The Sacramento Beat: More Oak Park jazz, mix of festivals atop April concert calendar

Around this time next year, I expect to be going fully berserk previewing shows at Channel 24, a new 2,100-seat venue under construction in midtown that figures to plug a gaping hole, capacity-wise, in the Sacramento music venue map. But I digress in drooling about what’s to come for April 2025 — let’s focus on what already is for April 2024.

Local artists, message Aaron Davis on Instagram if you have upcoming shows, @adavis_threetosee.

OK, I did promise not to look too far ahead, but I never said I wouldn’t look back several decades to peer into sweat-soaked and booze-splattered underground clubs long forgotten — when the music felt as illegal as the sensations it inspired, and both were cast as a one-way ticket to eternal damnation. Meet San Diego’s Schizophonics, spraying streams of unbridled Stooges-styled bloody fingertip rock ‘n’ roll that feels cozy with the earliest days of the genre’s most ebullient showmen — the kind of rock show where you’re expecting the cops to kick in the door at any moment, only for them to grab a beer and join the fun. Local rock standouts the Snares and Demon Wrangler get it started (8 p.m. Thursday, April 4, at Starlet Room. $15. harlows.com).

Music festival season is blooming out from under a pretty hefty snowpack in Tahoe, where the luscious WinterWonderGrass Festival at Palisades Tahoe returns with breakout Americana titan Sierra Ferrell leading the charge. Her new record “Trail of Flowers” immediately ranks as one of the most stirring releases of the year. Veteran rabble-rousers the Devil Makes Three, Infamous Stringdusters, Paul Cauthen, Kitchen Dwellers, Sierra Hull and tons more lead the three-day event on the main stage. It’s a notably tasty event for beer lovers, too — each of the three heated and tented side stages are populated by tasting stations with guest brewers pouring out samples throughout the afternoon, with sets from undercard acts like WinterWonderWomen, Diggin Dirt, Caltucky, Clay Street Unit and the Sacramento area’s own fast-rising jamgrassers Broken Compass Bluegrass (April 5-7. winterwondergrass.com/tahoe).

If you own a brewery, and you’re able to get one member of your favorite band to come play music at your spot, how exactly do you top that? Apparently, with two members. The duo of Ben Nichols & Rick Steff, lead dogs of Americana rock ruffians Lucero headline this year’s installment of Claimstake Brewing’s Kith & Kin Music Fest — following last year’s solo set from Nichols — with Michael Dean Damron, Ben Abney, Forever Goldrush, Clancy Jones, and WT Newton all joining the party (noon Saturday, April 6. 11366 Monier Park Place, Rancho Cordova. $60. eventbrite.com).

You know you’ve arrived as a music festival when you’re hosting a party and concert just to reveal your upcoming lineup (take that, Coachella). The team from Owlfest will unveil their troupe of 2024 musicians for the late-June event during a Sunday afternoon shindig at the Torch Club, with performances from Immediate Spank, One Lost Tree, Devon Galley and the Heavy Hold, Jon Emery and Isle of Stipe. All proceeds go to defray the costs of producing the upcoming 12th iteration of the DIY event (3 p.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday, April 7. $20. torchclub.net; facebook.com/OwlfestForever). Not to be stopped there, there are a couple of Owlfest “preview” gigs on the way with Max Riley Group and PIVOT! at Blue Note Brewing in Woodland (3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, April 27. Free), and the indelible Jonah Matrangra with Owlfest hosts Mau at the Side Door later in May (thesidedoor.net)

We’re creeping closer to summer with the arrival of the first handfuls of music amongst the hop vines at the serene Ruhstaller brewery farm in Dixon (6686 Sievers Road. ruhstallerfarm.com/events). They’re “free” but are funded by donations to the artists. Firing up the season are some familiar faces in local funk rock troupe Boot Juice (April 12); Mamajowali, a collaborative of Joe Craven, Mamadou Sidibe and Walter Strauss overlaying West African stylings with traditional Americana (April 13); the aforementioned Craven playing with his daughter Hattie Craven in what’s become a fixture pairing on the farm (April 19); troubadour JB Barton (April 20); and local blues/soul royalty Katie Knipp (April 26), who has a brand new record, “Me,” prepped for a June 7 release.

Last month, we told you about a new free Sunday afternoon jazz series starting up in Oak Park. Turns out, we missed the boat on another one that launched a few months back. Local saxophonist Andrew Maloney is hosting a regular Tuesday night jazz residency — also in Oak Park, also free — at the cozy vintage Butterscotch Den, playing as the Andrew Maloney Jazz Trio with a rotating and reconfiguring cast of guitarist Andrew Mills, bassist Avery Jeffry and drummer Jeremy Paz (7 p.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesdays. thebutterscotchden.com). What better to pair with those freezer martinis and caviar bumps?

Purveyor of his self-described “mid-fi synth-wave, slow-motion funk,” electronic cartographer Com Truise is camping out at LowBrau for a Friday night DJ set, with support from “Kris & Dusty,” the pairing of Sacramento mainstays Dusty Brown and Kris Anaya (9 p.m. Friday, April 12. $10. linktr.ee/this916).

“Making a record is like making a movie, and I’m the director looking for the perfect actor for each role,” proclaims jazz pianist/composer Hiromi, currently performing with her new ensemble Hiromi’s Sonicwonder. If that’s true, count trumpeter Adam O’Farrill as her Leonardo DiCaprio on her new record “Sonicwonderland,” stealing the show at every turn with a cavalcade of wistful organic brass, anchoring to planet Earth an album that sounds like it was recording in bustling nebulas light years away. Give either a Best Supporting Actor or Best Sound Effects Editing nod (we’re not sure which best fits) to bassist Hadrien Feraud for that celestial body of galactic funk, following the tail of Hiromi’s comet as she orbits between the familiar warmth of classical-jazz piano and more pointedly daring synthesizer-driven compositions (7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 18, at Mondavi Center at UC Davis. $65. mondaviarts.org).

Another brand new festival blooms in Folsom with the Friends of Folsom Flower Festival, hosting a jam-packed single day of reggae (and adjacent) acts, topped by UK-born road warrior Pato Banton, who has guested on recordings and toured with the likes of The English Beat, Steel Pulse, UB40 and Sting. Joining Banton are standout local reggae rockers Arden Park Roots, Island of Black & White, Cali Beach Boy, Eazy Dub and several others (10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday, April 20. Digger and Sharon Williams Rodeo Park, 200 Stafford St., Folsom. $42. friendsoffolsom.org).

Auburn Hip Hop Congress is gearing up to host the 10th anniversary of its annual Some Kind of Earth Day Festival (10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, April 27, at School Park Preserve in Auburn. instagram.com/auburnhiphopcongress). As of this writing, the music lineup has not yet been announced, but expect their usual slate of multi-genre talent from the foothills and throughout the region.

Finally, we’ll peek ahead to May for a couple of our favorite local festivals — one a steely veteran, the other a sophomore newcomer. The second iteration of the jam-heavy Golden Road Gathering brings big High Sierra Music Fest vibes to the El Dorado County Fairgrounds in Placerville, and welcomes the likes of ethereal electronic world-pop act Beats Antique, veteran troupes Railroad Earth, Lotus, Dirtwire and Fruition and beloved troubadour Steve Poltz. Also, keep calm, Tahoe folks — they’re also hosting a decade-in-the-making reunion show from Blue Turtle Seduction! (May 17-19. goldenroadgathering.com). Later in the month, the venerable Strawberry Music Festival nestles into the Nevada County Fairgrounds in Grass Valley, with a tasty lineup topped by swooning songstress Aoife O’Donovan & Hawktail, slide guitar kingpin Robert Randolph, combustive bluegrass upstarts AJ Lee & Blue Summit (so you can say you saw them a few times on the way up!), the indelible Roy Rodgers, scintillating Bay Area Americana act Goodnight, Texas and several others (May 23-26. strawberrymusic.com)