Best 9: Top events for the week ahead in Santa Cruz County arts & entertainment, June 12-19

Here they are, nine necessary know-abouts for the week ahead. It’s the Happy-Father’s-Day B9:

➤ For the sake of your mental health, perhaps you’re planning to boycott all coverage of the Dear Leader parade in Washington, D.C., and luxuriate in Santa Cruz awesomeness at the Juneteenth celebration in downtown Santa Cruz. Good move. But there are plenty of intrinsic reasons to visit Laurel Park on Saturday, most prominently for a chance to catch guitarist Samba Ngo performing with vocalist Mandjou Koné. If you were around town in the 1980s and ’90s, you might remember Samba, born and raised in the Congo in equatorial Africa. He was one of several African-born musicians who settled in Santa Cruz in that period, and his bright, joyful music was known for its deft mixture of traditional Congolese dance music with myriad American influences. He’s toured the world in a career that now reaches back close to 50 years, and the good news is that he’s reemerged on the Santa Cruz scene. There’s plenty of great live music on the slate at Juneteenth on Saturday afternoon, but Samba Ngo is certainly a name to circle. 

➤ One of THE greatest Southern boogie bands of all time is the immortal Little Feat. The group’s frontman, Lowell George, left us many decades ago, but the band has kept the flame alive ever since, with founding member Billy Payne leading the charge. Even 45 years after the group’s debut recording, Little Feat is still storming the stages with its one-of-a-kind bluesy sound. The band visits the Rio Theatre on Friday. 

➤ Bay Area writer Christopher Moore has built an amazing career in a genre all his own: comedy fantasy. Part Tom Robbins, part trickster comedian, Moore has been inspired by everything from Shakespeare to vampires in his 18 popular novels. His latest, “Anima Rising,” jumps off from the well-known “Bride of Frankenstein” tale in a story that also includes the famous Austrian painter Gustav Klimt. Hear all about it when he visits the London Nelson Community Center next Tuesday. 

➤ You can’t let the summer go by without at least one big immersion in cool cars. There will be other opportunities later, but on Saturday, Capitola Village will be the gathering spot for dozens of amazing automobiles at the Capitola Rod & Classic Custom Car Show. Muscle cars, hot rods, roadsters and other four-wheeled beauties that I can’t afford will be on display all day in the village after making their way down the coast from the Boardwalk. (Let’s hope they know about the Murray Street Bridge.)

➤ Free movies, on the beach, all summer long. What’s not to love about that? The Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk’s popular Friday night movie series kicks off on Friday the 13th with … of course, what could it be? … “The Lost Boys.” It’s free, but get there early, and bundle up. The show starts at 9 p.m., with a different movie every week through Aug. 8 (but no movie on July 4). 

➤ You’re not going to get very far trying to categorize Tennessee-born singer and songwriter Valerie June, who borrows freely from all the various strains of Americana that formed her musical coming of age. June is probably best known for her trippy, dreamy 2021 album “The Moon and Stars,” but even that doesn’t contain her. She comes to the Rio Theatre next Tuesday to showcase her latest recording. 

➤ Brazilian singer and pianist Eliane Elias is truly a world artist, having performed in every corner of the globe in a jazz career that goes back more than 40 years. Her Brazilian and bossa nova roots certainly shine through her music, but they don’t confine it, as she’s done everything from collaborating with the jazz supergroup Steps Ahead to recording her renditions of the great Bill Evans. At 65, she still has a lot more to prove. She comes to the Kuumbwa Jazz Center on Tuesday. 

➤ After a long day protesting the slide into American authoritarianism, why not take in an appropriate show? That would be the sketch comedy show “Deflating Fascism,” a series of sketch pieces from Santa Cruz’s own satirical troupe Dangerous Neighbors. The show runs for four performances, Friday and Saturday, this weekend and next. The Revolution should come with a few laughs, right?

➤ I really have a soft spot for country singer-songwriter Robbie Fulks, from the first time I heard his rollicking and cheeky barroom number “Countrier Than Thou.” Fulks has been touring and recording for more than 30 years, and his smart, delectable country sound has only deepened in that time. He’s a great way to spend your Friday the 13th, at The Ugly Mug in Soquel.