Assorted ramblings from the world of entertainment:

• The Mahoning Valley has plenty of talent, and LOOP Youngstown will use some of it to help raise money for an arts and culture center locally.

The second LOOP Youngstown Variety Show and Art Raffle runs from 4 to 8 p.m. Sunday at Westside Bowl, 2617 Mahoning Ave., Youngstown.

Emelia Sherin will serve as host for the event, which will feature different offerings every half hour.

The Youngstown Area Community Concert Band will play Broadway favorites while James Shuttic does a live painting performance at 4 p.m. Short films by Sarah Legow, Mario Ricciardi, Jeffrey & Nikki Puccini, and Tom Witte will be shown at 4:30 p.m.

Singer-songwriter Erin Stubb goes on at 5 p.m., followed by actors from Hopewell Theatre performing show tunes while Annamarie Mastrey does a live painting performance at 5:30 p.m.

The Freshwater Jazz Project plays at 6 p.m., followed by singer-songwriter Abby Rose at 6:30 p.m. and line dancing with Candys Mayo at 7 p.m. The evening concludes with improv by the Dinner Theater Rejects at 7:30 p.m.

The art raffle will feature pieces by Betsy Ford, Clara Wick, Joe Pellegrini, Michele Monseau, Michael Walusis, Mike Egan, Elise Skolnick, Tom Baldwin, Tony Nicholas and others. Blake Seno will do live caricature portraits.

Tickets are $10 in advance at loopyoungstown.org and $15 at the door.

• French Blue will have its own brew to toast its 20th anniversary on Saturday.

The group started out as a duo with Jen Durno on vocals and Steve Pownell on guitar and now plays primarily as a four-piece group with Sam Petillo on bass and Mark Revis on djembe.

“It was 2005 when we started this whole French Blue era,” Pownell said. “We were all in different bands together through the ’90s and into the early 2000s. We just started joking, every show we play this year, it’s our 20th anniversary tour. We were just being silly about it and decided we should have a big show toward the end of the year, a big fun party.”

One of the places the group plays regularly is Modern Methods Brewing Company, 125 David Grohl Alley, Warren, so they approached Modern Methods owner Adam Keck about hosting the show and inquired about the possibility of a special beer for the occasion.

“He’s a yes guy with ideas,” Pownell said of Keck. “Adam blended a beer for us, a blueberry infused Darlene (lager).”

The name of the beer is French Brew, and Mike Duncan designed the label. It will be tapped Saturday for the 20th anniversary party starting at 5 p.m.

The group has written some originals over the years, but the emphasis of the setlist is cover songs.

“We’re heavy ’90s, but we reach out in both directions,” Pownell said.

Songs like Janis Joplin’s “Me and Bobby McGee,” 4 Non Blondes’ “What’s Up?” and KT Tunstall’s “Black Horse and the Cherry Tree” have been frequent favorites in the setlist since the beginning with Durno also singing songs by Fleetwood Mac, Green Day and Alanis Morissette.

Petillo handles lead vocals on some songs, such as The Lumineers’ “Ho Hey.”

“We’re just a group of friends who play music and have a good time and like to get out there occasionally,” Pownell said.

French Blue frequently plays shows for charity, and proceeds from the t-shirt and sticker sales at

Saturday’s concert will benefit DownBeat Musical Arts Centre in Warren.

Andy Gray is the entertainment editor of Ticket. Write to him at agray@tribtoday.com