Our Critics Picks

This improvisational collective employ strings, horns, percussion, vibes and electronic loops to create passages of hypnotic beauty that burst into ecstatic shards of sound. Based in Portland, bandleader Tom Greenwood and a core group pick up and drop members as they tour, which helps keep their music evolving. The distinctive genius of the compositions—an avant-garde take on the folk music of the American South—has made JOMF among the more indelible artists in the underground-noise movement. Their 2005 CD, Flags of the Sacred Harp, draws on a 19th century shape-note hymnal—music meant to be created by a community of voices—as the launching point for its eerily beautiful, uneasy creations. Primitive Baptist Church —MICHAEL McCALL MUSIC THURSDAY, 16TH MAC WISEMAN w/ JESSE McREYNOLDS Though their careers have had different contours, International Bluegrass Music Association Hall of Honor members Wiseman and McReynolds have been crossing paths for more than half a century. Wiseman’s the jack-of-all-trades, having served as a sideman to stars like Molly O’Day, Flatt & Scruggs and Bill Monroe, as an A&R man and as an industry leader while recording a staggering array of bluegrass, country and pop songs on his own over the years. McReynolds has walked a straighter line, pairing up with his late brother Jim to create dozens of bluegrass standards as an Opry star while blazing new trails on the mandolin with elaborate cross-picking and other flashy yet expressive techniques. These pioneers only recently got together in the studio, an experience that led to this joint appearance. No supporting musicians here, just two veterans with wide-ranging tastes and long memories wandering through a rich catalog of songs. Station Inn —JON WEISBERGER JOHN DANLEY On Durable Americana, this local guitarist travels down streams of our culture’s founding popular songs and their mutations. Ballads, rags, spirituals, blues and defamiliarized radio standards are all given pointed, varied treatment through his resourceful fingerpicking. The spare melodic excursions on the album’s final track create the misleading impression that a modified Windham Hill aesthetic has the last word. At the other extreme is Danley’s nonstop improv “I Lost My Marbles in Nashville,” which ends with a quote of Led Zeppelin’s “Living Loving Maid” after running what starts out as a Chet Atkins-style riff through speedier and more fractured blender cycles. None of the songs are more than a few minutes long, a quiet observation on the disposable marketing of most “Americana” in a culture of mass consumption. (www.johndanley.com ) Edgehill Studios —BILL LEVINE FRIDAY, 17TH WILCO On “Sunken Treasure” from Wilco’s 1996 album Being There, leader Jeff Tweedy sings, “Music is my savior / I was maimed by rock ’n’ roll / I was tamed by rock ’n’ roll.” But it seems like it’s Tweedy who’s constantly trying to tame rock ’n’ roll, torture and twist it, seeing how far it will stretch. Those lines from “Sunken Treasure” are followed by 40 seconds of clatter and distortion—an omen of things to come for his band as Tweedy has become increasingly experimental, Wilco’s music more fractured and obtuse. One of the more underrated elements of the band’s sound nevertheless remains: the moving voice, exquisitely ordinary and cracking with insecurity, with which Tweedy creates moments that feel like a punch to the gut—in a good way. This show is sold out. (www.wilcoworld.net) Ryman Auditorium —LEE STABERT THE WOOD BROTHERS Though these siblings grew up together in Boulder, Colo., and both pursued musical paths, their two roads diverged. Chris wound up in New York City, where he’s developed into one of the finest bass players around, most prominently with the tough-to-peg jazz combo Medeski Martin and Wood. Guitarist and singer Oliver opted for the Southern route, settling in Atlanta and focusing on blues and roots music with his band King Johnson (named for Freddy King and Robert Johnson). There’s plenty of common ground between the brothers’ music, though; MMW and King Johnson are both steeped in New Orleans rhythms, an influence that’s evident even when Chris and Oliver perform as a duo. Their new record, the seductive Ways Not to Lose, features some fine resonator guitar work and has the stylistic range of a good Taj Mahal album. (www.thewoodbrothers.com) 3rd & Lindsley —JACK SILVERMAN SATURDAY, 18TH FATLIP After indulging in all the drugs and women he could, Fatlip was kicked out of the Pharcyde and rode the Behind the Music cliché into the dustbin of history. He peeked from under the cover of obscurity in Y2K with a single, “What’s Up Fatlip,” a self-preoccupied lament subverted by a buoyant beat and a sitcom laugh track. Despite the brilliance of that single, ’Lip slipped away again until he returned with one of last year’s best rap albums, Thelonliest Punk. The record expands on the comic despair of “What’s Up Fatlip” to plump Lip’s unapologetic obsession with making as much cash as the thug rappers he envies. A man of many fixations, he wrestles enthusiastically with all of them on the record, but he’s never more inspired than when he’s rapping about regaining his baller status. “Today’s Your Day,” a slice of Delta blues with an infectious guitar riff, features Jurassic 5’s Chali 2na, whose laughter suggests he’s enjoying Fatlip’s antics as much as this show’s audience will. With Blackalicious, Pigeon John and Lifesavas (see below). (www.deliciousvinyl.com) City Hall —MARK MAYS LIFESAVAS From racism and war to cloning and hubris, hot topics and philosophy abound on Spirit in Stone, this hip-hop duo’s 2003 debut. A crew with less creativity and jocularity might sink under the weight of such intellectual heft. But MC’s Vursatyle and Jumbo know that without phat beats and a cheeky attitude, proselytizing and punditry can lead to leaden music. “What If It’s True” turns a sample from a forgotten mambo into a funkified protest song, while “Fever” is a dub reggae-flavored track that calls to mind the music of the group’s forebears in the Native Tongues Posse. The dissolution of the traditional family structure troubles these cats as much as police brutality. Even when they take the white power structure to task in “Soldierfied,” Vursatyle is careful to remind his more violent peers that “The white man ain’t pulled the trigger and took it too far / The white man ain’t going to jail, nigga, you are.” (www.myspace.com/lifesavas) City Hall —MARK MAYS ALECIA NUGENT A singer with a world-class voice—strong, expressive and country to the bone—Nugent earned attention two years ago with her debut for Rounder Records. Teaming up again with producer Carl Jackson, she’s just released A Little Girl…A Big Four-Lane, an album that pushes the pair’s sophisticated blend of country and bluegrass further. Yet as strong as the material and the players are on the new disc, it’s Nugent’s growth as a singer that’s the biggest selling point. As she admits, her performances on the first disc bore the mark of other singers’ voices; this time, it’s all Nugent, and her voice is darker, richer and more distinctive. (www.alecianugent.com ) Station Inn —JON WEISBERGER SUNDAY, 19TH KRIS KRISTOFFERSON As he approaches 70, Kristofferson is performing a vital, all-too-rare service for his audience: he’s acting his age. The just-released This Old Road, his first album of new material to hit stores in 11 years, is a searching, stripped-bare meditation on aging. Backed by a band that ranges from spare to absent, Kristofferson takes thoughtful measure of how far he’s come, how far he has left to travel and what has been gained and lost along the way. In a culture obsessed with youth, few artists are so willing to honestly reflect the changes in perspective and priorities that come with the passing of years. But given a nearly four-decade body of work marked by evolving insight and unequivocal candor, listeners can expect no less than to share the experience of growing old with him—not just gracefully, but honestly. Ryman Auditorium —CHRIS NEAL THE MINUS 5 Scott McCaughey and his Seattle crew have been cult stars among fans of melodic, ’60s-style guitar rock for as long as Intel has been making the Pentium microprocessor. The band has featured an ever-changing lineup of McCaughey’s friends and peers since their 1993 debut, yet their recently released self-titled album ranks among their best. Here, McCaughey’s skewed humor and self-deprecating songs get help from John Wesley Harding, members of Wilco and R.E.M.’s Peter Buck, a persistent contributor to the group and the guitarist in its current touring edition. Unlike many power-popsters, The Minus 5 prefer spontaneous inspiration to carefully rehearsed live shows, and they’re better for it. (www.minus5.com) Mercy Lounge —MICHAEL McCALL THE SILOS During the mid-1980s, The Silos represented the East Coast wing of a roots music insurrection that also included R.E.M. in the South, Lone Justice in the West and The BoDeans in the Heartland. Unlike those bands, who relied on enigma, formalism and pop hooks, respectively, The Silos put their money on the songwriting talents of co-founders Walter Salas-Humara and Bob Rupe. An earnest mix of vintage rock, penumbral country and heartrending ballads, 1987’s Cuba remains a classic of the alternative rock era. In 2004, the reconvened Silos (minus Rupe) produced When the Telephone Rings, a down-but-not-out collection that attempts to duplicate Cuba’s successful formula. If anything, though, Telephone is a more dejected record than that one. Though the album has plenty of muscular two-beats and the obligatory cheery waltz, Salas-Humara sounds wearier than usual, his tiredness deriving not just from daily hassles but from the tedium of a musical format he helped to create. (www.thesilos.net ) Mercy Lounge —PAUL V. GRIFFITH MONDAY, 20TH & WEDNESDAY, 22ND LUCINDA WILLIAMS This Americana mainstay—and one of modern music’s most eloquent songwriters and performers—is touring as a duo with guitarist Doug Pettibone, her best musical foil since Gurf Morlix, who produced and anchored her band during the late ’80s and ’90s. Often enigmatic, Williams has been looser and more talkative onstage over the last two years, and she’s always been a powerful acoustic performer—which should hold up, even with the electric-blues backbone of recent albums. Reports from the West Coast portion of the tour have been golden and suggest that, as in her last visit, she’s previewing several unrecorded songs amid an unpredictable selection of her amazing catalog. Her father, the esteemed poet Miller Williams, opens. (www.lucindawilliams.com) Belcourt Theatre —MICHAEL McCALL TUESDAY, 21ST A TRIBUTE TO PETER CASE Over the years, Case’s music has wavered between electric and acoustic instrumentation, but as the new tribute set A Case for Case shows, it’s difficult to put a timeline on his body of work, which retains both classic pop appeal and a street-singer’s wisdom regardless of period or format. Case began his career busking in San Francisco but soon graduated to playing with The Nerves during the mid-’70s, then later with The Plimsouls. Of his numerous solo albums, 1998’s Full Service No Waiting received the best critical notices. A full nine of that record’s tracks appear on A Case for Case, performed by a diverse list of artists that include folksinger Pieta Brown, punkish vocalist Steven Jackson and heartland rocker Dave Alvin. Several songs from the honoree’s early years appear on A Case for Case, but Steve Wynn’s plaintive, slowed-down version of The Plimsouls’ “A Million Miles Away” best demonstrates Case’s empathy and timelessness. When it comes to evoking the emptiness of washed-out love, “A Million Miles Away” is as comfortable alongside Woody Guthrie’s “Will You Miss Me?” as it is next to Brill Building pop or angst-ridden new wave. Paying their respects to Case, who also will perform at this show, is a dream lineup consisting of Kim Richey, Amy Rigby, Susan Cowsill and Maura O’Connell. (www.petercase.com) Bluebird Café —PAUL V. GRIFFITH WEDNESDAY, 22ND JOHNNY A. A look at his website’s photo page, which includes shots of him posing with Albert Lee, Carlos Santana and others, would suggest that Johnny A. is a guitar player’s guitar player. A listen to his music confirms that hunch, though his focus on melody and groove over flash and shred expands his appeal beyond the insular world of six-string freaks. He’s an impressive enough player to have earned his own signature guitar line from Gibson, putting him in the rarified company of Chet Atkins, B.B. King and Les Paul—all of whom likewise understand (or understood) the importance of taste. Though his most recent disc Get Inside has elements of West Coast smoothness, there’s enough fire and grease to keep things from descending into New Age fuzak. Typically, this is a musical style best savored live, and word on the guitar-geek grapevine is that he’s a terrific performer. (www.johnnya.com) Mercy Lounge, 7:30 p.m. —JACK SILVERMAN CLARE BURSON So many singer-songwriters are making DIY recordings now that it’s hard for any of them to make an impression. Burson, though, managed to stand above the crowd when “Take Good Care,” a song off her new Idaho EP, beat out 15,000 others to move to the finals of the 2005 International Songwriting Contest. Like most of the songs on her new EP, “Take Good Care” is Lucinda Williams-style Americana darkened with reverb-laden guitars and subtly driving drums. Burson’s voice is clear and beautiful, with a dramatic tension that suggests she’s holding back its full power. (www.clareburson.com) Family Wash —JESSICA FRIEDMAN CLASSICAL SO PERCUSSION Taking their name from the Japanese word for “play,” So Percussion approach postmodern compositions with refreshing freedom. They’ve been open to international, orchestral, found, electronic and folk instrumentation, and their version of Steve Reich’s “Drumming” has been said to trump the original done by the composer’s ensemble. Rather than pronouncing a manifesto on minimalism, So perform this hour-long mono-rhythmic work in a demonstrative style that brings out layered overtones among its three families of instruments. Their Thursday concert at Blair School of Music’s Ingram Hall will consist of pieces by Reich and David Lang, whose percussion symphony commissioned for the group, “The So-Called Laws of Nature,” requires metal pipes, flower pots and china pieces, all with exactly corresponding pitch intervals. The three movements of this work range from driving rhythmic confrontation on homemade wood-board xylophones to soft bell sounds and hypnotic tapping on the ceramics. The group will be supported by the Vanderbilt Percussion Ensemble, and members of the Vanderbilt Dance Program faculty will collaborate in the performance. (www.sopercussion.com ) —BILL LEVINE NASHVILLE CHAMBER ORCHESTRA For the NCO’s “Jazz on a String” program Friday at The Factory at Franklin, resident composer David Balakrishnan will premiere two works with the help of his eclectic ensemble, the Turtle Island String Quartet. One of these compositions reflects upon last year’s tsunami, which devastated the South Indian communities of Balakrishnan’s family and ancestors. Taking the second wave of the tsunami as its point of departure, the piece offers a broader perspective on the unexpectedly overwhelming force of nature on human lives. Unlike some more alienating versions of post-classical composition, Balakrishnan’s works for his quartet have aimed for a warmly holistic inclusion of various genres, including jazz, rock, bluegrass, folk, funk and Indian ragas. On the composer’s still untitled work, the Gypsy swing of guitarist John Jorgenson will allow for the improvisational dialogue that the Turtle Island Quartet have advanced for more than two decades. The NCO will also premiere local composer Sterling Lanier’s evocative piece “Wicked Wraiths and Witches Ride the Night Wind.” (www.nco.org) —BILL LEVINE THEATER MACBETH Shakespeare’s horrific tragedy surrounding the takeover of the Scottish crown has everything an eager theatergoer could want: witchcraft, blind ambition, murderous deeds, madness, ghostly apparitions, foreboding presentiments and some of the greatest speeches the Bard ever wrote. The play’s already been announced as the Nashville Shakespeare Festival’s selection for its 2006 Shakespeare in the Park production, but you can get a head start on parsing through the thicket of Birnam Wood when Murfreesboro’s Center for the Arts mounts the drama March 16-25. Andy Ford directs, and the lead role is acted by one of Nashville’s more experienced classical performers, Marc Mazzone. For information, phone 904-2787 or visit www.boroarts.org. —MARTIN BRADY ANGEL STREET Patrick Hamilton’s Victorian thriller was first presented on Broadway in 1938, when the young Vincent Price scored a signature success as an unctuous husband intent on driving his wife mad. The play then went on to even greater notoriety when it was filmed as Gaslight, starring Charles Boyer and Ingrid Bergman, who won an Oscar for her memorable performance. In merging potboiler melodrama successfully with psychological neo-naturalism, Hamilton more or less rejuvenated a clichéd form. Yet when you think about the play’s key plot elements—a diabolically manipulative seducer/killer, spousal abuse, bigamy, locked rooms and a persistent policeman—this one reads straight out of any TV-newsmagazine true-crime tale. The new Boiler Room Theatre production, starring Alan Lee and Jennifer Richmond, opens March 17 for a run through April 15. Phone 794-7744 for tickets. —MARTIN BRADY WAITIN’ 2 END HELL Blue-collar guys work their manly jobs but wish their modern-day wives weren’t so independent. They long for a simpler time when a man’s home was his castle and his spouse was a happy helpmeet humming a supportive tune in the background. This scenario may sound like something out of TV’s King of Queens, the basic philosophy as reactionary as Archie Bunker. In fact, William A. Parker’s seriocomic play concerns contemporary African Americans. It was first performed in California in 1998, then had a successful New York run in 2004 at the New Federal Theatre, directed by Woodie King Jr. The characters’ concerns are not wholly original, but how they deal with them, as members of the black middle class, puts a fresh spin on issues such as fatherhood, marriage and divorce. African American community theater group Sista Style presents the show at the Darkhorse Theater March 17-25. Barry Scott directs a promising cast that includes Kenneth Dozier, Mary McCallum and Marlon Styles. For tickets, call 476-6430 or visit www.sistastyle.net. —MARTIN BRADY THE HEARING WORLD AROUND ME Seattle native Trix Bruce comes to town to present her refreshingly irreverent one-woman show about how the hearing-challenged cope in everyday life. Profoundly deaf since she was 6 months old, Bruce has been educated through all manner of oral, mainstreamed and deaf classes, plus online programs. After completing college, she trained as an interpreter, and now she travels extensively as both a workshop presenter and an American Sign Language (ASL) performer. In conjunction with the Nashville Public Library’s “History Through Deaf Eyes” exhibit, Bruce will appear at the Main Library’s Conference Center on March 16 at 6:15 p.m. Admission is free, and the program will be accessible through both ASL and in open captioning. For info, phone 862-5750. —MARTIN BRADY SMOKEY JOE’S CAFE This perennially favorite revue taps into the considerable song catalog of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, two of the most prolific writers in the history of popular music. The list of tunes reads like a cursory stroll through an archival hit parade: “Jailhouse Rock,” “Hound Dog,” “Love Potion #9,” “On Broadway,” “Kansas City,” “Spanish Harlem,” “Don’t Be Cruel” and “Stand By Me” are just some of the 40 numbers featured. The new Chaffin’s Barn Dinner Theatre production features a five-piece band, glitzy costumes and seven performers, including Charlynn Carpenter, Billy Ditty and Lisa Kimmey. Pam Atha directs. Opens March 21 and plays through May 6; phone 646-9977 for tickets. —MARTIN BRADY ART “THE ART OF NASHVILLE PHOTOG-RAPHERS” At a time when the choice for photographers is either “adapt [to digital technology] or be left behind,” as Art News puts it, the Nashville photographers featured in The Arts Company’s current show are not only adapting, they’re thriving. This exhibit features a cast of professional photographers whose works cover a wide range of subjects. John Chiasson, a TIME magazine correspondent, focuses his digital lens on the African continent; Bob Schatz’s work explores Shakertown, Ky.; Gary Layda takes a look a Paris, France; Trent Boysen takes up-close images of pods and botanicals; and Bill Steber chronicles bluesman Junior Kimbrough’s Juke Joint in Mississippi. Musician Marty Stuart brings in a distinctive Nashville flavor with his portraits of friends in the music industry, which he made into a successful book entitled Pilgrims: Sinners, Saints and Prophets. Raeanne Rubenstein, best known for her chronicles of honky-tonk heroes, will also show her work. For all the diversity of subject matter in this show, perhaps the most interesting conversations will emerge from each artist’s innovative use of the medium. A standout example is Steber’s use of copper sheets instead of paper and Boysen’s use of a flatbed scanner instead of a camera. The March 18 opening will be part of the gallery’s Salon Saturday, which brings together artists and the public every third Saturday of the month from 2 to 6 p.m. —JESSICA FRIEDMAN KURT KEMP AND MARK HOSFORD Though both Kemp and Hosford are known as printmakers, their new show at Cumberland Gallery will focus on drawings that incorporate the processes and techniques of printmaking. Hosford’s “Ghost Stories” series is inspired by the atmosphere and imagery he has found in several Southeastern cemeteries. His drawings incorporate the creepy, fairy-tale-gone-wrong imagery his work is noted for, but these melancholy line drawings express a sorrowful depth of feeling that is far removed from the ironic humor of his boldly colored prints. Californian Kemp creates prints and drawings that also make use of humor despite their macabre subjects. “That’s just as effective a way of making someone think,” he says, “as to make them believe that everything we do is somehow full of profundity.” The artists will give a talk at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 18, and the show runs through April 15. —JOE NOLAN LOUIS CAMERON: “PROJECTED WORKS” This exhibit at Vanderbilt’s new Ingram Studio Arts Center features work by Brooklyn-based artist Cameron, who works with material from commercial culture. In one series, he repainted jigsaw puzzles in the colors of corporate logos, sticking to the same proportion of colors but rearranging them in new patterns. This show focuses on two projected works, his video “Universal” and a new slide projection piece. In “Universal,” Cameron scanned the bar codes from several hundred products and looped them together, creating an effect of slowly pulsating black vertical lines that generate additional optical illusions as you watch. The show runs through March 24, and there will be a reception and talk by the artist on Monday, March 20, from 4 to 6 p.m. —DAVID MADDOX UNTITLED ARTIST GROUP: “SPRING SHOW 2006—BLOOM” If you’re looking for a way to support your local art scene or maybe discover some new artists, then “Bloom” is worth paying a visit. The Untitled group will have its quarterly one-night-only exhibit this Friday, March 17, from 6 to 10 p.m. at Crystalwood Gallery, 516 Houston St. Untitled was founded in 1991 with the intent to offer Nashville “fresh artistic perspectives and alternative visual experiences” outside of the traditional gallery scene. With more than 100 featured artists, this latest show will offer a good mix of up-and-comers and seasoned professionals. Though the show is free, most of the sculptures, paintings, photos and mixed-media works on view are for sale and can be taken home at the end of the evening. —JESSICA FRIEDMAN FILM FULL MOON TATTOO FESTIVAL & HORROR CONVENTION For any kid or maladjusted grown-up who’s blown his Popsicle money on the latest Deep Red or Fangoria, this weekend confab of gorehounds and inkmeisters presented by Lone Wolf Body Art reads like a who’s-who of horror geekdom—starting with a reunion of The Devil’s Rejects alumni Sid Haig, Bill Moseley, Ken Foree and Michael Berryman, whose combined filmography contains many a sicko favorite from the ’70s. (Remember: it ain’t The Hills Have Eyes without Berryman’s squashed-gourd kisser.) Also on hand: Doug “Pinhead” Bradley from the Hellraiser movies, Gunnar “Leatherface” Hansen and Edwin Neal from the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Kane “Jason” Hodder, Reggie Bannister (Phantasm) and Nashville’s own Rondo Award-winning horror host Dr. Gangrene (now on WNAB-Channel 58 Saturday nights at 1 a.m.). It takes place Friday through Sunday at the Nashville Airport Marriott, 600 Marriott Drive; tickets are $10 or $25 for a three-day pass. Call 453-0030 for info. —JIM RIDLEY C.S.A.: CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA Bocephus famously wondered what the U.S. would be like “if the South woulda won” that nasty ol’ War of Northern Aggression, and filmmaker Kevin Willmott has the answer in this flabbergasting conversation-starter: a mock documentary looking back on American history after the Confederacy’s decisive victory. The controversial film opens Friday at the Belcourt. —JIM RIDLEY DECALOGUE: ONE (I AM THE LORD THY GOD) The annual Lenten film series at the Downtown Presbyterian Church may be the best religious-themed festival we’ve ever run across—a festival more interested in discussion and diversity than dogma. As proof, this week’s selection comes from Krzyztof Kieslowski’s 10-hour masterwork The Decalogue, which examines each of the Ten Commandments in an hour-long film. The church screens the first segment, which addresses the topic of false idolatry in a story of man and computer. The screening begins at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, preceded at 5:30 by a meal; both are free and open to the public. —JIM RIDLEY COACHELLA—THE CONCERT FILM Director Drew Thomas sifts through six years of the prestigious Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival for this acclaimed concert film, which gathers performances from a magic-ticket lineup: The Arcade Fire, Belle & Sebastian, Björk, Bright Eyes, The Flaming Lips, the reunited Iggy & the Stooges, Kool Keith, Oasis, The Pixies, Radiohead, Saul Williams, Spearhead and the White Stripes, among many more. The movie plays two 10:30 night-owl shows Friday and Saturday at the Belcourt, with early shows Sunday and Tuesday. —JIM RIDLEY V FOR VENDETTA An avenger in a Guy Fawkes mask battles fascists in a futuristic totalitarian England in the Wachowski brothers’ follow-up to the Matrix series, directed by James McTeigue and adapted from the graphic novel by Alan Moore (who asked to have his credit removed from the movie). —JIM RIDLEY EVENTS LIPIZZANER STALLIONS If you can’t make it to Vienna to see the famous white stallions, this Sunday’s performances at the Gaylord Entertainment Center are your next best option. The Lipizzans are descendants of Spanish Andalusians and are known for their precision and grace, traits adapted from the battlefield to the ballroom. This is the 30th anniversary tour of this traveling troupe, celebrated accordingly with new music and new choreography that includes a special nod to the long history of the breed. The highlight of the show, however, is always the concluding sequence, in which six to eight horses and their riders perform an elegant “ballet” of tiny steps, crisscrossing lines and grand leaps to spirited classical music. Two performances of the Lipizzaner Stallions are scheduled for 2 and 6 p.m. March 19. —MiCHELLE JONES