Your regular On The Road companion Shannon Hicks is off to Biloxi again to help with relief and reconstruction efforts, and she has left me to report to you this week. And I must say, it’s a good week to be a concert lover — I’m in jam band heaven!

After seeing both the rejuvenated Allman Brothers Band and surviving members of The Grateful Dead reunited in the Concert for Change at Penn State last October, the double-barreled slug of good news came this week in the form of separate announcements that both acts would become active again this spring.

The big news out of the Bay area is the surviving Dead — Phil Lesh, Bob Weir, Mickey Hart, and Billy Kreutzmann — will head out in a spring tour. According to Dead.net, the site promising presale ticket opportunities, The Dead will be touring for the first time in more than four years, with nearly 20 shows spread across a month from mid-April through mid-May, including an April 26 stop in Hartford, and at least another half-dozen shows within easy driving distance.

If you’ve always dreamed of going “on tour” even in some encapsulated form with The Dead’s traveling circus of followers, this may be your last chance with shows in Wilkes-Barre, Penn.; Long Island, N.Y.; Albany, Philly, and Worcester, Mass., between April 17 and May 2.

After a hepatitis scare last year canceled the Allman’s annual residence at New York’s Beacon Theater, they’re back. The group — Gregg Allman, Butch and Derek Trucks, Warren Haynes, Jaimoe, Oteil Burbridge, and Marc Quinones — will add to its 175 shows at the Beacon since 1989.

According to www.allmanbrothersband.com, the band plans on making the 2009 shows its best ever, with special plans to commemorate the group’s 40th anniversary. Confirmed tour dates will be listed in Tour Dates below, as soon as they are available.

Ticket info isn’t available yet for the March 9–21 shows, but an on-sale date as well as guest artists are expected to be announced shortly.

Guitarist extraordinaire Haynes, who rocked the Ives Center in Danbury last summer, will do double duty bouncing between the Allman shows and filling in for the late Jerry Garcia, taking on lead guitar and some vocal chores with The Dead.

The “other” Jersey guy — Jon Bon Jovi — will rock New York’s Town Hall theater next Thursday, January 15, in a concert benefit for former Presidential candidate and incoming Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Tickets start at $75, but you better call in your favors because any that may have been available on the open market are gone by now.

LiveDaily.com reports Alt-country singer/songwriter Lucinda Williams will hit the road early on in 2009 as she looks to build support behind her recent studio release, Little Honey. Her closest stop will be the intimate Calvin in Northampton, Mass., on March 10.

And the legendary Tony Bennett will grace two of the state’s best venues in February with scheduled shows February 20 at Mohegan Sun Resort & Casino, and February 21 at Wallingford’s Chevrolet Theatre. Tix for the Chevy are on sale now at Ticketmaster. As of January 6, the Mohegan Sun show was not on sale yet.

Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s Tony Award winning masterpiece JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR is coming to the Garde Arts Center in New London January 27, 28, and 29 — all shows at 7:30 pm. This will be a unique opportunity to see Ted Neeley, who was nominated for a Golden Globe for his portrayal of Jesus in the Norman Jewison film.

Mr Neeley was the first actor to play Jesus in the national tour in 1972. Go to the Garde website www.gardearts.org, for more info or to buy tickets.

Rusty Evans and his band, Ring of Fire, will “walk the line” between tribute band and the real deal, when the group pays homage to “The Man In Black” during A Tribute to Johnny Cash at the Palace Theater in Waterbury, on Wednesday, January 28, at 7:30 pm. Evans and his energetic three-piece band Ring of Fire recreate flawless renditions of Cash’s signature songs “Ring of Fire,” “A Boy Named Sue,” “Chaos Lady,” “I Walk the Line, “Folsom Prison Blues,” and more.

Recognized in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame for writing the underground classic, “I’m Five Years Ahead of My Time,” Evans’s early musical endeavors include a performance on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand, jamming with Bob Dylan in Greenwich Village, touring with the New Christy Minstrels, working with renowned producer Phil Spector, and producing/recording for CBS, Reprise, and Folkways/Smithsonian record labels.

Tickets for Rusty Evans’s Tribute to Johnny Cash are $40 and can be purchased by phone at 203-755-4700, online at www.palacetheaterct.org, or in person at the Palace Theater Box Office, 100 East Main Street in Waterbury.

Locally, Mocha Coffeehouse will feature JP SHANNON, Friday, January 9, playing his self-taught style of ragtime, folk, and blues. After 39 years having at it, Shannon’s warm acoustic sounds should be a perfect complement to the warming beverages and treats Rob Kaiser always has on hand at Mocha.

Or come out for fledgling artist Mike Griffin Saturday, January 19. Griffin started playing at the age of 14 after being influenced by various musical styles being played around his home growing up, including Ella Fitzgerald and Steve Earle!

He’s already got four albums and one EP under his belt, and should be playing selections from all of them — this is a one to watch “up and comer” on the local music scene.

In other news, the DOUG WAHLBERG BAND headlines the Kicking Horse Grill Saturday, January 10, in Southport, and is set to play a 7 pm headline set at Mohegan Sun’s Wolf’s Den January 21 if you’re making plans for later in the month.

UPCOMING SHOWS

January 9 — The Machine Pink Floyd Tribute at The Webster Theater in Hartford; Dead By Wednesday headlines a five-band show at Toad’s Place in New Haven; Boz Scaggs at the MGM Grand Theater at Foxwoods; The Musical Box at the Ridgefield Playhouse; By Default at Georgetown Saloon in Georgetown

January 10 — Jim Weider’s Project Percolator at The Towne Crier Cafe in Pawling, N.Y.; Johnny Winter at Toad’s Place in New Haven; Tom Chapin at Infinity Hall, Unionville; Carlene Carter at The Little Theatre in New Haven; Bearfoot at the Congregational Church in Madison; Roxy Perry Open Jam at the Georgetown Saloon in Georgetown

January 11 — Ellis Paul at the Vanilla Bean Cafe in Pomfret; Don Cooper & Friends at the Georgetown Saloon in Georgetown

January 13 — Next Movement at the Wolf’s Den at Mohegan Sun; Dan Stevens at the Painted Pony in Bethlehem

January 14 — Next Movement at the Wolf’s Den at Mohegan Sun; Bill Frisell at Firehouse 12 in New Haven; Dan Stevens at Club 121 in Oxford

January 15 — Vienna Tang at Stage One in Fairfield; Next Movement at the Wolf’s Den at Mohegan Sun; Bearfoot at the Towne Crier in Pawling, N.Y.

January 16 — John Brown’s Body with The Brew at Toad’s Place in New Haven; Otis Day & The Knights in The Wolf’s Den at Mohegan Sun; Enter the Haggis at The Hungry Tiger in Manchester; Satisfaction (Rolling Stones Tribute) at The Garde Arts Center in New London; Jonathan Edwards at Infinity Hall in Unionville; Al Di Meola at StageOne in Fairfield.