Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, Lake Street Dive Play Free NYC Show Tonight

The Lowdown Hudson Blues Festival returns to lower Manhattan tonight and tomorrow, and as usual the organizers have put together a good lineup. Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings bring their popular old-style soul to the Brookfield Place stage tonight as the headliners. The No BS! Brass Band opens the show at 6 p.m., followed by up-and-coming pop-soul favorites Lake Street Dive at 7. Sharon Jones and her band take the stage at 8:30.

Above: "Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings at Pori Jazz 2" by kallerna - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

Tomorrow night the headliner is legendary blues-rock singer-songwriter John Hiatt, whose songs have been covered by everyone from Bonnie Raitt to Sheryl Crow. Hiatt is scheduled to take the stage at 8:45 p.m., preceded by the James Carter Organ Trio (6 p.m.) and five-time Grammy-winning blues outfit the Robert Cray Band (7 p.m.).

The shows take place at the waterfront plaza at Brookfield Place (outside the World Financial Center Winter Garden), west of the World Trade Center near the intersection of West and Vesey Streets. (See map.) Seating is limited, but standing room is available. See the Lowdown Hudson Blues Festival website for instructions for getting seats.

A quick recap of the set times for this year's Lowdown Hudson Blues Festival:

July 16
6:00 PM - No BS! Brass Band
7:00 PM - Lake Street Dive
8:30 PM - Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings

July 17
6:00 PM - James Carter Organ Trio
7:00 PM - The Robert Cray Band
8:45 PM - John Hiatt & The Combo

Free Concerts: Madison Square Park and RiverRocks (Pier 84)

Here's information on two very different free-music series going on in NYC this summer, the Mad. Sq. Music series and the RiverRocks concerts at Pier 84.


Bettye LaVette plays Madison Square Park on Aug. 8th.

* Mad. Sq. Music features roots music on the lawn on Wednesday nights (usually), from June 20th to August 8th (oops, I'm writing this too late for the first show).

• June 27th, 6:30 p.m.: Gretchen Parlato and Gregory Porter (jazz vocalists)
• July 4th, 3 p.m.: Noam Pikelny and Friends, The Sweetback Sisters, and Spuyten Duyvil (folk/roots music)
• July 11th, 7 p.m.: Nellie McKay (pop)
• July 18th, 7 p.m.: Jeff "Tain" Watts Quartet (jazz)
• July 25th, 7 p.m.: Regina Carter’s “Reverse Thread” (jazz)
• Aug. 1st, 6:30 p.m.: An evening with Suzzy and Maggie Roche, Sloan Wainwright and Lucy Wainwright Roche (folk)
• Aug. 8th, 7 p.m.: Bettye LaVette (blues)

* RiverRocks, whose concerts skew towards indie artists, is once again limited to a small number of shows (three), but it has a good lineup of popular, in-demand acts. Shows take place Thursday nights at Pier 84 (Hudson River at 44th Street).

• July 12th, 6 p.m.: Dan Deacon and John Maus
• July 26th, 6 p.m.: Oberhofer and The Soft Pack
• Aug. 9th, 6 p.m.: Wild Nothing, Grimes, and DIIV (formerly Dive)

Prince, Metallica, Free Coldplay Single in Monday Music News

Lots of music news to start off the week. Prince is apparently back in fine form as a live act, and the he L.A. Times has praise for his set at Coachella. "The musician's dazzling performance Saturday night uses hits, guest stars and killer covers to cement his status as perhaps the top live act around," the article gushes. One cover tune he did: Radiohead's oldie-but-goodie, "Creep."

Speaking of Radiohead, Wired reports that Metallica is considering doing a pay-what-you-want release as Radiohead did for its "In Rainbows" album. Although Metallica has long been a critic of filesharing, Wired notes that "...With only one record left on its Warner Music Group contract, [Lars] Ulrich says Metallica could be planning a digital release along the lines of what Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails have done, as ironic as that might seem."

Continuing with the theme of digital downloads, Coldplay is going to give away its new single free online. A notice on the Coldplay Web site says that "Violet Hill," from the band's new album "Viva La Vida or Death And All His Friends," will be available free online for one week starting on Tuesday.

Perhaps more interesting, Coldplay has announced it will do two free shows: London's Brixton Academy (June 16th) and New York's Madison Square Garden (June 23rd).