John Sieger has at least two big reasons for hating guns. In Milwaukee, at the club where Sieger was playing a gig, a man was ...killed by a shotgun blast. And on Dec. 8, 1980, a stranger with a handgun murdered the man whose music changed Sieger’s life.

“I grew up with John Lennon,” Sieger said last week, only one week after he and some friends (as the Frozen Beatles) had played Beatles songs on the roof of Tower Records on West End. “I probably learned every song the man ever wrote. For someone just to be able to walk up to him like that....” He pauses for a moment. “That’s all the reason anyone needs for handgun control.”

That’s why Sieger is reviving a Milwaukee tradition here in Nashville this weekend. On Friday night, the 15th anniversary of Lennon’s death, Sieger and several of his friends are staging , a tribute to the late Beatle that will feature Nashville songwriters performing Lennon’s songs.

The lineup for Friday’s show, which is being held at the Sutler, draws on an eclectic mix of local talent. Guests include country hit-makers Radney Foster and Don Henry, folk-rockers Boomgates, Doug Hoekstra and Greg Trooper, neo-honky-tonk performers Kristi Rose and Tim Carroll, Frozen Beatle Steve Allen, Stacy Jade, Bill Dwyer, Lauren Braddock, Pat Gallagher, Tom Mason, Mike McAdam and Richard Ferreira, along with some expected last-minute additions. Up North, where Sieger’s band Semi-Twang made its home, the singer performed in similar shows alongside the BoDeans, Victor DeLorenzo of the Violent Femmes, and members of the Elvis Brothers, so the tradition seems to be in good hands.

All proceeds from the show will go to Handgun Control, Inc., the influential gun-control lobby founded by Sarah Brady. The show starts at 8 p.m., and admission is $5 at the door.

After nearly two decades of playing the prestigious Kerrville Folk Festival in Texas, where he hosted an all-night campfire jam for performers, songwriter Mike Williams moved to Nashville in 1992. He looked around at the writers’ nights and pickin’ parlors, and he began to wonder if that campfire magic might strike some sparks here. So he started an informal event known as the 6 Chair Pickin’ Party in his living room. Now, two years and more than 200 guest songwriters later, Williams is taking his homestyle campfire sing-along public.

Williams and partner Shug Mauldin have created Nashville Pickin’ Party, a proposed radio show based on the 6 Chair concept—only with half as many chairs. Each week, the show would feature three guest songwriters and a special guest “pilgrim,” each swapping songs and stories with the hosts and one another. To test the concept, Williams and Mauldin will transform the First Unitarian Church at 1808 Woodmont Blvd. into a gigantic living room on Tuesday, Dec. 12, and they’ll record a pilot for the show.

Guests for the pilot include such 6-Chairwarmers as Tom Kimmel, Karen Taylor-Good, Dana Cooper, “Long Black Veil” and “Detroit City” co-author Danny Dill, Casey Kelly and Katie Wallace; Michael Camp and Jim Femino will take their seats in the pilgrim’s chair. The taping will last from 7 to 10 p.m., and childcare is available by calling 383-5760 and making reservations. Tickets are $8 at the door.

Murfreesboro multi-instrumentalist has played the street corners of the world, from Guatemala to Austria to Israel and India, and the results of his journeys can be found on Travels in Sound, a cassette of songs written by Harrison over the course of his many journeys. Harrison played all the instruments except for the rainstick, which his wife Donna handled; the instrumental music has an Indian/Middle Eastern flavor, especially on such tracks as “Edna’s Garden” and “Jerusalem.” If you like herbal tea, you need this record in your life. The record is available at Tower; for more information, contact Harrison at 1017 Second Ave. S., Nashville, TN 37210.

The showroom at Victor/Victoria’s will feature Dinah Shore Jr., the ambient “space music” group led by Todd Gerber and Rob Mitchell. The band, whose underground tapes have circulated for the past several months through the local rock scene, performs atmospheric electronic music heavily influenced by the German technorock of Can and Tangerine Dream. If you’re expecting gooey New Age treacle, however, stay home and water your ferns: Mitchell’s drumming is said to raise quite a racket. Dinah Shore Jr. plays with Giles Reeves and Josef Aukee 8 p.m. Friday night.

One of the season’s more unusual charity benefits is currently under way at Nicholson’s Stereo, where “Albums for Alzheimer’s” is being sponsored for sufferers of the memory-impairment disease. Through Jan. 15, 1996, people may bring old 33 1/3 rpm LPs featuring music from the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s to Nicholson’s, and in turn owner Alex Nicholson and the Middle Tennessee chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association will distribute the records to nursing homes and adult daycare centers throughout the area. The music is said to aid in the stimulation of memory. For more information, call 327-4312 or stop by Nicholson’s Stereo at 115 19th Ave. S.

Kim’s Fable, a new group featuring vocalist Kim Beasley and guitarist Alisha Hoffman from China Black, along with former members of These Are Houseplants and Owen’s Ashes, headlines a 12th & Porter show Friday, Dec. 8. The band is said to sport a dense, percussive sound reminiscent of European pop. Opening will be Farmer Not So John....

once sang in the chorus of Murfreesboro Little Theater productions like Little Mary Sunshine. These days, his voice is featured on the original cast recording of Jekyll & Hyde, and he won raves as Jean Valjean in the Broadway touring company of Les Miserables. Now armed with a concussion-blast of a voice—as well as cool Gary Morris-type facial hair—Clemmons returns to Murfreesboro this weekend as the featured entertainment at the gala opening of the city’s new Cultural Arts Center. The gleaming new facility will house the Little Theater and other Murfreesboro arts organizations....

The ubiquitous Kristi Rose performs with her new cocktail combo Lush Life Friday night at the Gas Lite Lounge on Eighth Avenue North. The band includes Rose’s husband, pianist Fats Kaplin, along with Kenny Vaughan on guitar and J.C. Ward on bass. Showtime is at 10 p.m.....

Nashville’s mighty Colossus of greasy rock ’n’ roll, , goes into the studio this month to begin recording his new album. The new record, unlike this year’s Town & Country, will feature mostly original material....

scored a No. 1 hit with Randy Travis’ recording of “Honky Tonk Moon.” O’Rourke himself is now a recording artist, thanks to Maybe If I Fell in Love, a 10-song CD on Rhodes Records. O’Rourke, an iconoclastic type who bangs out his own press releases on a manual typewriter, claims he’s putting out the record himself because Music Row finds his music “too left of center.” Who knows—somewhere in all that left-of-center music might be another No. 1 for somebody. Judge for yourself by calling O’Rourke at 352-8454....

Diana Rae, the children’s artist whose album A Noel Nighty Night was recently nominated for a Nashville Music Award, will perform 11 a.m. this Saturday, Dec. 9, at Franklin Booksellers’ “Dickens of a Christmas” celebration. Rae recently was selected for a 1995 Parents’ Choice Honor, and three of her songs have been recorded by Kathie Lee Gifford for an upcoming album of lullabies....

, one of Nashville’s most distinguished elder statesmen of the blues guitar, sits in with Carl Stewart’s band for one night only Thursday, Dec. 28, at Mere Bulles....

magazine will accept entries for its 1996 Best Unsigned Band Competition through Dec. 31, 1995. The prizes include thousands of dollars’ worth of live sound and recording equipment and a spot on the magazine’s Best Unsigned Bands compilation. Judges include Steve Winwood, Adrian Belew, Juliana Hatfield, Pat Metheny, Jimmy Jam and Matthew Sweet; entrants will be judged on a two-song cassette. For rules, information, and an official entry form, call 1-800-282-7096....