CONCERTS START AT NOON

Bring a picnic and some sunscreen to enjoy Centrum’s annual Free Fridays at the Fort concert series showcasing jazz, blues and fiddle tunes performers, among others.

This free lunchtime concert series is on the lawn of the Nora Porter Commons. Weather in summer is usually nice, but in the rare event of inclement weather, an alternative venue will be posted at Centrum.org.

A celebrated figure in American acoustic music from the early '90s onward, Danny Barnes is an artist who fuses a deep respect for musical tradition with a forward-looking desire to explore new sounds and blaze fresh trails. As a member of the group the Bad Livers, Barnes and his bandmates played bluegrass music with an offbeat sensibility and a willingness to throw in unexpected instrumentation (tuba, accordion, electronics) that helped them appeal to alternative rock fans as well as devotees of old-timey music. Barnes struck out on his own after the Bad Livers dissolved in 2000, relocating to the Pacific Northwest and playing music informed by bluegrass, rock, jazz, and even hip-hop, veering from the slightly bent traditionalism of 2001's Things I Done Wrong (cut with his ad hoc group the Old Codgers) and 2005's Get Myself Together (where he covered the rural bluesman Willie Johnson and the not-so-rural blues fans the Rolling Stones) to the rich eclecticism of 2010's Pizza Box and 2011's Rocket. Barnes's talents have also impressed more than a few of his musical peers, and he's worked with Dave Alvin, Robert Earl Keen, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Horvitz, Bill Frisell, Dave Matthews, Laura Veirs, and Jello Biafra, among many others.