Fantastic Negrito
Xavier Amin Dphrepaulezz is not the first former small-time criminal to find personal salvation through music, but he is one of the most talented and distinctive. And ff his stage name, Fantastic Negrito, suggests a healthy amount of self-confidence, well, he usually lives up to his billing.
Negrito is three-time Grammy Award-winner — all in the Best Contemporary Blues Album category — who in 2015 became the winner of NPR Radio’s first annual Tiny Desk Contest. His electrifying NPR performance vividly showcased Negrito’s wonderfully expressive singing and songwriting, which draw equally from blues, rock, soul, gospel, funk, doo-wop and more.
His seventh album, “Son of a Broken Man,” came out last year. Its songs are inspired by Negrito’s memoir-worthy life.
He was born the eighth of 15 siblings who were in and out of foster care. His strict Muslim father threw Negrito out of the family’s home when he was only 12. Out on the streets of Oakland, Negrito ed a gang and became a small-time drug dealer.
Inspired by Prince’s “Dirty Mind” album, he taught himself to play guitar and keyboards, and began crashing music courses at UC Berkeley.
Negrito signed a $1 million major label record deal in 1993, only to see his 1996 debut album — for which he used the one-word stage name Xavier — tank.
A 1999 car accident, in which a drunken driver slammed into him, broke both of Negrito’s arms, one of his legs and put him into a three-week coma. After recovering, he opened an underground Los Angeles nightclub, then became a father, moved back to Oakland with his wife and son, and went five years before he picked up a guitar again.
Negrito gone from strength to strength since then, creating music that at times smartly pays homage to everyone from Prince and Sam Cooke to Sly Stone and Led Zeppelin, while retaining his own unmistakable musical identity. The title of his most recent album , “Son of a Broken Man” — like the 14 autobiographical songs it contains — speaks volumes.
8 p.m. Friday. Lou Lou’s Jungle Room at the Lafayette Hotel, 2225 El Cajon Blvd., North Park. $38.79. loulous.turntabletickets.comt
Gillian Welch & David Rawlings
How many fans of Phoebe Bridgers, Courtney Barnett, Father John Misty, Sylvan Esso and Conor Oberst will be in the audience when Gillian Welch and David Rawlings perform here next week?
It’s a rhetorical question, but Bridgers, Barnett and the others have all recorded versions of “Everything is Free,” the classic lament Welch and Rawlins wrote and recorded 2001.
Bob Dylan is such a fan of this peerless Americana-music duo duo — a couple, on stage and off, since 1994 — he used their version of his 1973 song, Billy,” as the walk-on music at his concerts for a number of years.
On Feb. 2, Welch and Rawlins’ “Woodland” earned them a Grammy Award victory for Best Folk Album, a category they previously won in 2021.
The 10 songs on “Woodland” are as understated as they are deeply felt, with Welch and Rawlings exploring contemporary themes with their lyrics and earthy traditions with their music.
Expect a gentle love fest, on stage and in the audience, when they take the stage here. 6:30 p.m. next Thursday, March 6. The Magnolia, 210 East Main St., El Cajon. $62-$143.35 ticketmaster.com
Michigan Rattlers, with Elias Hix
A heartland rock band from — you guessed it! — Michigan, the four-piece Michigan Rattlers make earnest, no-nonsense music that is clearly inspired by “The River” era Bruce Springsteen and (to a lesser degree) Creedence Clearwater Revival, circa 1969. Happily, the Rattlers’ songs rise above mere mimicry to build on their influences.
The well-crafted music of South Carolina troubadour Elias Hix suggests he has spent time absorbing the work of Bon Iver, Bright Eyes and Adrianne Lenker, among others.
At just 20, he has ample time to develop his own sound and style. And because he’s performing here at the 21-and-up Casbah, don’t be surprised to find Hix hanging out on the sidewalk in front before he takes the stage for his opening set.
8:30 p.m. Sunday. Casbah, 2501 Kettner Blvd. Middletown. $22-$25 (must be 21 or older to attend). casbahmusic.com
