THURSDAY 8/21
Platinum-selling New Orleans-born R&B singer Aaron Neville will be at Oaklawn Park at 7 p.m., $30-$40. Herding Kittens will be at Vino’s with Flushing Virtual, 9 p.m., $5, and country rocker Phil Hamilton will be at Stickyz, 9 p.m., $10. Comedy troupe Armadillo Rodeo will be at The Joint at 7 p.m., $7, and stand-up comedian Jason Russell will be at the Loony Bin through Saturday, Aug. 23, 7:30 p.m. (with 10 p.m. shows Friday and Saturday), $7-$10. Dr. Walter Kimbrough, the former “hip-hop president” of Philander Smith College, returns to the campus’ M.L. Harris Auditorium to inaugurate the 10th season of the speaker series he inaugurated, “Bless The Mic,” 7 p.m., free.
FRIDAY 8/22
At 8:30 p.m., Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art will host a free short film festival, “Uniting the Power of Art and Nature.” Blues/funk outfit Tyler Kitchen and The Right Pieces will return to the Afterthought, 9 p.m., $7. The Consumers will be at Vino’s with Black Horse and Joe Lane, 9 p.m., $5, and local blues favorite Lucious Spiller will be at Stickyz, 9:30 p.m., $5. Anyone looking to dance: The Bess Chisum Stephens Community Center will host Ballroom Dancing lessons at 7 p.m., $7-$13; Park Hill Presbyterian Church will hold a Contra Dance at 7:30 p.m., $5, and Juanita’s will have its “Salsa Night” (which begins with a one-hour lesson) at 9 p.m., $8.
SATURDAY 8/23
Ballet Arkansas will present “Visions” at Ron Robinson Theater, 7 p.m., $35. The Legends of Arkansas Festival will hold a fundraiser at Riverfront Park featuring a cash bar and music by Black River Pearl and Weakness for Blondes, 7 p.m., $5. At Low Key Arts in Hot Springs, Austin noise pop band Future Death (one of Rolling Stone’s recent “10 New Artists You Need To Know”) will share a bill with Hot Springs’ Opportunist, 9:30 p.m., $5. Amasa Hines, maybe the best loved band in Little Rock, will return to White Water Tavern for a show that will almost certainly sell out, 10 p.m., $7. Locals (and onetime Arkansas Times Musicians Showcase winners) Sound of the Mountain will be at Vino’s with Sons of Hippies and Mainland Divide, 9 p.m., $7.