So let’s take our hats off to people like Dr. Ralph Stanley, Jesse McReynolds and countless others, and hope that after all these years they’re getting the credit they deserve for sacrificing so much of themselves to ensure that bluegrass has a place in American popular music. I know that the reason so many people spend their hard-earned money on this music is because of these musicians and their dedication and it gives me great pride to know that tomorrow Charles will be on the floor and I get the bed. - Graham Sharp

Sugarland dominated the mainstream country sales chart this summer, but there’s still plenty of room for the indies to get some attention. Of course, Randy Travis and Emmylou Harris still sound sterling on the new songs I have included here, and rock musicians like John Mellencamp, Sheryl Crow and My Morning Jacket contributed excellent songs to my summer soundtrack. Bluegrass is well-represented too, with the Duhks, the Grascals, Blue Moon Rising, Tony Rice and Cadillac Sky. Now that Labor Day weekend is over, and autumn is upon us, at least I have these songs to remind me of a pretty fun summer.

“We Run,” Sugarland

“Love Is a Gamble,” Randy Travis

“How She Could Sing the Wildwood Flower,” Emmylou Harris

“Longest Days,” John Mellencamp

“Now That You’re Gone,” Sheryl Crow

“Thank You Too,” My Morning Jacket

“How Was California?”, Reckless Kelly

“Dawn of a New Day,” Crystal Shawanda

“Never Meant to Be,” Tony Rice

“You Don’t See It,” the Duhks

“The Majestic Swan,” Cadillac Sky

“I Grew Up Today,” Blue Moon Rising

“The River,” Samantha Crain

“Sad Wind Sighs,” the Grascals

“Stand and Deliver,” Amy Ray

“Ordinary Fool,” Hacienda Brothers

Incessant updates! If you don’t recognize the place where a show is happening, click our Venues page. And by the way, if you see a listing here like this: Bedford Avenue Pose/Lorimer Street Simper, that means that the Bedford Avenue Pose are opening for the Lorimer Street Simper, not the other way around.

First the weekly stuff, then the daily calendar.

Sundays from half past noon to 3:30 PM, bluegrass cats Freshly Baked (f.k.a. Graveyard Shift), featuring excellent, incisive fiddle player Diane Stockwell play Nolita House (upstairs over Botanica at 47 E Houston).

Every Sunday, Michael Arenella & the Dreamland Dance Band play sly yet boisterous oldtimey hot jazz during a brunch set at Bar Tabac on Smith St. in Brooklyn Heights from about half past noon to 4 PM.

Sundays Sean Kershaw & the Terrible Two (that’s the New Jack Ramblers minus a couple fingers & toes) play the upstairs roof deck at Rocky Sullivan’s, 34 Van Dyke St at Dwight St in Red Hook, 1-4 PM. Free ferry from Manhattan (pier 11,Wall St.) and free shuttle buses from the F&G trains at Smith-9th St, the F,M,R at 4th Ave, and the 2,3,4,5,M,N,R at Borough Hall.

The 2008-09 series of organ concerts at St. Thomas Church kicks off on September 14 and continues most every Sunday (certain holidays excepted) at 5:15 sharp, featuring a whole slew of world-renowned performers. Concerts continue through May 17 of next year.

Every Sunday the Ear-Regulars, led by trumpeter Jon Kellso and (usually) guitarist Matt Munisteri play NYC’s only weekly hot jazz session starting around 8 PM at the Ear Inn on Spring St.  Hard to believe, in the city that springboarded the careers of thousands of jazz legends, but true. This is by far the best value in town for marquee-caliber jazz: for the price of a drink and a tip for the band, you can see world-famous players (and brilliant obscure ones) you’d usually have to drop $100 for at some big-ticket room. The material is mostly old-time stuff from the 30s and 40s, but the players (especially Kellso and Munisteri, who have a chemistry that goes back several years) push it into some deliciously unexpected places.

Sundays at 8:30 PM Sasha Dobson plays Pete’s Candy Store. Jazz chanteuse on the serious Brazilian tip: musically, she’s where Snorah Jones should hope to be in five years.

Every Sunday, hip-hop MC Big Zoo hosts the long-running End of the Weak rap showcase at the Pyramid, 9 PM, admission $5 before 10, $7 afterward. This is one of the best places to discover some of the hottest under-the-radar hip-hop talent, both short cameos as well as longer sets from both newcomers and established vets

Also Mondays in Sept. the Barbes house band, Chicha Libre plays there starting around 9:45. They’ve singlehandedly resurrected an amazing subgenre, chicha, which was popular in the Peruvian Amazon in the late 60s and early 70s. With electric accordion, cuatro, surf guitar and a boisterous rhythm section, their mix of obscure classics and originals is one of the funnest, most danceable things you’ll witness this year. Perhaps not so strangely, they sound a lot like Finnish surf rockers Laika and the Cosmonauts in their most imaginative moments.

Mondays in September (and pretty much every month, when he’s not on tour), Rev. Vince Anderson and his band play Black Betty in Williamsburg, two sets starting around 10:30 PM. The Rev. is one of the great keyboardists around, equally thrilling on organ or electric piano, an expert at Billy Preston style funk, honkytonk, gospel and blues. He writes very funny, very politically astute, frequently salacious original gospel songs and is one of the great live performers of our time. Moist Paula from Moisturizer is the lead soloist on baritone sax.

Tuesdays El Ritmo Southside plays Rose Bar in Williamsburg, 11 PM. Instrumental covers of classic, Fania-era salsa, mambo, cha-cha, rhumba etc.: Palmieri, Puente, Barretto, et al. featuring superb vibraphonist Tommy Mattioli and a rotating rhythm section.

Also every Tues in Sept., the boisterous and very popular brass-heavy gypsy jazz band Slavic Soul Party plays Barbes at 9. Get here as soon as you can as the opening act is usually popular as well.

Every Wednesday, Will Scott and drummer Wylie Wirth play mesmerizing, hypnotic, completely authentic Mississippi hill country blues along with Scott’s own melodic, tuneful blues originals at 68 Jay St. Bar in Dumbo, starting around 8:30 PM. Junior Kimbrough, R.L. Burnside and Asie Payton are sadly gone but Scott continues their tradition of music that is as danceable as it is trance-inducing, and does his influences justice.

Also every Wednesday, the Nat Lucas Organ Trio plays jazz at Lenox Lounge uptown, sets from 8 PM to midnight.

Also Wednesdays in September, the Doc Marshalls – equally good at rousing Texas honkytonk and Louisiana Cajun - are at Hill Country,  9 PM.

Fridays in September baritone Brooklyn country crooner Sean Kershaw – who’s been off on a really good Western swing tangent lately – plays Hill Country, 5 PM for happy hour.

The first major JMW Turner exhibit in the US in many moons is up at the Metropolitan Museum of Art through 9/21. Now might be a good time to check it out - get there early in the day if you can.

Mon Sept 1, the annual Coney Island Rockabilly Festival, starting in the afternoon: Catspaw play 3-ish, many more on the bill.

Also Mon Sept 1 Mamie Minch plays Rodeo Bar, 10:30ish. Sounding like what the soundtrack to a 1920s Mississippi road movie would have been if they’d had sound back then, she plays a mean resonator guitar and has a killer new album out.

Tues Sept 2 Luminescent Orchestrii play Joe’s Pub, 9:30 PM, adv tix $15 and absolutely necessary: this will sell out. One of the world’s great gypsy bands, fresh off the Dresden Dolls tour, ready to evoke the ghost of every Ukrainian who ever died within a ten-block radius.

Also Tues Sept 2 the haunting, hypnotic East African Arab music revivalists Sounds of Taraab play Apt, 419 W.13th St. 10 PM. Their new album is amazing.

Weds Sept 3 the Latin Giants of Jazz (Tito Puente’s backup band) are at Wagner Park, 7 PM. Wow. This is the kind of act you usually see playing huge arenas. Early arrival very strongly advised if you can.

Also Weds Sept 3-7, sets at 7:30 and 9:30 PM,  the McBride, Payton & Whitfield Trio: Christian McBride – bass; Nicholas Payton – trumpet; Mark Whitfield – guitar play the Jazz Standard, note that tix are “$30 plus tax.” A good mix of contrasting styles: McBride provides the oomph that terse, trad purists Payton and Whitfield need to get off their asses. Everybody in the group can write, a big plus.

Also Weds Sept 3-8 the Kenny Burrell Quintet (w/Benny Green, Peter Washington, Tivon Pennicott, Clayton Cameron) plays Dizzy’s Club at Rose Hall at Lincoln Center, ticket price TBA, sets at 7:30, 9:30 PM. Jazz guitar legend whose signature style has been imitated by thousands but hardly ever replicated. Excellent band behind him this time out, too.

Also Weds Sept 3 Spindrift play Glasslands, time TBA (both band and club sites say 8 but that’s dubious). Dark southwestern gothic psychedelic garage rock: Gun Club plus Plan 9 divided by Giant Sand, raised to the power of Morricone. Awesome stuff, and a great new vinyl ep out! They’re also at Cake Shop on Thurs Sept 4, 10 PM which is a much better bet because the club has good sound.

Also Weds Sept 3 at Kenny’s Castaways, at 9 PM Bob Petrocelli, the excellent blues guitarist from the Robert Charles Band plays a set of his own stuff followed by the Shithouse Lilies, a rousingly rustic, acoustic all-female country band.

Thurs Sept 4 Rachelle Garniez, who is just as good a piano player as she is on accordion, never tells the same joke twice (and she has a million good ones) and never plays a song the same way twice either, plays Barbes, 10 PM. Two of her albums (Luckyday and Melusine Years) are on our best-of-the-decade list; the latter was our pick for best of 2007.

Also Thurs Sept 4 a killer doublebill at Joe’s Pub with Chicha Libre and Cordero playing the cd release for their new one, 9ish. The former play intoxicatingly danceable, psychedelic Peruvian-style surf music, are just as fun live as Gogol Bordello, and you probably know all about them. The latter are Ani Cordero’s first highly-regarded rock en Espanol project (she’s also in Pistolera) which just keeps getting more and more tuneful. This will sell out, adv tix $15 at the box office absolutely essential.

Fri Sept 5, NYC’s reigning champion of authentically oldtimey ragtime banjo songs, the drop-dead hilarious Al Duvall plays Hank’s, 9 PM. He’s also at the Jalopy with CW Stoneking (see below) on 9/17 and at Pete’s on 9/18 at 9.

Also Fri Sept 5  Bogs Visionary Orchestra are playing Think Coffee, 248 Mercer St. (between 3rd St & 4th St) on 9/5, 9 PM. Deliriously good, sprawling bluegrass band, as good M Shanghai String Band and with even more energy.

Also Fri Sept 5 there’s a forro party at Barbes featuring cavaquino player Pedro Ramos, accordionist Rob Curto and special guests, 10 PM.

Also Fri Sept 5 Randi Russo plays Sidewalk, midnight. Impossible to imagine a better midnight act: dark, brooding outsider anthems, brilliant lyrics, casually graceful charisma and a voice like bloodstained velvet. One of the great songwriters of our time, end of story.

Sat Sept 6 an allday free outdoor show at South St. Seaport featuring – among others – inventive surf/garage/shoegaze trio the Vivian Girls, Hammond B3 organ jazz legend Dr. Lonnie Smith, imaginative, horn-heavy Chicago hip-hop instrumental band Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, hip-hop artist 4-Ize (whose flow is totally Dirty South even though he’s from Chicago), Icelandic folkie Olof Arnalds and Devin, the funniest man in the history of rap. Trouble is, the promoters haven’t posted a schedule. And you definitely don’t want to have to stand through sets by the likes of fifth-rate Japanese Stooges ripoff Boris, tuneless Michigan trendoids Awesome Color, tuneless Brooklyn dilettantes High Places or California nonmusicians Flying Lotus, whose computerized percussion will send you sleepwalking out onto South St. UPDATE:  It appears (at least from the South St. Seaport website) that the good bands begin at around 3 with Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, followed by Dr. Lonnie Smith, then Devin at 5, Vivian Girls at 6 and emcee KRS-One headlining around 8.

Also Sat Sept 6, an allday outdoor festival at Riverside Park. Bill Popp & the Tapes – who have been around since 1977, and whom you are destined to see at least once in your life kick things off at 2 PM followed by Amanda Thorpe and Ed Rogers’ gorgeously harmony-driven Britfolk/Britpop revivalists the Bedsit Poets at 3, Irish songwriter Enda Keegan (an acquired taste) at 4, legendary Clash collaborator Ellen Foley – who has never sounded better than she does right now –at 5 and the somewhat legendary, Stones/Pogues hybrid Joe Hurley and Rogue’s March (with James Mastro on guitar!) at 6:30. The show runs till 9; 1 train to 103rd and walk toward the Hudson.

Also Sat Sept 6, 8 PM Prana, a nonet of throat singers in the style of Huun Huur Tu sing at Jivamukti Yoga Center, 841 Broadway, 2nd Floor (between 13th and 14th), proceeds to Animal Mukti, a free spay and neuter clinic serving the cats and dogs of New York City. Also available: a workshop on throat singing on 9/7, details at the center.

Also Sat Sept 6 the Plunk Bros., AKA Boo Reiners (of Demolition String Band) and Bob Jones play classic country guitar stuff at Barbes, 8 PM followed by smart, politically aware, somewhat tongue-in-cheek Americana rock duo Kill Henry Sugar at 10.

Also Sat Sept 6 reliably entertaining 60’s style country throwbacks the Jack Grace Band open for semi-legendary Canadian bluegrass band Luther Wright & the Wrongs (you know, the guys who did the bluegrass version of Pink Floyd’s The Wall) play Rodeo Bar, 9 PM.

Also Sat Sept 6 Nanuchka – sort of the Israeli Siouxsie & the Banshees – are at the Mercury Lounge, 10ish.

Also Sat Sept 6 Al Lee Wyer plays Freddy’s, 11 PM. Veteran songwriter with a low-key growl, knows his way around a tune, at his best he mines the same dark bluecollar vein as Springsteen circa the River but without the clichés. See if he’ll play Bethlehem.

Also Sat Sept 6 the Coffin Daggers play Otto’s, 11 PM. Still one of the half-dozen best live bands in New York, they’ve stripped down their sound, going back to the tersely macabre, furiously loud guitar-and-organ surf punk sound they started with ten years ago, with richly rewarding results.

Sun Sept 7, 7 PM at Barbes music journalist Elisabeth Vincentelli screens vintage footage of Abba as well as numerous Abba parodies. Could be hysterically funny. Followed by gypsy jazz guitar monster Stephane Wrembel at 9 PM. Wrembel also here on 9/21.

Mon Sept 8 Delusions of Grand Street - love that name - play Trash, 9 PM. Refreshingly down-to-earth, smart female-fronted janglepop/rock band. Defiant, funny, tuneful and indelibly New York. Out-of-towners may not get them, but we do.

Beginning Weds Sept 10, C.W. Stoneking, the hilarious and strikingly authentic Australian king of oldtimey American hokum blues and minstrel music, plays the Dives of New York Tour in support of his new album Jungle Blues which is reputedly amazing. Several shows here this Sept: 9/10 at the Rockwood, 8 PM; 9/11 at Nublu, 9 PM with Smitty from Otto’s on steel guitar; 9/13 at 9 PM at Pete’s Candy Store with Brownbird Rudy Relic; 9/14 at 9 PM at Barbes with the always excellent Mamie Minch and concluding on 9/17 at 9:30 PM at the Jalopy Theater with the equally sensational, retro Al Duvall.

Also Weds Sept 10, most songwriters-in-the-round events are a waste of time: why sit through a bunch of mediocrities so you can see your favorite player do only three or four songs? This one at the Cornelia St. Café starting at 8 PM is a rare exception. Ann Klein may be best-known for her scorching lead guitar work, but she also writes wry, tuneful acoustic pop. Mary Lee Kortes, frontwoman of wickedly smart Americana band Mary Lee’s Corvette, has the distinction of being arguably the best singer AND the best songwriter in all of rock. Trina Hamlin (time to get a drink or take a bathroom break) and Natalia Zukerman - Pinchas’ kid, with her fast, jazzy fingers and slightly Dolly Parton-esque voice - are also on the bill.

Thurs 9/11 Elisa Flynn plays Sidewalk, 8 PM. Smartly tuneful, imaginatively diverse rocker with a sense of humor, somebody who just gets better and better. Click her myspace for the killer track Soul Minor Daughter.

Also Thurs 9/11 the Boss Martians play Don Pedro’s, 9ish, opening for popular, improper, retro Bostonians Muck & the Mires. Wow, what a discovery! Radio Birdman meets the Dickies: crazy sense of humor, murderous city tunes and razorwire guitar. This is the kind of band that could become your favorite in the span of about three minutes. Next time they come through town they should do a doublebill with the Mess Around.

Fri Sept 12 brilliantly melodic southwestern gothic rocker James Apollo plays Pete’s Candy Store, 8 PM. If you can’t afford Giant Sand and missed Calexico the last time they swung through town, this is your shot of tequila. Los Angeleno opening act Erich Von Kneip, who plays at 8, mines a smokier and jazzier but no less captivatingly noir vein.

Also Fri Sept 12 Chicago expat blues guitarist Irving Louis Lattin plays Lucille’s, 8 PM. Good, terse player, whether on acoustic or electric (probably the latter here): no wasted notes, no histrionic Robert Plant bs. He’s also here on 9/26 at 8.

Also Fri Sept 12 Chet Baker revivalist trumpeter/crooner Leif Arntzen and band play a very worthwhile benefit for producer Scott Harding – who was partially paralyzed in a hit-and-run accident a couple of months ago, and didn’t have the insurance to cover the hospital bill - at the Cornelia St. Café, 8 PM. Leif Arntzen, trumpet, vocals; Matt Miller, saxophones; John Dryden, piano;  Dan McCarthy, vibes; Miles Arntzen, drums; Phil Rowen, bass.

Also Fri Sept 12, 8 PM, Microscopic Septet pianist and co-founder Joel Forrester plays his imimitably witty, astonishingly diverse jazz songs at Barbes, $10 cover, followed at 10 by les Martines playing haunting, danceable musette instrumentals along with “a mixture of high energy contemporary French chanson mixed with Cuban, Yiddish, Italian, Argentinean and musette standards..

Also Fri Sept 12 fiery highway rockers the Sloe Guns play Arlene’s, 9 PM. A lush, twangy Gibson/Fender guitar attack and some anthems that get into your DNA and won’t get out.

Also Fri Sept 12, 9 PM one of the Wu-tang Clan’s frontline lyricists, GZA performs his best album, Liquid Swords all the way through at Irving Plaza, adv tix $25.

Also Fri Sept 12, if you like your surf music authentically jangly and low-key, Mr. Action & the Boss Guitars play classic and brilliantly obscure covers at Lakeside, 11 PM. If you get lucky they’ll do the formerly obscure Ventures classic Ginza Lights.

Sat-Sun Sept 13-14 Michael Arenella and the Dreamland Orchestra bring their brilliant, obscure 20s hot swing jazz to Governor’s Island, sets on 9/13 at a quarter to one, 2:30 and 4 PM (with free pie at 3:30!); 9/14 the Boilmaker Jazz Band plays sets at 11:30 AM and 12:45 PM followed by the Dreamland Orchestra at 2, 3:15 and 4:15, the free ferry leaves from the old Shaolin ferry terminal, right next to the new one at the Battery. Be aware that alcohol is strictly prohibited and that you may be searched rigorously prior to boarding the ferry (bring a thermos, that’s how we did it).

Also Sat Sept 13 the haunting, psychedelic, danceable Arab/African band Sounds of Taraab play Bush Baby, 1197 Fulton St at Bedford Ave in Bed-Stuy, 8 PM.

Also Sat Sept 13 intriguing and imaginative Mexican acid jazz band los Musicos de Jose play Joe’s Pub, 9:30 PM, adv tix $12 recommended.

Also Sat Sept 13 twangy, rustic Americana rockers the Felice Bros. and impressively terse, zeros-generation delta bluesman AA Bondy play Maxwell’s, 9:30 PM, $15.

Also Sat Sept 13, 10ish at Rodeo Bar it’s a Loretta Lynn Tribute featuring The Lonesome Prairie Dogs and the incomparable comedienne/chanteuse/troublemaker Tammy Faye Starlite – the missing link between Lenny Bruce and Jello Biafra, except that she’s way better looking.

Also Sat Sept 13 Simon & the Bar Sinisters play Lakeside, 10:15ish (early by Lakeside standards, but Simon likes to play long sets). A true original: raised on punk, addicted to surf, steeped in rockabilly, honest as the day he was born and very funny. And damn, what a guitarist. 

Sun Sept 14, early, 6 PM guitarist Jim Campilongo – spooky composer equally adept at western swing, surf and eerie soundtrack-style instrumentals - plays with his trio at 55 Bar.

Also Sun Sept 14, 8 PM  Paul Shapiro’s Ribs and Brisket Review plays the cd release for their new one Essen at the Cornelia St. Café. Exuberant, over-the-top Yiddish jazz featuring Cab Calloway and Slim Gaillard covers plus similar originals. Obviously this is not a dairy band, although it’s a good one: Paul Shapiro, sax, clarinet, vocal; Babi Floyd, vocals; Cilla Owens, vocals; Brian Mitchell, piano; Booker King, bass; Tony Lewis, drums.. 

Also Sun Sept 14 somewhat legendary Mexican ska rockers Maldita Vecindad play the Gramercy Theatre, 9ish, adv tix $37.50 available at the Irving Plaza box office. They’ve got one of the world’s greatest sax players and a vast back catalog of haunting, somewhat Dead Kennedys-inflected songs.  

Mon Sept 15 Ani Cordero’s relatively new, beautifully rustic, driving rock in Espanol band Pistolera opens for popular, jazzy Mexican ranchera singer Lila Downs – playing with both her band and with the Mariachi Academy of NY at the Town Hall, 8 PM, adv tix $25 at the box office.

Also Mon Sept 15 fast-fingerered Rhode Island swing jazz axemeister Duke Robillard opens for petite but potent blues vocal powerhouse Shemekia Copeland at B.B. King’s, 8 PM, adv tix $25 available at the box office.

Also Mon Sept 15 long-running Brooklyn faux-French garage rockers les Sans Culottes – featuring the sensational Francoise Hardly (AKA Moist Gina from Moisturizer) on bass, play the Mercury, 9:30, a $15 benefit for Planned Parenthood.

Also Mon Sept 15 The 80s Go South play satirical country covers of schlocky 80s hits – Tears for Fears, etc. – at Rodeo Bar, 10:30 PM. Has country become the new punk? Apparently so. 

Tues Sept 16, early, 7:30 PM the world’s only (mostly) all-female, (somewhat) lesbian klezmer group Isle of Klezbos play a free show in the community garden at 346 East Houston St, btw Avenues B & C. This wild, ecstatic crew play a dazzling and danceable mix of alternately rousing and haunting originals and classic, sometimes very obscure covers.

Also Tues Sept 16, 10ish, Kasey Chambers & Shane Nicholson play the Highline Ballroom, adv tix $25 at the box office. This Australian couple look like trendoids but their stock in trade is gorgeously retro 60s American country music.  One of Steve Earle’s kids opens, earnestly.

Weds Sept 17 popular, somewhat noir 90s melodic janglepop band the Dandy Warhols play Terminal 5, 10 PM, adv tix $27 available at the Mercury box office.

Thurs Sept 18 Greek oud virtuoso/composer Mavrothi Kontanis plays Mehanata, 9 PM with his astonishingly good band. Dark, haunting rebetika anthems, sly, tongue-in-cheek drinking songs and a lot of impressively diverse originals. Kontanis – who has two brilliant new albums out – is a hell of a soloist, but it’s his sax player who’s his secret weapon, equal parts Coltrane and refugee from Smyrna. 

Thurs-Fri Sept 18-19 the Hangdogs reunite to play a benefit for Iowa flood survivors at Rodeo Bar, 10ish. Five years ago, they were arguably the best band in New York, the missing link between the Bodeans and the Dead Kennedys, a scorchingly hot twangy rock outfit with a spot-on, politically-fueled sense of humor. Their most recent (one hopes not final) cd Wallace ’48 remains one of the decade’s very best.

Also Fri Sept 19 Matt Keating plays Housing Works Bookstore on Crosby just south of Houston, 8 PM. Fiery, cynical, often devastatingly literate janglerock songwriter riding the wave of his new, best-ever album, a double cd of the kind of tuneful broadsides Elvis Costello used to write before he decided to be a jazz guy.

Also Fri Sept 19 Musette Explosion featuring killer accordionist Will Holshouser and reliably excellent guitarist Matt Munisteri (who also plays banjo in this unit)plays Barbes, 8 PM. Musette is dark, gypsyish, blue-collar barroom music from France and Belgium from the 20s and 30s.

Also Fri Sept 19, Squeeze plays Radio City, 8ish, adv tix. very expensive ($39.50 at the box office). No idea how much they have left as a unit, but guitarist Glenn Tilbrook still wails and his co-writer Chris Difford can still write. One of the best of the British new wave bands, they have a massive back catalog of classics: Pulling Mussels, Another Nail in My Heart, Slightly Drunk, and, oh yeah, that wretched hit single that they didn’t write..

Also Fri Sept 19, 9 PM Ververitse, an anarchically fun, improvisationally dazzling Balkan brass band featuring members of Ansambl Mastika, Hungry March Band and Romashka play the Jalopy Café. 

Also Fri Sept 19 retro 60s garage psychedelic throwbacks the Brian Jonestown Massacre plays the Music Hall of Williamsburg, 10ish, tix $25 available at the Mercury box office.

Also Fri Sept 19 twangy, growling, somewhat Steve Earle-inflected former Backslider Chip Robinson plays Lakeside with the Roscoe Trio, 10ish – expect a long set.

Sept 20, early, 6 PM an excellent all-country bill at Southpaw featuring upbeat vintage 60s style cats Alex Battles & The Whiskey Rebellion, the alternately hilarious and haunting Jack Grace Band, the fiery, spirited Jessica Rose & The High Life, western swing/rockabilly guys Sean Kershaw & The New Jack Ramblers, the sprawling and impressively diverse M Shanghai String Band and Dock Oscar & The Ambassadors Of Love.

fri sept thurs-fri sept sept tix 30ish adv tix thurs sun sept sat-sun sept expensive NYC Live Music Calendar Sept-Oct 2008 Plus Other Events http://musicratty.com/article/b3b350702da3feeb063fd7e432f09d47 http://musicratty.com/article/b3b350702da3feeb063fd7e432f09d47 The name says it all, really: the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass fest, though in possession of an undeniable penchant for that which twangs, is hardly strictly a bluegrass festival.

From October 3-5, the eighth annual free-of-charge fest will run the gamut all over San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, bringing with it performances from the likes of Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Elvis Costello's High Whines and Spirits, Iron & Wine, Earl Scruggs, Ralph Stanley & His Clinch Mountain Boys, Nick Lowe, Richard Thompson, Emmylou Harris, Jon Langford's Skull Orchard featuring Sally Timms and the Burlington Welsh Male Chorus, Heavy Trash, Ben Kweller, Steve Earle and the Bluegrass Dukes, Steve's son Justin Townes Earle, Gary Louris and Mark Olson of the Jayhawks, Gogol Bordello, the Del McCoury Band, Iris DeMent, Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder, Loudon Wainwright III, Odetta, Tift Merritt, Greg Brown, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Waco Brothers, and, I kid you not, MC Hammer. Oaktown represent!

The free show will be preceded by a pair of not-so-free shows at October 2 and 3 at the city's Great American Music Hall. Appearing that night will be Guitar - Bass - Drums, a bit of a dad-rock supergroup featuring Ry Cooder, Nick Lowe, and Jim Keltner. Proceeds from those shows will go to the Richard deLone Special Housing Project, which seeks to assist those afflicted by Prader-Willi Syndrome.

The first week in October brings the first annual "International Ambient and Experimental Music Festival" IAMINDUST to Oakland's Orbis Nex, a very secret, sci-fi sounding venue if ever there was one. The event runs from October 3 through the 5 (hey, that's the same weekend as Hardly Strictly Bluegrass -- think there's much overlap?). You can check out the list of artists from the U.K. and U.S. here. -- Jennifer Maerz

It's called the Forget Summer Arts Festival, run by a non-profit based in a 1904 former Catholic Rectory -- their message is "to support the arts in southeast Saskatchewan and to provide a place for artists to perform and purvey their art." Why? Because they believe that "rural Saskatchewan needs live music."

Indeed. As does all of Canada, and tonight you can hear the live music coming from this corner of the country on Canada Live (8 p.m.) with highlights including acoustic/folk/roots musician Ben Sures, country singer songwriter Codie Prevost, the duo smokekiller and jen lane, and finally Shady Groove. That's right, not grove, groove -- and the Shady Groovers are Juno award-winning Ken Hamm and his partner, Heather Peat, along with Vancouver Island folk singer Donna Konsorado, who collectively play a mix of blues and bluegrass and folk.