String Band

Rebels gotten up as circus clowns danced in the town's main square. The guerrillas-in-whiteface performed soon after Mass was celebrated by a rebel priest, accompanied by a rebel string band and filmed by a rebel television crew. It was a fiesta day of sorts in the nearly abandoned town of Perquin, guerrilla capital of El Salvador. The occasion was the visit last week of a U.S.

Those readers not living in Southern California but who are instead enduring one of the country's hottest summers in recent memory might want to jump down a few paragraphs, past the part where Sara Watkins, fiddler, singer and songwriter, complained about the chilly Pasadena climate Friday evening and its effect on her violin's tuning. “The instruments are still adjusting to the cooler air,” she said by way of apology on the stage of the outdoor Levitt Pavilion as she plucked at her fiddle and tweaked its strings.

Those readers not living in Southern California but who are instead enduring one of the country's hottest summers in recent memory might want to jump down a few paragraphs, past the part where Sara Watkins, fiddler, singer and songwriter, complained about the chilly Pasadena climate Friday evening and its effect on her violin's tuning. “The instruments are still adjusting to the cooler air,” she said by way of apology on the stage of the outdoor Levitt Pavilion as she plucked at her fiddle and tweaked its strings.

EVENTS NHRA Winternationals The best in drag racing battle it out in this fierce competition, which kicks off the National Hot Rod Assn.'s 60th season. Get revved up for a special tribute to racing legend Don "The Snake" Prudhomme, who will be signing autographs at the event and walking the track with top-paying fans. Cars from Snake's storied career will also be on display. Auto Club Raceway, 2780 Fairplex Drive, Pomona. Friday through Sunday. $130-$325 (single-day tickets available)

Three days late but no less festive, Philadelphia's Mummers strutted up Broad Street in their annual New Year's parade of comedy, fancy costumes and string band music. The $3-million parade, delayed twice this year because of bad weather, stepped off just before 8 a.m., led by the colorful clowns of the comic division. Thousands of fans braved temperatures in the 30s for the 12 hours of pageantry and celebration that officially dates back to 1901.

POP MUSIC Further proving that rock concerts and museums need not be mutually exclusive, the Autry hosts country and blues singer Justin Townes Earle (son of troubadour Steve Earle) for an evening of carefully crafted Americana. Singer-songwriter Dawn Landes and old-time string band Triple Chicken Foot will also perform. Autry National Center of the American West, 4700 Western Heritage Way, L.A. $13. 8:30 to 11 p.m. Fri. (323) 667-2000. http://www.theautry.org.

Let us now praise Miles Davis. Had it not been for his strength in pulling Sunday's Hollywood Bowl concert out of the doldrums, the disastrous events of the first two hours could never have been counteracted. Tommy Hawkins, the host, announced this at the JVC Jazz Festival, thus trivializing a word that is now applied to a single, non-festive concert.

Three musical bodies tour these United States under the generic name Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. The mid-sized ensemble, and the most familiar of the three, the 19-member string orchestra, returned here Saturday night. Under its longtime leader, violinist Kenneth Sillito, the string band played a Handel/Bach/Stravinsky/Dvorak program skillfully before a large audience in Segerstrom Hall at the Orange County Performing Arts Center.

Three musical bodies tour these United States under the generic name Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. The mid-sized ensemble, and the most familiar of the three, the 19-member string orchestra, returned here Saturday night. Under its longtime leader, violinist Kenneth Sillito, the string band played a Handel/Bach/Stravinsky/Dvorak program skillfully before a large audience in Segerstrom Hall at the Orange County Performing Arts Center.

The Altadena-based Consortium Angeli, a 50-member choir, and its orchestra performed a valuable service on Sunday with their presentation of the West Coast premiere of Britten's "The Company of Heaven" at Hollywood United Methodist Church. This 1937 work is a setting of texts by Milton, Hopkins, Christina Rossetti and the Bible with little obvious relationship to each other, out of which the resourceful composer fashioned a loose collection of stylistically varied musical vignettes.

POP MUSIC Further proving that rock concerts and museums need not be mutually exclusive, the Autry hosts country and blues singer Justin Townes Earle (son of troubadour Steve Earle) for an evening of carefully crafted Americana. Singer-songwriter Dawn Landes and old-time string band Triple Chicken Foot will also perform. Autry National Center of the American West, 4700 Western Heritage Way, L.A. $13. 8:30 to 11 p.m. Fri. (323) 667-2000. http://www.theautry.org.

The first four songs of the Punch Brothers' show Tuesday night at the El Rey Theatre said a lot about what kind of group the Punch Brothers are: two originals, one about a relationship and one about a bartender; a Norman Blake instrumental; and a loping cover of "Heart in a Cage" by the Strokes, which frontman Chris Thile referred to as a "rival New York bluegrass band. " The Strokes, Thile said, trounced the Punch Brothers in the black-leather department. "But we've got them in liver function," claimed banjo player Noam Pikelny, who added, "which actually makes them the more credible bluegrass band.

The banjo claws, the fiddle saws, the twangy, ancient-sounding voice sings of darkness and murder. The recording of the folk staple "Little Sadie" -- like most of the tracks on the 2007 album "Dona Got a Ramblin' Mind" -- is pure mountain music, the kind indelibly associated with the rural white communities of the 19th and early 20th century American South.

The Academy of St. Martin in the Fields offered us the chance to compare Mozart's and Bartok's ideas about divertimentos and Purcell's and Britten's thoughts on variation writing, in a rewarding and characteristic program from its touring string band Sunday afternoon at the Orange County Performing Arts Center. The most fascinating cross-reference, however, was between the Bartok and Britten works, written at virtually the same time.

Styled by Todd and Michelle Hartnett/KoKo Represents, San Francisco; hair and makeup: Ivan Mendoza/Workgroup, San Francis-co; models: Lindsay Frimodt and Shana Cossa Boom/Mitchell Model Management, San Francisco

The typical ethnomusicologist is an academic who travels to out-of-the-way places in distant lands, recorder in hand, capturing for posterity the exotic sounds discovered there. Eric Davidson fits that bill perfectly--except that he's a biologist and made his field recordings here in the United States. Davidson teaches at Caltech in Pasadena and is a founding member of the Iron Mountain String Band, which plays Saturday at Ball Junior High cafeteria in Anaheim.

The Academy of St. Martin in the Fields offered us the chance to compare Mozart's and Bartok's ideas about divertimentos and Purcell's and Britten's thoughts on variation writing, in a rewarding and characteristic program from its touring string band Sunday afternoon at the Orange County Performing Arts Center. The most fascinating cross-reference, however, was between the Bartok and Britten works, written at virtually the same time.

EVENTS NHRA Winternationals The best in drag racing battle it out in this fierce competition, which kicks off the National Hot Rod Assn.'s 60th season. Get revved up for a special tribute to racing legend Don "The Snake" Prudhomme, who will be signing autographs at the event and walking the track with top-paying fans. Cars from Snake's storied career will also be on display. Auto Club Raceway, 2780 Fairplex Drive, Pomona. Friday through Sunday. $130-$325 (single-day tickets available)

Three musical bodies tour these United States under the generic name Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. The mid-sized ensemble, and the most familiar of the three, the 19-member string orchestra, returned here Saturday night. Under its longtime leader, violinist Kenneth Sillito, the string band played a Handel/Bach/Stravinsky/Dvorak program skillfully before a large audience in Segerstrom Hall at the Orange County Performing Arts Center.

Three musical bodies tour these United States under the generic name Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. The mid-sized ensemble, and the most familiar of the three, the 19-member string orchestra, returned here Saturday night. Under its longtime leader, violinist Kenneth Sillito, the string band played a Handel/Bach/Stravinsky/Dvorak program skillfully before a large audience in Segerstrom Hall at the Orange County Performing Arts Center.