Frustrated with the current crop of Republican presidential hopefuls? You’re not alone. But local actor Frank Licari, director of the Atlantic Academy of the Arts and host of televised talent competition “Recreating a Legend,” has taken his angst to song. And like many current “American Idol” contestants, he’s involved Adele.

http://www.youtube.com/embed/bVN6RFis7E8

Behold “Someone Other Than Newt,” in which Frank gets all moody and black and white-musey in front of a body of water, and ponders the possibility that someone besides Mr. Gingrich get the nomination. It’s funny, timely and calls to mind some of Weird Al’s best wordplays. Funny knows no ideology.

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Thursday, that bar was the Bamboo Room, and the artist was Jimmy Buffett.

Buffett’s team posted a photo from his fan group, the Margarillas, to his Facebook page.

Buffett and his backing band, the Coral Reefers, were warming up at the club to get set for their upcoming tour, which will begin Saturday at Miami’s American Airlines Arena. | Directions, nearby dining, invite a friend

Among pianist Yoko Sata Kothari's local favorites is Ebisu, a Japanese restaurant in Palm Beach Gardens.

YOKO SATA KOTHARI, Lake Park

WHO SHE IS: Kothari began playing piano at age 4. At age 8, she won the Northern Japan Classical Piano Competition. She continued to win top prizes in Japan, and earned more trophies when she moved to the U.S., including second place in the Bartok-Kabalevsky-Prokofiev International Competition and the Kathleen McGowan Piano Scholarship Award. Most recently, she received an award at the Bradshaw & Buono International Piano Competition in New York. Kothari has performed with the Boca String Quartet, the Lotus Duo (a piano-violin duo), and currently is a member of the Trillium Piano Trio. She and her husband, Dilip Kothari, a classical guitarist, teach music at D&Y Studios in Lake Park. Her next performance is a benefit concert for the Tepeyak Mission on March 3 at St. Ignatius Loyola Cathedral, 9999 N. Military Trail, Palm Beach Gardens. | Directions, nearby dining

A few of her favorites:
Favorite fine-dining restaurant?
The Melting Pot. It may take awhile to get through your meal, but the process is so much fun! The cheese fondue and chocolate fondue at the end. It’s not something you do every weekend. It’s more of a special occasion place. You can be there three hours.
The Melting Pot of Palm Beach Gardens, 11811 U.S. 1, Palm Beach Gardens. (561) 624-0020 | Directions, invite a friend

Favorite theater to see a show?
It has been years since I have seen any shows, but it would be the Kravis Center.
The Kravis Center, 701 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach. (561) 832-7469; kravis.org | Directions, invite a friend
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Roaring into a poppy, high-energy song, Surfer Blood — West Palm Beach-based rockers who are about to get an album on a major label — was strong in its performance Monday on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.

Fallon sure looked like he enjoyed “Miranda” — he practically hopped over to shake John Paul Pitts’ hand after the song was over, and made sure the camera caught the cover of the group’s EP Tarot Classics.

Here are the guys performing “Miranda”. Let us know what you think.

(Link courtesy of Consequence of Sound, who also seemed to really enjoy the song — “Sadly, it’s likely (Napoleon Dynamite‘s Jon) Heder will remain in the dusty days of 2004, but Surfer Blood? There’s still lots of life there, as seen in their tight, efficient cut of ‘Miranda’ last night.”)

Local quartet Surfer Blood, which is enjoying another nice wave of critical acclaim for their EP Tarot Classics, is going to be getting a good dose of national exposure — especially for night owls and DVR users.

The group will be performing Monday night — well, technically, since it’s at 12:30 a.m., Tuesday morning — on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on NBC.

It’s yet another landmark on a big couple of years for the group, ever since they released their debut LP Astro Coast in early 2010 — they’ve toured nationally, played the All Tomorrow’s Parties festival in England, opened for the Pixies, had remixes of their songs done by the likes of Connor Harwick of The Drums and Peggy Wang of The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, and are now working on their second full-length LP.

On Fallon’s show, the group — lead singer John Paul Pitts, drummer TJ Schwartz, guitarist Thomas Fekete and bassist Kevin Williams — will be performing the single “Miranda” off Tarot Classics.
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The author’s mantra "write about what you know" certainly isn’t lost on Lake Worth resident Jill Switzer. A voice coach who’s the singer for Palm Beach favorites The Switzer Trio (with backing vocalists in multi-instrumentalist and husband Rich Switzer and drummer Carlos Cocuy), Switzer’s 2006 book debut was The Diva Next Door: How To Be a Singing Star Wherever You Are (Allworth Press), hence her thedivanextdoor.net website.

Her follow-up is the new, self-published fiction e-book The Chick Singer, available through Amazon.com or BN.com. It’s a comic novel that takes a tongue-in-cheek look inside the South Florida music scene through the eyes of advertising agency employee-turned-budding vocalist Riley Sands, complete with stereotypical bosses, co-workers, managers, musicians, audiences, critics, and family reactions to such a career change.

Yet Switzer says it’s not as autobiographical as it seems.

"I did draw from 20 years of experience as a professional singer," she says, "but not just from my own experience. There are parts of stories, from musicians and other people, that were practically subconscious. I’d forgotten where some of it came from, but friends call me after reading the book and remind me of something they told me that triggered a scene."

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Don Kirschner was voted into the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame on Tuesday; Rod Stewart, already in the Hall as a solo artist, gets in a second time as a member of the band The Faces.

Nearly a year after his death, legendary producer Don Kirshner can boast a credit he wanted but never achieved in life: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee.

It was announced Tuesday that Kirschner, creator of “The Monkees,” “Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert,” Brill Building mainstay and the man who helped introduce Neil Diamond, Carole King, The Eagles and others to wide audiences, would received the Ahmet Ertegun Award, a non-performer classification that in the past has been awarded to Clive Davis, Berry Gordy Jr. and David Geffen.

 Jack Wishna, CEO of Rockren, a company Kirshner was CEO of at the time of his death, called the producer “one of rock and roll’s greatest treasures” and noted that he was a “giant among his contemporaries, unwavering in his commitment to talent and excellence.”

 ”While we will miss him and his quick wit and infectious laugh, his footprint on rockcityclub.com and the world of music will remain forever. We are so happy for his wife Sheila and his family that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame recognizes our friend and partner with this incredible honor” Wishna added

 Also headed to the hall: Part-time Palm Beach resident Rod Stewart, who is already in as a solo artist but is now being inducted as part of The Faces.
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West Palm Beach keyboardist/vocalist Robert Goodman (robert goodmanband.com) is best-known for his heady patriotic tunes, but he goes for the heart on his band’s new release, Everything Is Beautiful (Forward Motion). Utilizing longtime members Dave Rubinstein (guitar) and Rick Shepherd (bass), plus guests like original drummer Mark Nemcek (since replaced by Tim Moss), Goodman mixes classic American and British pop influences.

You, with his orchestrated keyboards and Stephanie Shepherd’s flute and piccolo, hints at The Beatles. The Todd Rundgren-like Story features Goodman’s strong falsetto and Rubinstein’s best solo, and Make You Smile highlights a strong second half by recalling Tears for Fears through Goodman’s arrangements and vocal phrasing.

See Goodman and Rubinstein duet at 8 p.m. Saturday at Asian Fin, 4650 Donald Ross Rd., Jupiter (561-694-1900), and the full band at 8 p.m. on Dec. 10 at South Shores, 502 Lucerne Ave., Lake Worth (561-547-7656).

Lake Worth singer/songwriter John Ralston (john-ralston.com) released the neo-symphonic gems Needle Bed (2006) and Sorry Vampire (2007) on Vagrant Records but goes smaller-scale on his new independent release Shadows of the Summertime. The results unearth different influences from his familiar blend of Wilco and the George Martin-era Beatles.

Lump Ralston into pop, roots music or alt-country at your own risk. The infectious opener, Bedroom Walls, is reminiscent of the Traveling Wilburys. The subtle rave-up Love Will Come Around blends pop, gospel and Motown elements, and the muscular title track is another layered duet between singing multi-instrumentalists Ralston and David Vandervelde.

Vandervelde’s drums work to great effect on Oh Lord, adding nuances of Led Zeppelin and Neil Young. Though Ralston spends more time in the studio with eight-piece band Invisible Music lately than on stage, that’ll change when the demiorchestra debuts.

‘Round town
Florida-raised singing siblings Derrick and Keith Lee, along with guitarist Alvin Lee, join nephews Roosevelt Collier (pedal steel), Alvin Cordy Jr. (bass) and Earl Walker (drums) in the Lee Boys (leeboys.com), a most soulful and cerebral family sextet. See their “sacred steel” mix of bluegrass, gospel and other roots styles at 9 p.m. on Friday at the Bamboo Room, 25 S. J St., Lake Worth ($12, 561-585-2583). … Jupiter-based blues band Big Vince and the Phat Cats (bigvinceandthephatcats.com) has a busy week — 8 p.m. Friday at Tiki 52, 18487 S.E. Federal Highway, Jupiter (561-746-3312), 8 p.m. Saturday at the Square Grouper, 1111 Love St., Jupiter (561-575-0252), plus open mikes on Monday (7:30 p.m. at B.B. King’s, 550 S. Rosemary Ave., West Palm Beach, 561-420-8600) and Thursday (7:30 p.m. at the Sugar Cane Island Bistro, 353 N. U.S. 1, Jupiter, 561-743-4177).
~ bill_meredith@pbpost.com

Leslie's weekend fun included shows by Avery Sommers, Babyface and Craig Ferguson.

The show: Avery Sommers at The Royal Room at the Colony Hotel, Palm Beach

When: Friday, although she’ll be there next weekend as well.

What happened: Broadway and stage star Sommers (“Ain’t Misbehavin’,” “Chicago”) is by now a frequent headliner at the Royal Room, which doesn’t mean that she’s just phoning in the same show all the time. She’s not — every song the gloriously big-voiced singer wraps her gifted pipes around is a passionate treat, whether she’s revisiting her stage career (a rollicking “Ain’t Misbehaving” and the saucy “When You’re Good To Mama” from Chicago), getting patriotic (a lovely version of Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless The U.S.A.”) or getting her disco on with the buoyant fun of “I Will Survive.”

Part of the trick of a good cabaret singer is to mix well-chosen songs with a confident, comfortable rapport with the audience. And Sommers is, as always, the very definition. She tells a fun story, and comes down into the crowd a few times to get up close and personal. She looks like she’s having fun, and that helps the audience to as well.
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The logo for West Palm Beach jazz/world fusion quartet Treebo (treeboband.com ) is, logically, a tree. But like all trees, there’s more underneath the surface. The name means “tribe” in Tagalog, the native language of the Philippines, and reflects the heritage and mind-set of bandleader Noel Lorica.

The 45-year-old guitarist relocated from the Philippines to the northeastern United States in 1984 after earning a degree in veterinary medicine, then moved to South Florida in 1990. His performing and recording career includes solo CDs (First Glance, Second Glance), Christmas CDs (Christmas Jazz, Christmas Guitars), and SunFest appearances in 2007 and 2010.

If it takes a village, then it takes a tribe to start and grow one. The finger-picking acoustic and electric guitarist was inspired by the work of Colombian drummer Arturo Afanador, so the two formed Treebo in 2008. Bassist Steve Constantino made it a trio in 2009 after arriving from Boston, and vocalist Z Washington arrived from New York in 2010. The quartet’s new self-titled debut CD sounds like a cross between the jazz, R&B, rock and fusion of Earl Klugh, Bonnie Raitt, Santana and Return To Forever.

“We’re an eclectic fusion band,” Lorica says. “I’ve always loved Brazilian jazz, and when you add what the other members bring to the mix, it makes us unique. We think it sounds cool to blend different genres together.”

See Treebo at 8 p.m. today on the waterfront stage for Jazz on the Palm, 100 N. Clematis St., West Palm Beach (wpb.org , click on “calendar” ).

Now hear this

John Wurm, the Kravis Center soundman who suffered a hemorrhagic stroke (brain bleed) in 2007, continues to get help in his quest for $15,000 by Dec. 1 to start uninsured adult stem cell treatments. His friends The Dillengers have organized an all-day benefit show with special guests Marc Ward, Sean Hanley, Illumination and others from noon-midnight on Saturday at South Shores, 502 Lucerne Ave., Lake Worth (561-547-7656). There will be raffles, and donation stations will be set up throughout. If you can’t attend and want to donate, visit www.gofundme.com/AdultStemCellsforJohn. … Masterful 75-year-old Lantana drummer Christian Buckholz has a new jazz release called Cool Again. It’s a series of standards that also features Miami-Dade County bass wiz Jamie Ousley and dazzling Romanian pianist Marian Petrescu, and is available at Melody Acres Music, 6169 Jog Rd., Lake Worth (561-969-0037). … Port Salerno roots act the Nouveaux Honkies makes a rare Palm Beach County appearance at 9 p.m. Nov. 26 at a great little restaurant called the Food Shack, 103 S. U.S. 1, Jupiter (561-741-3626).