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The week ahead: Music

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Good for your soul

INDIA.ARIE The play on words in the title of India.Arie’s new album is intentional. The neo-soul singer indeed sounds like she’s having a conversation with you on “SongVersation,” which features her signature mix of odes to self-empowerment and R&B ballads to break your heart. Nov. 24, 7 p.m. Tickets: $45-$65. Wilbur Theatre. 800-745-3000, www.ticketmaster.com

JAMES REED

Pop & Rock

BASIA BULAT On “Tall Tall Shadow,” her assured new album, this Canadian singer-songwriter fleshed out her elegant indie-folk with exuberant harmonies, orchestral arrangements, and big choruses on scale with Feist at her most effusive. She shares the bill with local singer-songwriter Drew O’Doherty. Nov. 22, 7 p.m. Tickets: $12. Johnny D’s, Somerville. 617-776-2004, www.ticketweb.com

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LISSIE She has yet to make a record that captures the full range of feeling and ferocity she brings to a stage, but Lissie’s latest, “Back to Forever,” comes close. The California-based rocker sings from the gut, somewhere between Stevie Nicks and Chrissie Hynde, and has earned high-profile fans from David Lynch to Ellie Goulding. The Kopecky Family Band opens. Nov. 22, 6:30 p.m. Tickets: $20, $18 in advance. Royale. 800-745-3000, www.ticketmaster.com

THUNDERCAT First noted as a bass player, Stephen Bruner found even more success under the name Thundercat. Co-produced by Flying Lotus, his new album, “Apocalypse,” is all over the musical map. It darts from space-age funk to sweet ‘70s soul to spectral R&B. Nov. 24, 9 p.m. Tickets: $18, $15 in advance. The Sinclair, Cambridge. 800-745-3000, www.ticketmaster.com

JAMES REED

Folk, World & Country

THE BOMBADILS Montreal-based but representing the breadth of its homeland — from Vancouver to Halifax — in where its members hail from, this rising band of Canucks purvey a plucky brand of folk that incorporates a myriad of sources and components into its instrumental and (English and French) vocal music, from Celtic to bluegrass to Canadian and American old-time. Nov. 22, 7:30 p.m. Tickets: $13. Eliot Street Coffeehouse, Jamaica Plain. 800-838-3006. www.brownpapertickets.com

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CLAIRE LYNCH Another November brings the start of another Boston Bluegrass Union season, and this year, things kicks off with the return of BBU favorite Claire Lynch. She’s a woman who has long been one of the genre’s leading lights, thanks to her distinctive singing voice, top-notch band, and an expansive take that folds folk, country and acoustic swing into her bluegrass. Nov. 23, 7:30 p.m. Tickets: $25. National Heritage Museum, Lexington. 617-782-2251. www.bbu.org

THE DEVIL MAKES THREE On their just-released album “I’m a Stranger Here,” the Devil Makes Three fills out their sound with percussion and a variety of other instruments — fiddle, horns, and even vibes — but on the road, they’ll be back to playing their new songs as they play their old — as a power roots trio, in core guitar-banjo-bass fiddle format. One man band Shakey Graves opens. Nov. 22, 8 p.m. Tickets: $20. House
of Blues. 800-745-3000, www.livenation.com

MARIN/MARIN These married five-string fiddle masters — Mikael Marin on viola and Mia on violin — play a mixture of Swedish traditional and classical music and their own originals, and have been making a name as a duo in their native country with the quality of their arrangements, improvisations and compositions. Nov. 25, 8 p.m. Tickets: $20. Club Passim, Cambridge. 617-492-7679, www.passim.org

STUART MUNRO

Jazz, Blues & Cabaret

FRED HERSCH & JULIAN LAGE DUO Poetic piano master Hersch and versatile, virtuosic, rising-star guitarist Lage celebrate their critically-acclaimed recording “Free Flying,” a collection of sparkling chamber jazz conversations, lyrical and prickly by turns. Nov. 21, 8 and 10 p.m. Tickets: $25. Scullers. 617-562-4111, www.scullersjazz.com

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LAVAY SMITH & HER RED HOT SKILLET LICKERS The bombshell singer and her rollicking accomplices are jump-blues, R&B, and even rockabilly adepts. Lately, they’ve been delving into the swinging, blues-shouting, Kansas City sound. Nov. 22, 23, 8 and 10 p.m. Tickets: $25. Scullers. 617-562-4111, www.scullersjazz.com

36th ANNUAL JOHN COLTRANE MEMORIAL CONCERT The long-running tribute’s latest installment is entitled “An Evening of Jubilee Songs,” and features the JCMC instrumentalists with premier vocal group The New England Spiritual Ensemble, commemorating the Emancipation Proclamation’s 150th anniversary and the 50th anniversaries of the March on Washington and the murder of the four young girls in the Birmingham, Alabama Baptist Church bombing. Nov. 23, 7:30 p.m. Tickets: $27-$40. Northeastern University, Blackman Theatre, 360 Huntington Ave., Boston. 617-671-0789, www.friendsofjcmc.org

WAYNE SHORTER 80th BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION Few figures have left more indelible footprints across the landscape of jazz than the august saxophonist, composer, and bandleader. Three stellar groups assemble for the occasion: Shorter’s own quartet featuring pianist Danilo Perez, bassist John Patitucci, and drummer Brian Blade; saxophonist Joe Lovano and trumpeter Dave Douglas’s “Sound Prints” quintet; and a trio featuring pianist Geri Allen, bassist Esperanza Spalding, and drummer Terri Lyne Carrington. Nov. 24, 5 p.m. Tickets: $30-$85. Symphony Hall. 617-482-6661, www.celebrityseries.org

KEVIN LOWENTHAL

Classical

BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Principal bassoonist Richard Svoboda performs the premiere of Marc Neikrug’s Bassoon Concerto under the baton of Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, who also leads Beethoven’s “Pastoral” Symphony and two suites from Falla’s “Three-cornered Hat.” Nov. 21-23. Symphony Hall. 617-266-1200, www.bso.org

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BOSTON PHILHARMONIC The formidable Moldovan violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja makes her US debut with a performance of Bartók’s Violin Concerto No. 2, with conductor Benjamin Zander also leading works by Brahms and Weber. Nov 21 and 24, Sanders Theatre; Nov. 22, Mechanics Hall; Nov. 23, Jordan Hall. 617-236-0999, www.bostonphil.org

DISCOVERY ENSEMBLE Courtney Lewis leads an enticing program devoted to Thomas Adès’s Chamber Symphony, Rameau’s Suite from “Les Boréades,” and Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. Nov. 24, 3 p.m. Jordan Hall. 617-585-1260, www.discoveryensemble.org

JEREMY EICHLER

Heather Johnson in "Lizzie Borden."Barry Chin/Globe Staff/Globe Staff

Swinging opera

LIZZIE BORDEN For its annual escape from the Shubert Theatre, Boston Lyric Opera returns to the Castle at Park Plaza with a new chamber adaptation of Jack Beeson’s 1965 opera about Fall River’s most notorious murder case. David Angus conducts and Christopher Alden directs, with a cast that includes Heather Johnson in the title role. Nov. 22-24. 617-542-4912, www.blo.org

JEREMY EICHLER