Looking for music and fun? Here's a widespread variety of what's coming to Salt Lake City.
- THE DYNAMIC SOLO folk guitar of Martin Simpson will be heard at the Social Work Auditorium at the University of Utah Friday, March 10. Folk singer/songwriter Annie Gallup will open the show at 7:30 p.m.English-born Simpson began his musical career when he was 13. It was the only way he could spend as much time playing the guitar as he wanted.
Simpson's worked with singer June Tabor and has produced several albums with his songwriter wife, Jessica Ruby. His current album, "When I Was on Horseback," is composed mostly of traditional selections arranged by Simpson. It also features two songs written by Jessica, "Bob's Song" and "Young Man."
A new album, "Smoke & Mirrors," will be released later this month to coincide with the Blues Festival in Jacksonville, Fla.
Gallup began performing her original music in Seattle during 1988, just before the city's grunge explosion.
Her intelligent and poignant knack for writing moving tunes stems from her favorites, Doc Watson, Mississippi John Hurt and Dave Van Ronk. Her lyrical influences include Paul Simon, novelist Margaret Atwood and writer Joan Didion.
Gallup's most recent album is titled "Cause and Effect."
- FIVE LOCAL BANDS will perform at the Play It Safe AIDS awareness benefit concert Saturday, March 11, in the U. Union Ballroom.
Headshake, Myrh, Riverbed Jed, Honest Engine and the Obvious will be a part of the show, which starts at 7:30 p.m.
Tickets are available at Grey Whale CD in Salt Lake and the ASUU office in the U. Union Building. Proceeds will benefit the Utah AIDS Foundation.
- HARDCORE DISTORTION of Korn will shake the Utah State Fairpark Coliseum Thursday, March 16. The chaos begins at 7:30 p.m.
Korn, the six-man band based in Huntington Beach, Calif., grinds out each show with explosive energy to feed mosh-hungry crowds.
The band's self-titled debut features cuts such as "Shoots and Ladders," "Helmet in the Bush" - a song that denounces drug abuse - and child-abuse awareness in "Daddy."