Keller Williams PettyGrass at Byham; MTAP Offering Free ‘Juiced!’ (Sun., 1/20/19)

1) “One-man jam band.” The phrase may appear oxymoronic. That is, until see Keller Williams live, playing songs like “Freeker by the Speaker.” The Virginia native, active since 1991, often loops guitar, bass, and percussion while playing solo, creating the effect of a full band. Williams isn’t beneath asking for a little help from his friends, though. He’s recorded, performed, and toured with bluegrass group the String Cheese Incident, and he’s played in a number of additional ensembles. His recent projects include 2017’s Raw, which is an acoustic album, and 2018’s Sans. As the album’s title suggests, he recorded Sans without lyrics; it instead features acoustic instrumentals. Now he and the HillBenders, a Springfield, Missouri Americana group, bring PettyGrass to the Byham Theater. They will perform bluegrass interpretations of songs, such as “Even the Losers,” by the late Tom Petty, who died in 2017. 7:30 p.m. 101 6th St., Cultural District. (CM)

2) JUICED! (musical) by Jeanne Drennan. Jan. 20 only, 7 p.m., staged reading at Pittsburgh CLO Academy. Live theater is good, and free live theater is a deal. Staged readings of new works are often free, and the group Musical Theater Artists of Pittsburgh (MTAP) is having an “incubator reading” for a musical called Juiced!, by Jeanne Drennan. The show features a pop/rock score and a comic-satiric plot related to juicing, i.e., the use of foreign substances (such as anabolic steroids) to alter one’s physique, and, unfortunately, one’s mind. There’s no charge but MTAP suggests online reservations for Juiced! 7 p.m. in the Charles Gray Auditorium at Pittsburgh CLO Academy, 130 CLO Academy Way, Cultural District.

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