MONDAY, JAN. 26 2015 >>>

1. Monday, that most put-upon of weekdays, has gotten a bad rap. Yeah, going back to the office stinks, but the first day of the week also happens to be the best one for letting loose. Think about it: You're still fresh from your weekend, and you haven't yet had your joie de vivre trounced by the working week. Dean Reichert knows it. A year ago the blues guitarist played a Monday night at The Swiss Restaurant and Pub. He returns, spreading his down-home rhythm and testifying punch of gospel-based R&B through the many rooms of the downtown Tacoma joint, beginning at 8 p.m. Experience his snarl of the blues, his mournful rumination of honky-tonk, his sultry jazz and his up-front sexuality of funk. The show is free and pretty damn cool, if you ask the Weekly Volcano (and really, by reading this, you are asking us).

2. There are those among us who can make their trip to a hair stylist the most riveting story you've heard all week. People whose stories never trail off into "it was really cool. ..." Envy them. They are not like you. Not only do they have great success at parties, they have a future with Creative Colloquy. See what all the storytelling fuss is about at 7 p.m. inside B Sharp Coffee House when scribes Chelsea Vitone, Alec Clayton, Melissa Thayer and Tacoma Poet Laureate Lucas Smiraldo share their latest work, followed by an open mic. If you can stand a 5-minute hairdo story, just imagine how riveted you'll be by something with an actual plot.

3. Transport yourself to Baroque times - when Handel and Bach were society's rock stars, and creating bold and riveting music that wowed the courtly crowds. Anna Marsh, Jeffrey Cohan and Jonathan Oddie will perform sonatas for baroque flute, bassoon and harpsichord by Johann Sebastian Bach, Handel, Hotteterre (from the court of Louis XIV), Quantz (from the court of Friedrick the Great), Platti and a solo bassoon sonata by Boismortier in an intimate and diverse program of baroque chamber music for winds on period instruments at 7 p.m. in Trinity Lutheran Church.

4. Founding member of the "swampabilly" band Junkyard Jane, Leanne Trevalyan has been a fixture in the Northwest music scene for over two decades. "Her voice reminds me of the smoothness, texture and taste of sweet honey as it drips from a spoon onto a fresh biscuit," quotes Roy Brown for Victory Review. "Leanne has a sultry, alto voice capable of rendering both bluesy and country tunes with bare-boned honesty," writes Les Reynolds for Indie Music Review. Catch her at 7:30 p.m. in Smoke + Cedar.

5. Formed in 2011 and nominated for 2012 Earshot Jazz Golden Ear Award for NW Alternative Jazz Group, the Sam Boshnack Quintet features all-original compositions by Boshnack. The quintet thrashes and bounds through tightly woven twists, tunnels and cliffs with the deftness and precision of a chamber ensemble and weight of a rock band. Catch them at 8 p.m. in Rhythm & Rye.

LINK: Monday, Jan. 26 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area