2007 RFT Music Showcase

Jesse Irwin

www.myspace.com/jesseirwin
Over time, Jesse Irwin has become the unofficial mascot of the Chippewa Chapel Hootenanny and a cheery presence in innumerable dives and bars on the south side. Whether playing solo or spiffing up a vintage Western shirt with other country goofballs in Dock Ellis, Irwin uses his unaffected twang to satirize St. Louis strip-mall culture (and in "Laduesiers," his funniest song, the slight degrees of separation between Jefferson County and Clayton). But for all his irony, it's his charm, sincerity and too-good-to-be-true nature that have made him a favorite with country misfits just like him. — Roy Kasten
Riddles Penultimate Café & Wine Bar, 10 p.m.

Magnolia Summer

www.magnoliasummer.com
The band at the center of the Undertow label/collective/whatever may be meticulous in the studio — producer and songwriter Chris Grabau will mix and remix, shape and reshape, until every puzzle piece fits snugly — but in concert Magnolia Summer loosens up and reminds you that well-shaped, surprisingly catchy melodies lie beneath its stacked sonics. (Think a slightly poppier American Music Club.) Grabau's gentle and wistful voice has a deceptive bite, while his songs — which are obsessed with the emotional force of the past and the present, with a sense of place and an urge to break free — take on a life and a sound that's very much their own. (RK)
Main Outdoor Stage, 3 p.m.

The Monads

www.myspace.com/themonads
You might think you can resist a country-punk band named for flagellated protozoans, but you can't. The Monads are too spirited and too irreverent to be denied a little corner in your inner hillbilly-hooligan's heart. Like Split Lip Rayfield before them, the band members stomp all over that infinitesimally thin line between deconstruction and dementia, using banjo, fiddle, acoustic guitar and doghouse bass the way rabid hounds might use a burrow full of bunnies. (RK)
Delmar Restaurant & Lounge, 9 p.m.

Rats and People

www.myspace.com/ratsandpeople
Rats and People is a folky, post-punk, shaggy little orchestra that proudly features violin, accordion, trumpet and keyboard. Though there's something vaguely Irish in the vigorous sway of this multi-instrumental sound, passionate and lucid storytelling keeps the R&P vessel from detouring too far into Poguesville. In fact, while the Pogues incite the listener to cry over spilled Guinness, there's a certain intelligence in Rats and People's music that makers listeners want to pick up a history book. If you're looking for something lively, soulful and a little experimental, these are your Rats. (JL)
Main Outdoor Stage, 2 p.m.

Best Blues Artist

Bottoms Up Blues Gang

www.myspace.com/thebubg
The Bottoms Up Blues Gang — singer Kari Liston, guitarist Jeremy Segel-Moss and harmonica player Adam Andrews — has earned a following the old-fashioned way: by playing its music (a mix of originals, blues and covers) in person and in front of as many people as possible. Perhaps taking a cue from the itinerant troubadours of yesteryear, who always traveled light, the trio has parlayed a voice, a guitar and some harmonicas into (by its count) more than 275 shows a year for each of the past several years. — Dean C. Minderman

Big George Brock