The first two Wednesdays in October are a Jazz Special Event Pair, with international heavyweights Jonathan Barber and Greg Tardy performing at the Legs!

International Recorded artist, composer, educator and bandleader Jonathan Barber was voted the #1 Up-and-Coming Drummer of 2018 in Modern Drummer. Barber has already recorded and toured worldwide with such artists as Pat Metheny, Terence Blanchard, Christain McBride, Erykah Badu, Nicholas Payton, Buster Williams, Jimmy Greene, Jeremy Pelt, Wallace Roney, Terrace Martin, Gretchen Parlato, Jennifer Holiday, Steve Davis, J.D. Allen, Walter Smith III, The Brooklyn Philharmonic and many more.

In addition to his first-call status as a sideman, Barber has stepped forth as a composer and leader with his band Jonathan Barber & Vision Ahead. Even with Barber’s history of high-profile gigs and recordings taken into consideration, DownBeat magazine gave his latest album “Legacy Holder” 4.5 stars. Jonathan Barber & Vision Ahead is a powerful declaration of intent for a band that’s been making waves on the modern jazz scene. Barber’s blend of classic, swinging jazz with elements of gospel, rock, soul, and fusion is a compelling showcase of Barber’s broad stylistic range as a drummer, performer and composer. Jonathan Barber & Vision Ahead was featured and headline the Rainy Days Jazz Festival held in St. Petersburg and Moscow, Russia, Hartford Jazz Festival, Clifford Brown Jazz Festival, Pittsburgh Jazz Festival as well jazz venues around the world. Since 2020, Jonathan Barber & Vision Ahead have completed three National tours across the United States.

Being an independent artist Jonathan Barber has released 5 albums with Vision Ahead: Vision Ahead (2018), Legacy Holder (2020), Live at Jazz Standard (which is exclusively on Bandcamp, 2020), Poetic (2022) and In Motion (2024).

Gearing up for their new album release "In Motion" Jonathan Barber & Vision Ahead will embark upon their first International Tour performing at Musig Im Pflegidach (Muri, Switzerland), Ronnie Scott's (London, U.K.) and Duc Des Lombards (Paris, France).

Stepping into the role as a Drum Clinician, Barber toured as solo clinician in Latin America and China Barber and has been featured artist at PASIC convention.

Barber endorses Ludwig Drums, Istanbul Agop Cymbals, Evans Drumheads, Promark Drumsticks and Sunhouse Percussion.

Barber recently has been appointed as Jazz Drum Professor at the University of Connecticut.

“I recognize my God given gift. Maximizing this gift to its full potential is the best thing you can do for yourself. Operating in this gift is how you give back to the world.”

Tons of Great Stuff on Jonathan’s website!

Tickets are $20 advance, $25 Day of Show!

One of the great privileges we’ve had at Barking Legs over the past decade or so has been the opportunity to present the music of saxophonist Greg Tardy. Since he last performed for us, Greg’s star has continued to rise through his role as saxophonist in the Bill Frisell Quartet. The pairing with Frisell, who is one of the most influential musicians in contemporary jazz, is also documented on a beautiful duo recording, More Than Enough.

For this special Wednesday jazz on the main stage, Greg will be joined by the Italian pianist—and now Barking Legs favorite—Margherita Fava, Rob Linton on bass and Dave Potter on drums will be dealing strong stuff for sure.

If you have even a passing interest in contemporary jazz, you really need to see this show. If you’ve heard Greg before, you almost certainly want to hear this show. John Coltrane, Wayne Shorter and many other greats are now only to be heard on recordings. Experience Greg Tardy live!

Robbie Fulks is a singer, recording artist, instrumentalist, composer, and songwriter. His current release, Bluegrass Vacation on Compass Records, returns him to his bluegrass roots, with a large group of masterful musicians including Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Justin Moses, Ronnie McCoury, Alison Brown, David Grier, Tim O’Brien, Todd Phillips, John Cowan, Brennen Leigh, Randy Kohrs, Sierra Hull, Stuart Duncan, Shad Cobb, and Chris Eldridge. Across 11 new original songs (and one freewheeling interpretation of the Delmore Brothers), Robbie covers themes like small-town blues, the endurance of childhood memory, inebriation, love, divorce, the role of music in strengthening family bonds, losing a loved one to Alzheimer’s, and bluegrass itself.

His most recent release, 2017’s Upland Stories, earned year’s-best recognition from NPR and Rolling Stone among many others, as well as two Grammy® nominations, for folk album and American roots song (“Alabama At Night”).

Fulks was born in York, Pennsylvania, and grew up in a half-dozen small towns in southeast Pennsylvania, the North Carolina Piedmont, and the Blue Ridge area of Virginia. He learned guitar from his dad, banjo from Earl Scruggs and John Hartford records. He attended Columbia College in New York City. In 1983 he moved to Chicago and joined Greg Cahill’s Special Consensus Bluegrass Band. He taught music at Old Town School of Folk Music from 1984 to 1996, and worked as a staff songwriter on Music Row in Nashville from 1993 to 1998.

His early solo work — Country Love Songs (1996) and South Mouth (1997) — helped define the “alternative country” movement of the 1990s. For most of the present century, Robbie has been playing acoustic music through microphones, which lets him give more attention to his flatpicking and banjo playing, and complements his more sepia-toned subject matter — the slings of time, the troubles of common people. His repertory of traveling players includes folks like Shad Cobb, Missy Raines, Robbie Gjersoe, Jenny Scheinman, Matt Flinner, Don Stiernberg, and Jesse Cobb. However, two non-acoustic recent side projects are his 2018 duo record with Linda Gail Lewis, Wild! Wild! Wild!, an NPR favorite which leans to rock-and-roll and classic country-and-western, and his double-vinyl reinterpretation of the Bob Dylan record Street Legal, which is titled 16, is musically unbounded and is no one’s favorite.

Radio: multiple appearances on WSM’s “Grand Ole Opry”; PRI’s “Whadd’ya Know”; NPR’s “Fresh Air,” “Mountain Stage,” and “World Cafe”; and the syndicated “Acoustic Cafe” and “Laura Ingraham Show.” TV: PBS’s Austin City Limits; NBC’s Today, Late Night with Conan O’Brien, Later with Carson Daly, and 30 Rock. From 2004 to 2008 he hosted an hourlong performance/interview program for XM satellite radio, “Robbie’s Secret Country.” Artists who have covered his songs include Sam Bush, Kelly Hogan, Andrew Bird, Mollie O’Brien, Rosie Flores, John Cowan, and Old 97s.

Robbie’s writing on music and life have appeared in GQ, Blender, the Chicago Reader, DaCapo Press’s Best Music Writing anthologies for 2001 and 2004, Amplified: Fiction from Leading Alt-Country, Indie Rock, Blues and Folk Musicians, and A Guitar and A Pen: Stories by Country Music’s Greatest Songwriters. As an instrumentalist, he has accompanied the Irish fiddle master Liz Carroll, the distinguished jazz violinist Jenny Scheinman, and the New Orleans pianist Dr. John. As a producer his credits include Touch My Heart: A Tribute to Johnny Paycheck (Sugar Hill, 2004) and Big Thinkin’ by Dallas Wayne (Hightone, 2000). Theatrical credits include “Woody Guthrie’s American Song” and Harry Chapin’s “Cottonpatch Gospel.” He served twice as judge for the Winfield National Flatpicking Guitar competition. He tours yearlong with various configurations.

Besides country and bluegrass music, Robbie is fiercely fond of Charles Mingus, P.G. Wodehouse, quantum mechanics, his wife Donna, comedy in almost all forms, cooking, swimming laps, the past, Arthur Schopenhauer, Universal horror movies, his grandson and even his sons, coastal towns in the offseason, and rye whiskey, though in nothing like that order.

Cast Iron Storytelling presents FEAR/LESS

FEAR/LESS marks the third installment of Cast Iron Storytelling’s live, true story events!

Featuring 6 new storytellers mentored by Jason Tinney, FEAR/LESS brings together storytellers from Chattanooga, Soddy-Daisy, and Ooltewah to share personal memories of a time they confronted a real-life fear. 

Our live events are like sitting on the porch on a Sunday afternoon, swapping stories with family and friends — and audience members are welcomed to interact through shared laughter, tears, and responses evoked by these trips down memory lane.

We’re honored this event was funded with support from ArtsBuild as a recipient of the Community Cultural Connections Grants. Fostering greater connectivity through shared experiences is what we do, making the mission of Community Cultural Connections a perfect fit for Cast Iron Storytelling!   

One great show deserves another, and the Tennessee Sheiks rocked the house mightily last fall, so we’re bringing them back for another Autumn treat.

It is hard to categorize the Tennessee Sheiks. Collectively, the band represents the diversity of American roots music. Each player is expert in his or her instrument as well as several being music composers. Energy and fun-loving style shows in the Swing, Bluegrass, Blues, Alt-country, Jazz, or original material they play. The exchange and synergy that music generates make it a joy to hear them perform.

Nancy Brennan Strange's effervescent vocals, Brent Thompson's marvelous and unique vocal style, masterful instrumentals, instrumental solos that make you want more, and a really big sound, all add up to a musical treat.

The 2023 Tennessee Sheiks are: Don Cassell - mandolin, guitar, dobro, and vocals; Nancy Brennan Strange - vocals, guitar; Don Wood, guitar, lap steel guitar; Barry "Po" Hannah - guitars; Michael Crawley - blues harp, vocals; Marcus Shirley - piano/keyboards; Will Ross - bass; Nicholas Cassell - drums, percussion; Brent Thompson - vocals, guitar

Tickets are $25 at the door.

Last year at about this time, we finally got the Tennessee Sheiks into Barking Legs after years in the planning. Don Cassell—known and loved locally as the longstanding mandolinist of the Dismembered Tennesseeans—gets the bulk of the credit for making the logistics of coordinating a nine piece band work.. It was a great evening in 2023, and we know this will be special.

It is hard to categorize the Tennessee Sheiks. Collectively, the band represents the diversity of American roots music. Each player is expert in his or her instrument as well as several being music composers. Energy and fun-loving style shows in the Swing, Bluegrass, Blues, Alt-country, Jazz, or original material they play. The exchange and synergy that music generates make it a joy to hear them perform.

Nancy Brennan Strange's effervescent vocals, Brent Thompson's marvelous and unique vocal style, masterful instrumentals, instrumental solos that make you want more, and a really big sound, all add up to a musical treat.

The 2023 Tennessee Sheiks are: Don Cassell - mandolin, guitar, dobro, and vocals; Nancy Brennan Strange - vocals, guitar; Don Wood, guitar, lap steel guitar; Barry "Po" Hannah - guitars; Michael Crawley - blues harp, vocals; Marcus Shirley - piano/keyboards; Will Ross - bass; Nicholas Cassell - drums, percussion; Brent Thompson - vocals, guitar

Cast Iron Storytelling presents FEAR/LESS

FEAR/LESS marks the third installment of Cast Iron Storytelling’s live, true story events!

Featuring 6 new storytellers mentored by Jason Tinney, FEAR/LESS brings together storytellers from Chattanooga, Soddy-Daisy, and Ooltewah to share personal memories of a time they confronted a real-life fear. 

Our live events are like sitting on the porch on a Sunday afternoon, swapping stories with family and friends — and audience members are welcomed to interact through shared laughter, tears, and responses evoked by these trips down memory lane.

We’re honored this event was funded with support from ArtsBuild as a recipient of the Community Cultural Connections Grants. Fostering greater connectivity through shared experiences is what we do, making the mission of Community Cultural Connections a perfect fit for Cast Iron Storytelling!