E-Mail This Article to a Friend Guy walks into a tunnel (continued)
	Related Links Tunnel of Love's official Web site

PUB ROCK AND DUB AND . . . Matt Murphy’s Pub, a small, comfortable room with good food and taps at 14 Harvard Street in Brookline Village, has been hosting free music for a couple years. The programming’s been a diverse mix, from roots to reggae to art jazz to jam rock to groove exploration to world music, but nothing like Tunnel of Love. Anyway, Jason Waddleton, who’s been booking the venue’s varied programming, has taken another step and started the Pub Records label.

The first release is Live@eleven Volume 1, with 15 tracks from a dozen groups recorded live at the club who include C Money and the Players Inc., Wild Sextet, King Satan, and the room’s own musicmakers collective, Public House. The sound is surprisingly good given the confines of the performance space: it captures the good-times vibe that comes with seeing a band play practically in your lap. What’s missing is the diversity that’s made the spot so interesting; the disc skews toward dub, reggae, and jam sounds and runs light on emotional content and intensity. Its release is being celebrated at Matt Murphy’s with live music through June 12. This weekend, it’s jazzbos Wild Sextet tonight (June 2), Mang Dub on Friday, Team Satan on Saturday, and C Money on Sunday night. The music kicks up, as you might guess, right around 11 p.m.

GABRELS CHECKS IN. Former Boston scene veteran Reeves Gabrels, who played in such diverse bands as Modern Farmer and Life on Earth before signing on as David Bowie’s guitarist and songwriting partner for 13 years, has a new album, Rockonica, on fellow guitar star Steve Vai’s Favored Nations label. Gabrels’s third solo disc was recorded in LA over the past few years with a shifting cast of players, including fellow Boston vets Brock Avery on drums and Greg McMullen on pedal steel, and former Providence bass ace Paul Ill.

The tunes reflect Gabrels’s growth as a songwriter and singer, with "Leper," a caustic tale of pyrrhic victory — something that anybody who’s logged as many years in the music biz as Gabrels has is all too familiar with. What hasn’t changed a whit is his way with big bold tones, freshly minted sounds, and riffs that zing between metal and the avant-garde. He remains one of the most innovative instrumental voices in meat-and-potatoes rock.

RICK RUSSELL BENEFIT. Blues guitarist and singer Ricky "King" Russell has been an important part of the local scene for decades, both on his own and in supporting some of the classic players who’ve come through the area. Last month, Russell, who’s suffered a chain of maladies in recent years, had a malignant tumor removed from his liver. A benefit for his medical costs this Sunday, June 5, at Club 58, 58 Ross Way in Quincy, will feature harmonica ace and bandleader James Montgomery with guests Shirley Lewis, saxist Gordon Beadle, and former Roomful of blues hornmen Doug James and Carl Querfurth. Also on the bill: the King’s Court, with Russell’s pals Michelle Willson, Mike Welch, Barbecue Bob, and others. The Love Dogs, the Racky Thomas Band, Mission of Blues, and the Matthew Stubbs Band will play, and WBOS blues DJ Holly Harris will MC. The bands are on from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m., with an open jam afterward.

NEW BLUES VENUE. Starting with a Shirley Lewis appearance in late April, the Casa Loma, a restaurant and club at 124 Robbins Street in East Bridgewater, has been rocking its roof on Friday and Saturday nights with regional blues acts. Although the longstanding practice of blues rooms is to have a single band slam out two or three sets, one of the down-home Casa Loma’s new wrinkles is its "Double Trouble Blues Nights," with two bands on the stage in the club’s spacious, good-sounding second-floor room. This weekend will bring Matt Stubbs and Racky Thomas on Friday and the Porch Rockers and Mike Welch on Saturday. For more information and the full schedule, which includes shows by James Montgomery, Jeff Pitchell, and Bruce Katz and a 79th-birthday bash for local hero Weepin’ Willie on July 10, call (508) 279-4410, or visit www.newblueshof.com