Van Williamson Trio to perform Oct. 18-19 during Rehoboth Jazz Festival

Post its World Tour 2025 — the Agony of the Paycheck Tour — the Van Williamson Trio will make its way into Sussex County for the Rehoboth Beach Jazz Festival with some favorite venues on the schedule. 

Unfortunately, the boys will be taking a bus into town, since the ’54 DeSoto they’d been using for transportation finally gave up the ghost in faraway — but not faraway enough — Hagerstown, Md. It was to be the culmination of a 20-stop itinerary that included such exotic spots as Bear, Delaware; California, Md.; Farmville, Va.; and many locales in between.

There were some high points: the annual Muskrat Festival in Cambridge, Md.; the Guinea Festival in Hayes, Va.; the How to Fix a Blockchain with a Piece of String and a Funnel Festival in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. — and some not-so-pretty moments, notably the Scrapple from the Apple Jazz and Pork Roundup (about which the less said, the better). 

So after an overnighter on the Hound, the trio — with Van (“Blues in H”) Williamson on guitar, Eddie (“the Funk in Dysfunction”) Eatmon on bass, and Felix (“Where’s the 1?”) Contreras, one of very few one-handed drummers in the Western world — will have its way at two superlative dining and drinking establishments: from 6 to 8 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 18, at The Federal, 62A Rehoboth Ave.; and from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 19, at the Back Porch Café, 59 Rehoboth Ave.

Reservations are recommended, and the shows offer family-friendly fun for all, no politics.