The Outlet series may very well extend to the stores in Guangzhou and Shenyang (both in China), but this article I wrote for Little Village focuses on the much nearer Rozz-Tox of Rock Island, Illinois – about an hour east of LV’s Iowa City headquarters.

As my four-or-so regular readers already know, I’m a big Rozz-Tox fan. It is both sanctuary and social club, but its most important role is that of forum. Outlet happens to be one of owner-operator Ben Fawks’ contributions to that forum, bringing outsider artists to our corner of the solar system.

He has multiple goals for this project, most of which fall under the umbrella of inspiration: creation, connection, and collaboration. And the shows are always exciting. Here’s a brief excerpt from the article:

Japanese master percussionist Tatsuya Nakatani, performing on Sunday, April 7, is definitively innovative as he tests the limits of his homemade bows and gongs. His genre is typically labeled “jazz,” but what he does is beyond labels. He is a true outsider artist who abolishes all of preconceived notions of what a percussionist can do.

Read on at LittleVillageMag.com and be at Rozz-Tox at 7pm on Sunday. And/or Friday (for The Golden Fleece’s record release show, as featured in the current print edition of Little Village) and/or Saturday (for the Nu Gruv Society’s super secret jam). Just go to Rozz-Tox. You’ll have fun. Promise.

Banner image: DJ Higgy at performing at Rozz-Tox on June 1, 2018