Showtime is 8 pm, tickets are just $20 and I believe the show is open to all ages. Call the museum at 203-438-4519 to double-check or for a last-minute reservation before driving over to Ridgefield. The museum’s wicked easy to find – it’s at 258 Main Street, which is Route 35.

*Two announcements this week from The Webster Theatre in Hartford.

First, tickets for the July 21 PUDDLE OF MUDD show are free, but you have to win them from radio stations (WPLR, WMRQ and WCCC are doing giveaways). The show is also a 21-and-over event, which is understandably angering some of the band’s underage fans.

In addition to playing its summer shows, the band has also been finishing work on its follow-up to Come Clean. The band recently mentioned on its website that they “might just be testing some of [their] newer songs” while on the road. That was at the end of June, so I would imagine the new stuff is being explored in live venues by the time these guys pull into Hartford later this month. If the band is still on schedule, the recording part of the process has been completed and the new work is in the mixing stage. No word yet on a release date.

Also at The Webster, STEVE WINWOOD will be doing a “limited capacity special seated show” on Thursday, August 7. For those keeping track, this will be Winwood’s third performance in the state this year (he played with THE DEAD when the band was at The Meadows in Hartford less than a month ago, and then he’ll be headlining a full solo show on August 8 at Mohegan Sun Arena).

I’m working on details – when tickets are on sale, what they’ll be priced at, etc – but information isn’t available as my deadline approaches…

*To close out its 2003 Summer Concert Series, Terrapin Presents has announced the initial lineup for the Summit On The Sound Music Festival. The event will be Saturday and Sunday, September 13-14, at Seaside Park in Bridgeport. Featuring two full days of music, the show will be headlined by PHIL LESH AND FRIENDS.

 Sandwiched between his summer tour with The Dead and an impending fall tour with the Phil Lesh and Friends Quintet, Lesh (bass) will in Bridgeport be working with an ad hoc group of musicians to reinterpret classic fan favorites. Joining Quintet staples John Molo (drums), Rob Barraco (keys) and Jimmy Herring (guitar) will be vocalist Joan Osborne, who will spend the summer touring with The Dead, and jazz guitar master John Scofield. The group will also feature famed saxman and previous Grateful Dead collaborator Branford Marsalis.

Other acts will be added to the bill on both days, offering attendees exposure to some of the best young talent making its way through the touring circuit today. 

Tickets for Summit On The Sound are $60 for a single-day pass or $100 for two-day passes. Call 866-837-7274 or visit www.GatheringOfTheVibes.com for details or ticket purchases.

*Longtime Jethro Tull leader IAN ANDERSON will stay on the road, touring solo, with a series of shows to support his forthcoming disc Rupi’s Dance, which is expected to reach the US by mid-August. The tour – dubbed “Rubbing Elbows with Ian Anderson” – is described on the band’s website as “an intimate evening of acoustic songs, music and bawdy tales.” Local fans may remember Anderson played a solo show at The Ridgefield Playhouse last year.

Anderson’s solo venture will follow Jethro Tull’s summer tour of the US, which stops at Mohegan Sun Arena on August 10. The solo tour, which begins September 23 and runs until November 23, has a November 9 date scheduled at The Shubert Theatre in New Haven. No word yet on when tickets will be going on sale, however.

Meanwhile, “LiveDaily.com is reporting The Jethro Tull Christmas Album is in the finished and scheduled for release in late October.

*I don’t know if I could ever watch DAVY JONES perform and keep a straight face. I know it was good for his career at the time, but his appearance on The Brady Bunch is forever etched in my memory. Who can forget Episode #61, “Getting Davy Jones,” in which Marcia promises to get Davy to perform at her school prom? That’s the kind of stuff that is not just etched but highlighted with spotlights in the annals of classic sitcom history.

For anyone who is more mature than I when it comes to Davy Jones, the singer himself has a pair of shows this weekend at Mohegan Sun’s Wolf Den. Mr Jones will be in Uncasville on Saturday for performances at 8 and 10 pm.

HOWARD JONES headlines the same room on Tuesday, July 15, and the following night it’s a former bandmate of Davy Jones – PETER TORK’S SHOE SUEDE SHOES will be playing at 7 pm.

And this week’s final Foxwoods note: For anyone who will be at the casino next Friday night who also likes BILLY JOEL and/or ELTON JOHN, a show in the BB King Night Club on July 19 might be a kick to check out. FACE 2 FACE is a musical and visual tribute to two of the greatest singer-songwriter and performers working today. Joel Mason, as Elton John, and Michael Johns, as Billy Joel, re-create the live concert setting that has been enjoyed by fans of these two musicians for a few years. Joel has been featured in one of the VH-1 Fanatic segments and Michael has been featured in some of the largest casinos out in Vegas, where he also resides. Showtime is 11 pm, the two men put on a full two-hour performance, and there’s no cover charge to get into the nightclub.

*Unless you are heading to one of the concerts or have some other unavoidable reason to be in Hartford early that evening, I’d avoid Hartford on Wednesday evening if at all possible. That’s the night JAMES TAYLOR returns to Connecticut for a show at The Meadows and CHER returns (again) with another show on her Farewell Tour. The Webster Theatre will also be hosting a pretty big show, DEREK TRUCKS BAND. I-84 will be a nightmare, and I-91 will be comparable.

Until next week I’ll be seeing you… on the road.

Questions and comments should be sent to Shannon Hicks c/o The Newtown Bee, 5 Church Hill Road, Newtown, CT 06470, or shannon@thebee.com, or call the office at 426-3141.

Shows listed at club locations are for ages 21 and over unless specified.

UPCOMING CONCERTS

JULY 11 — SideShow at The Corner Pocket, Orange; Andy Stochansky at The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield; Off The Hook at Carl Anthony’s, Monroe; Hype at Toad’s Place, New Haven, Bent, Misused and The Meredith Tyler Moore Experience opening; Maxi Priest at Mohegan Sun’s Wolf Den, Uncasville; Popa Chubby Band at Towne Crier Café, Pawling, N.Y.;

July 12 — Whitesnake, Warrant, Slaughter and Kip Winger at The Meadows, Hartford; Off The Hook at 707 On Main, Monroe; Hall & Oates at Ives Concert Park, Danbury; Bad Medicine at Tuxedo Junction, Danbury; Davy Jones at Mohegan Sun’s Wolf Den (two shows, 8 & 10 pm); Clarence Spady at Black-Eyed Sally’s BBQ & Blues Café, Hartford; Grey Cell Green at The Webster Theatre, Hartford;

July 13 — The Blue Man Group at Oakdale Theatre, Wallingford; Journey, Styx and REO Speedwagon at The Meadows Music Centre; Movielife and Further Seems Forever at Toad’s Place, Autopilot Off and Anberlin opening (all ages);

July 15 — The Blue Man Group at Mohegan Sun Arena; Howard Jones at Mohegan Sun’s Wolf Den; Capleton and Coco at Toad’s Place (all ages);

July 16 — James Taylor at Meadows Music Centre; Cher at Hartford Civic Center; Derek Trucks Band at The Webster Theatre; Lil’ Dave Thompson and Big Love at Black-Eyed Sally’s BBQ & Blues Café; Peter Tork’s Shoe Suede Shoes at Mohegan Sun’s Wolf Den; KRS One at Toad’s Place (all ages);

July 17 — The Tommy Castro Band at The Colorado Brewery, Danbury (18+ show); Strangefolk at The Webster Theatre;

July 18 — Tim Reynolds at The Colorado Brewery (all ages); American Idols Live! at Hartford Civic Center; Off The Hook at The Rathskeller, Southbury; Stangefolk at The Webster Theatre, Midnight Jamboree opening; Big Shot at Toad’s Place, Wax Palace, Eblend and The Gamma Rays opening;

July 19 — The Eagles at Mohegan Sun Arena; Shakedown at Toad’s Place, Electric Mayhem and Lottery opening (all ages); Deborah Coleman at Black-Eyed Sally’s BBQ & Blues Café; Hipnotic at Tuxedo Junction.