Thursday, October 16, 2014

This week's hot concerts


Marsha Ambrosius
Friday  8 p.m., McGlohon Theater, 345 N. College St., $38.02-$47.58, www.blumenthalarts.org
On her recent sophomore album, “Friends & Lovers,” Ambrosius - one half of the British duo Floetry - wants to create the new soundtrack to your love affair. Shifting from baby making to grown and sexy and channeling heartbreak in between helped “F&L” nearly crack Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop slot (it peaked at No. 2).


Courtney Barnett/San Fermin
Friday  8:30 p.m., Visulite, 1615 Ellizabeth Ave., $15, www.visulite.com  
Pitchfork.com indie darlings with upcoming albums on the horizon. She’s an Aussie folk-pop songwriter whose wordy, detailed lyrics, bluesy guitar, and lackadaisical delivery are smartly charming. He’s a Yale educated Brooklyn band leader that brings his compositional strengths to pop music.

Jeffrey Osborne
Saturday  8 p.m., Dale F. Halton Theater, CPCC, 1206 Elizabeth Ave., $44-$65, http://tix.cpcc.edu/
One of the strongest `80s balladeers this side of Luther Vandross, his classic R&B hits range from L.T.D’s “Back in Love Again” to his own “You Should Be Mine (the Woo Woo Song)” and “On the Wings of Love.” Also expect jazz-inflected tunes from his latest album, “A Time For Love.”

Kip Moore
Saturday  8 p.m., Coyote Joe’s, 4621 Wilkinson Blvd., $20-$25, www.coyote-joes.com  
The Platinum selling country artist behind “Somethin’ ‘Bout a Truck” headlines CMT On Tour 2014: Up in Smoke with Charlie Worsham and Sam Hunt. After scoring three No. 1 singles from his 2012 debut, he promises more material from his upcoming sophomore album including, of course, current single “Dirt Road.”


Sons of Bill
Saturday  9 p.m., Visulite, 1615 Elizabeth Ave., $12, www.visulite.com
The Virginian roots rock act with a literary bent has as much in common with R.E.M. and the Replacements as it does country and folk music. A couple of Charlotte fans are so confident in its fourth album “Love and Logic” that they’re offering refunds to concert goers that come out and don’t dig the show.

Steep Canyon Rangers
Saturday and Sunday 8 p.m., Neighborhood Theatre, 511 E. 36th St., $17-$28, www.neighborhoodtheatre.com
The Grammy winning Brevard bluegrass band (who moonlights as comedian Steve Martin’s backing band) continues to evolve musically while firmly rooted in tradition. The group makes a weekend of it - first with Chapel Hill’s Mipso on Saturday and with fellow Brevard resident, singer-songwriter  Shannon Whitworth on Sunday.
Shakey Graves
Sunday  8 p.m., Visulite, 1615 Elizabeth Ave., $12-$15, www.visulite.com
Actor Alejandro Rose-Garcia (“Sin City: A Dame to Kill For,” TV’s “Friday Night Lights”) carves out a second career as an acclaimed folk musician whose gaining ground nationally. Esme Patterson, formerly of the Colorado-based band Paperbird, serves as the opening act and help out on vocals during his set. She appears on his album, “And the War Came.”

Jayhawks
Tuesday  8 p.m., Neighborhood Theatre, 511 E. 36th St., $25-$35, www.neighborhoodtheatre.com 
With the September release of all five of its major label albums on vinyl and reissues of three of its album on CD, the bulk of the Americana veteran’s 1997 lineup (Gary Louris, Marc Perlman, Tim O’Reagan, Karen Grotberg, and Kraig Johnson) hit the road to play material that hasn’t been played live in a decade.


Chris Eldridge and Julian Lage
Wednesday  8 p.m., Double Door, 1218 Charlottetown Ave., $13-$15, www.doubledoorinn.com  
The accomplished acoustic guitar duo (who both play 1939 Martin guitars) brings together twenty-six-year-old former child jazz prodigy Lage and the Punch Brothers’ second-generation chamber-grass master Eldridge (his dad was in bluegrass great the Seldom Scene) who wow with finger-picking improvisations and flowery, lyrical playing.