Tio Leo’s will host blues belter Sue Palmer on July 3.

On June 20, music teacher and Guitar Player magazine columnist Wayne Riker drops his Blues Breakout EP, which he describes as “a 25 minute-plus, five track instrumental guitar journey through a compendium of blues tributaries, ranging from hard driving blues rock to high flying jump blues, to down and dirty sultry blues phrases. There’s something here for every blues guitar fan and blues aficionado to absorb and enjoy.” Riker can be found teaching and performing at Guitar Workshop Plus, running June 17 through June 22 at Point Loma Nazarene University.

Singer-songwriter duo Monica Sorenson and Rick Walker and their band Sometimes Julie will play a record release show June 28 at First Street Bar in Encinitas, for their 7-song Breaking EP, engineered by Rolling Stones producer Alan Sanderson at local Pacific Beat Recording. "We had several guest musicians on the record, who we’ve invited to join us for the show, including Rebecca Jade, George Nelms [the Jackstones], and Michael Stell [the Surrealistics]," Walker tells the Reader. "It's gonna be a three-hour marathon of a show."

The Lower Left Jazz Trio premieres a new concert CD, Just Playin', at the Handlery Hotel’s 950 Lounge on June 29. "This jazz trio plays only a handful of dates annually due to other musical commitments," drummer/percussionist Barry Farrar Jr. tells the Reader, "[so] this makes our live CD release party attractive to the San Diego jazz lovers." Recorded in 2013 at the Handlery with pianist Mikan Zlatkovich, "The new CD has Justin Grinnell on bass, [but] on the June 29 gig, it's Will Lyle on bass."

Tio Leo’s will host boogie woogie pianist/accordion player Sue Palmer on July 3 when she debuts her album Gems: 1980-2018 Volume 1, featuring local guest players like Daniel Jackson, Gilbert Castellanos, Rob Thorsen, Preston Coleman, Molly Stone (Stones Throw), Adrian Demain, Jimmy Woodard, and David Mosby. Among the tracks is a newly recorded song written by her friend and frequent collaborator, the late Candye Kane, “Don’t Cry for Me, New Jersey.” “Candye was a prolific songwriter, but rarely performed this tune in her live shows,” Palmer says. “It was done this year, and is recorded by my band, the Motel Swing Orchestra, with Sharifah Muhammad on the lead vocals.”

“The other 19 songs are particular favorites of mine over the years, from Tobacco Road [who won seven San Diego Music Awards during Palmer’s tenure,] to Candye Kane, a country rockabilly band called the Hayriders, and my current band, to bands that have hired me like Earl Thomas, 2000 LBS of Blues, and Missy Andersen.”

The album also features a track by her early band Ms.B.Haven, a long-gone all-women rock group (with several future members of Tobacco Road) responsible for one of Palmer’s more memorable early performances. “The worst gig was one done in the late ‘70s with Ms.B.Haven, up in Boulevard, for Hells Angels, at the Live Oaks Springs Resort. We couldn’t leave the stage on our breaks, for fear for our lives. People were shooting up on the pool tables, making rape remarks…we survived without harm, and lived to tell about it.”