this link.
Stride piano master (and vocalist) Judy Carmichael is at the Palladium Side Door Saturday, in collaboration with jazz guitarist Nate Najar. This is their third joint appearance in town – the other two were sellouts (consider yourself advised). Tickets are at this link.
In a 2022 interview, Carmichael told the Catalyst: “There’s a great quote – ‘love isn’t looking into someone’s eyes, it’s looking in the same direction.’ And I felt that Nate and I looked in the same direction. So even though this wasn’t a natural pairing, right off the bat, because we want the same things out of music, and we hit it off so much personally, I thought ‘We’re going to make great music together. This is really going to be fun.’”
Other concerts
Innovative guitarist and composer Dweezil Zappa (son of Frank) plays the Capitol Theatre tonight. Zappa and his band are performing (in addition to other music) songs from Dad’s classic albums Apostrophe and Roxy & Elsewhere. Tickets are at this link.
Tonight at the Palladium Side Door, it’s blues singer and guitarist Bill “Sauce Boss” Wharton, cooking up a big mess o’blues – and a bubbling pot of gumbo, right there in the room, for everyone to enjoy. Wharton explained it all in this 2023 Catalyst interview; tickets for tonight’s 7:30 show can be had here.
Melissa Etheridge plays the Baycare Sound Saturday, with guests Lisa Loeb and Maggie Rose. Find tickets at this link. This is a rescheduled date – the original show (in early October) was scrubbed because of hurricane damage.
Southern Culture on the Skids is back for another feisty go-round at Skipper’s Smokehouse Saturday. The veteran North Carolina band’s latest album is called At Home with Southern Culture on the Skids. Find tickets for the 8 p.m. show at this link.
Sunday at 2 in the afternoon, pianist Robin Spielberg will perform at the Central Park Performing Arts Center. Her repertoire ranges from New Age to classical to the Great American Songbook. Find tickets at this link.
Big laughs
Comedian Jeff Arcuri is onstage Saturday at Ruth Eckerd Hall. Tickets are here.
Comedian Mike Epps is onstage Sunday at the Seminole Hard Rock Live Event Center. Tickets are here.
D.L. Hughley – one of the four original Kings of Comedy – is back in the clubs; catch him Friday through Sunday at Funny Bone Comedy Club, Ybor City. Showtimes and tickets are at this link.
Where’s the orchestra?
Cellist Inbal Segev joins The Florida Orchestra for Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations Friday in Tampa (8 p.m., Straz Center Morsani Hall) and Saturday (2 p.m., Mahaffey Theater). The program also includes Bizet’s Carmen Suites 1 & 2, Kodaly’s Dances of Galanta, and Gabriela Lena Frank’s Elegía Andina. Keitaro Harada conducts. Find all tickets at this link.
On theater stages

Georgia Mallory Guy (left) and Julia Rifino in “Matt & Ben” at freeFall Theatre. Photo provided.
Tonight at the Tampa Theatre, it’s the return of The Moth Mainstage, in which eight storytellers from the popular Moth Podcast and Moth Radio Hour tell “personal stories from extraordinary individuals in the global south.” Rescheduled from October; find tickets here.
At freeFall Theatre, the comedy Matt & Ben (we previewed it in this Tuesday story) is onstage today through Sunday (a total of four performances). Tickets are at this link.
New at American Stage: The “fairy tale” This Girl Laughs, This Girl Cries, This Girl Does Nothing. There’s a preview tonight (Thursday), and the show (written by Finegan Kruckemeyer, directed by Helen R. Murray) opens Friday and will run through Feb. 9. Find info and tickets here.
Jobsite Theater’s production of the mighty Macbeth is in its second weekend at the Jaeb Theatre (inside the David A. Straz Center. Find info and tickets here.
In its last weekend at LAB Theatre Project: Guy R. Newsham’s Green Cheese, which you can read about in this Catalyst story. Tickets are available here.
Your Weekend Spotlight appears every Thursday in the Catalyst’s CREATE section.
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