Local blues musician Doobie “Doghouse” Wilson, also known as Alan Lane, will celebrate the release of his latest album at a benefit concert Thursday at 9 p.m., at the Jupiter Bar and Grill.
All proceeds from the $5 cover charge will go to the West Alabama Food Bank as part of UA’s Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week. Lane will sell autographed copies of his new album, “Too Wet For Comfort,” and donate 100 percent of the proceeds to the Food Bank as well.
Lane, a professor in the chemical and biological engineering department, has been a musician longer than he’s been a professor, but only in the last nine years did he begin to play publicly in the Tuscaloosa area, he said.
“I was getting to be in my late 40s, and I thought if I don’t start playing in public before I turn 50, I probably never will,” Lane said. “So I started going to open mic nights and playing. I got a good reception and got the bug to perform.”
Lane said he thinks this album, his third, is one of his best and has something for everyone.
“There’s slow ballads. There’s definite rockers in there, and there’s some blues too,” Lane said.
The new album along with his other releases are available as a free download from his Web site, doobiedoghousewilson.com, Lane said.
Artists promoting their music with free downloads is “a new trend in recording, because the software and the hardware for recording music now is so accessible, it doesn’t take that much to put together a recording studio anymore,” Lane said. “Since I’ve got such a great day job, I don’t need to charge for it. I just want people to listen and enjoy it.”
Joining Lane on stage will be two bands, PhD’Licious and the Yard Dogs. Lane is a member of both bands, and together the “supergroup” will be performing a variety of covers and original songs, including songs from Lane’s new solo album, he said.
The concert will serve as the official Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week kick-off event, followed by a week of service projects and hunger and homelessness advocacy, said Rob Maxwell, an advocate for Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week.
Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week is a national annual event held in November, but because it coincides with the University’s Beat Auburn, Beat Hunger week, it is observed in the spring at UA, Maxwell said.
“Basically we want to use this week as an opportunity to learn about an issue that affects our community here in Tuscaloosa and how we can help,” Maxwell said. “There are some organizations doing some amazing things in Tuscaloosa, and I’m sure there are a lot of students that would love to be a part of that.”
For students looking to avoid lines Thursday night, tickets for the benefit are available for pre-purchase at the Community Service Center office in Room 346 of the Ferguson Center. Tickets will be sold the night of the event at the Jupiter as well. Doors will open at 9 p.m., and the show will start at 10 p.m.
