For a holiday weekend, there sure are a lot of cool shows on tap in and around Ithaca. Let’s take a look.

Deep Grooves

Fronted by ex-John Brown’s Body singer Elliot Martin, the Black Castle features some of Ithaca’s top players (Brian Wilson, Matt Saccuccimorano, Brian Dozoretz, Shikhar Bajracharya, Nate Richardson); they’ve been working up some new material in recent months. Lucas Ashby’s Brain Trust – the new project from the Big Mean Sound Machine percussionist – will open the 9 p.m. show. Cover is $15.

When: 9 p.m. Friday

Taking place at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 18, at La Tourelle, “Strings for Stewart Park” will feature an eclectic blend of fiddle and violin music with guitar, mandolin and bass accompaniment.

Performers include Cornell's Ariana Kim, Ithaca College's Susan Waterbury, and Ithaca musicians Judy Hyman, Tim Ball, Dave Davies, and Rick Manning; Will Russell will be doing the sound engineering.

The Tiny Desk Contest this year is now closed and we thank all the local artists who entered this year. We will have a complete list of local entrants sometime next week and a Tiny Desk Favorites concert sometime in the very near future. You can browse all entries here. Until the complete local list is available, here are a few of the local entrants:

Carole King's iconic career as a singer, songwriter, and pianist extraordinaire is celebrated with a two-hour special, Natural Woman, The Carole King Radio Special. The first hour looks at Carole King's early career when she wrote great hits for other artists - from her first songwriting hit in 1961 at aged 18 Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow to her huge hit for the Monkees Pleasant Valley Sunday.