The-Burg.com - Central Virgina's Arts, Culture and Entertainment Weekly

The Black Keys should take their show on the road.

Yes, the Akron, Ohio, blues-rock duo of singer-guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney already tour almost constantly. But the two — Carney, lanky and bespectacled, and Auerbach, bearded and rocker-looking — have something of a comic duo about them.

They have a natural patter — crude and hysterical — that’s been honed by spending nearly half their lives playing music together. At a recent interview, the conversation turned to why the Keys, nearly 10 years on, have for the first time begun playing shows with a bassist (Nick Movshon) and a keyboardist (Leon Michels).

ATLANTA — Singer John Bell understands that most people have never heard of Widespread Panic.

Is mainstream America missing out on a great live band? Or is Widespread Panic not all that special?

Bell won’t say.

“It’s in the sky,” General Manager Chad Scott says. “All you have to do is light it up. People will see it and wonder what it is.”

Jimmy Dean, a country music legend for his smash hit about a workingman hero, “Big Bad John,” and an entrepreneur known for his sausage brand, died on Sunday. He was 81.

Well, dear readers, we heard you loud and clear: Online voting is clearly the way to go.

There’s no better way to travel than by train.

It beats the heck out of driving. The seats are more comfortable and spacious than in a car (or an airplane, for that matter) plus you have the freedom to get up and move around whenever you feel like it.

There are dining and café cars and, perhaps most importantly, bathrooms.

Shaun Spencer Hester never really knew her grandmother.