JESSICA LEA MAYFIELD Mayfield looks back to her beginnings with this show, to the first album she made under her own name with the Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach, “With Blasphemy So Heartfelt.” Her performance will be solo acoustic. June 6, 7 p.m. $20. Red Room at Café 939, 939 Boylston St. 857-337-6206, www.berklee.edu/cafe939
CLYDE MCGEE McGee is a member of Portland, Ore., string band the Bridge City Sinners, who advertise what they do as “not your grandparents’ folk music.” (Is that good or bad? You decide.) McGee plays clawhammer banjo, among other things, and will perform with fellow Bridge City Sinner Lightnin’ Luke at the newly opened Deep Cuts. June 8, 8 p.m. $13. Deep Cuts, 21 Main St., Medford. 781-219-3815, www.deepcuts.rocks
Advertisement
JOSHUA HEDLEY/LAUREN MORROW In his song “Country & Western,” Josh Hedley claims that he’s a “singing professor” of the genre. Seeing him live just once is enough to confirm that it’s no idle boast. He’s on a co-bill with Lauren Morrow, who has widened her sound on her solo debut, “People Talk,” from the high-test country she essayed as the singer with Whiskey Gentry. June 11, 6 p.m. $15. The Porch Southern, 175 Rivers Edge Drive, Medford. 781-874-9357, www.theporchsouthern.com
VALERIE JUNE Don’t let the banal title of the collection fool you; when you apply Valerie June’s dreamy, cosmic folk and the growly sibilance of her singing voice to a batch of covers from Nick Cave, Gillian Welch, Joe South, Bob Dylan, and others, what you get are the delightful results captured on the “Under Cover” EP, her latest release. June 14, 7:30 p.m. $38-$58. City Winery, 80 Beverly St. 617-933-8047. www.citywinery.com/boston
JERRON PAXTON AND DENNIS LICHTMAN Jerron “Blind Boy” Paxton is a multi-genre multi-instrumentalist; the banjo is his main thing, but he’s also adept on piano, harmonica, guitar, ukulele, accordion, fiddle, and bones, and he uses them all for forays into blues, jazz, ragtime, country, folk, and Cajun. He’s teamed up with someone who is also multiple on both counts in Dennis Lichtman for a duo album, which the two will draw on for this Cambridge date. June 14, 8 p.m. $20. Club Passim, 47 Palmer St., Cambridge. 617-492-7679, www.passim.org
Advertisement
DANIEL DONATO What do you get when you cross Merle Haggard with the Grateful Dead? Something that sounds a lot like the self-labeled “cosmic country” played by this young Nashville hot-shot guitar picker. July 21, 8 p.m. $20. Levitate Backyard, 1871 Ocean St., Marshfield. 617-319-8425, www.levitatebackyard.com
RODNEY CROWELL Maybe you can teach an old dog new tricks: Americana elder statesman Rodney Crowell is still making records on the regular, and for his latest, “The Chicago Sessions,” he teamed up with Jeff Tweedy. His Rockport show will feature an opening set by dobro player Rob Ickes and guitarist Troy Hensley; the bluegrass aces paired up for an album in 2015 and have been working as a duo ever since. July 20, 7:30 p.m. $50-$72. Shalin Liu Performance Center, 37 Main St., Rockport. 978-546-7391, www.rockportmusic.org
REDD VOLKAERT A rare area appearance by one of the finest Telecaster players in the country world (or any other world, for that matter), Volkaert has a formidable resume, including occupying the guitar chair in Merle Haggard’s band, the Strangers, for several years. July 28, 8 p.m. $24. Bull Run Restaurant, 215 Great Road, Shirley. 978-425-4311, www.bullrunrestaurant.com
Advertisement
THE STEEL WOODS One of the finer extant country-Southern rock hybrids, the Steel Woods make a habit of supplementing their own material with wide-ranging cover songs — from John Anderson to Tom Petty to Black Sabbath — that are striking in their choice and their execution. Witness the excruciating sadness they wring out of Darrell Scott’s “Uncle Lloyd.” Aug. 11, 8 p.m. $25. Paradise Rock Club, 967 Commonwealth Ave. www.livenation.com
CALEXICO Anniversary editions and accompanying full-album tours are all the rage these days, and though we are urged to believe that something memorable is afoot when it happens, the quality of the undertaking depends on the quality of the original. That’s not an issue with Calexico’s contribution to the trend, as they’re marking the 20th anniversary of one of their finest efforts, “Feast of Wire.” Aug. 12, 8 p.m. $58. Narrows Center for the Arts, 16 Anawan St., Fall River. 508-323-1926, www.narrowscenter.org; Aug. 19, 8 p.m. $42. 3S Artspace, 319 Vaughan St., Portsmouth, N.H. 603-766-3330, www.3sarts.org
Stuart Munro can be reached at sj.munro@verizon.net.
