Watkins and the Rapiers return from their annual post-Christmas hibernation with a handful of new tunes that will have their debuts at the band’s multiple May performances in Rochester, including a Monday residency at the Little Theatre Cafe and a Friday, May 19 happy hour performance on the deck at Abilene.

Among the band’s new tunes: Tom Whitmore’s “International Space Station,” which he performed in a space suit for the “What Did I Miss?” chapter of the sometimes annual “If All Rochester Wrote the Same Song” show in March. Not sure we’re going to see the space suit again, but you never know.

Still in planning stages but expected for May is a tribute to Burt Bacharach, the hit-making songwriter who passed away in February.

Let us know if there’s something you’d like to see us do this month. We may still have time to pull it off.