The Big Gigs: 10 best concerts to see in Twin Cities area this week

1. Larry Carlton: Jazz fans will know the stellar guitarist from his 1970s stint as a member of the Crusaders, later in the smooth jazz quartet Fourplay and from his many solo recordings. But the four-time Grammy winner was featured on so many classic recordings including Steely Dan’s “Katy Lied” and “Aja,” Joni Mitchell’s “Court and Spark” and “Hejira,” Barbra Streisand’s “Stoney End,” Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5 and Other Odd Jobs,” Al Jarreau’s “Glow” and Michael Jackson’s “Off the Wall.” While Carlton has been prolific in the studio for decades, he hasn’t performed in the Twin Cities since 2010. (6:30 & 8:30 p.m. the Dakota, 1010 Nicollet Mall, Mpls., $45-$65, dakotacooks.com)

2. Luke Bryan: The four-year wait for a new album from the country superstar is almost over. He’ll drop “Mind of a Country Boy,” his eighth full length, on Sept. 27 featuring “But I Got a Beer in My Hand” and other songs that mention hunting, fishing, family, tractors, cowboy boots and, yes, beer. The new tune “Closing Time in California” does not suggest that he’s leaving his spot as a judge on “American Idol,” where fellow country superstar and former “Idol” champ Carrie Underwood will join him for the upcoming season. Opening are George Birge, Larry Fleet, and Ella Langley (7 p.m. Somerset Amphitheater, 495 Main St., Somerset, Wis. $55-$700, ticketmaster.com)

Also: It Take Two, Baby showcases the work of famous duos — performers or songwriters — including Peaches & Herb, Sam & Dave, Leiber & Stoller and Ashford & Simpson delivered by Minneapolis’ splendidly versatile Ginger Commodore and such partners as Geoff Jones and Steve Faison (6:30 p.m. Crooners, $25- $35); Icelandic rock band Kaleo of “Way Down We Go” fame are teasing a new album in conjunction with its current Payback Tour (7 p.m. Mystic Lake Casino Showroom, $49-$65); Scottish folk vets the Tannahill Weavers have lived on with new members well into the group’s fifth decade and are back on tour (7:30 p.m. Cedar Cultural Center, $30-$35).

3. Outlaw Music Festival: For the second consecutive summer, Willie Nelson has guided his compelling triple bill to western Wisconsin. At 91, Willie was mesmerizing in May in Duluth and, though his set list pretty much remains the same, his sidemen don’t; sons Micah and Lukas are expected to be on board this time. In the penultimate slot on the Outlaw fest is Minnesota’s iconoclastic road warrior Bob Dylan, who is throwing in some covers (“Mr. Blue,” “Six Days on the Road,” “Little Queenie”) with his usual mix of more recent material and a couple of classics. Raspy-voiced heartland rocker John Mellencamp precedes his fellow Rock & Roll Hall of Famers. Some act has to open for these three American music treasures and that will be Memphis soul-blues band Southern Avenue. (5:15 p.m. Somerset Amphitheater, 495 Main St., Somerset, Wis., $63-$750, ticketmaster.com)

Also: The venerable scholar, broadcaster and musician Ben Sidran has issued his 35th album, “Rainmaker,” a bluesy collection about surviving in the modern world; joining the piano man will be his son Leo Sidran on drums and Billy Peterson on bass, both of whom played on the album (7 p.m. Fri. & 7:30 p.m. Sat. Crooners, $40-$50); country vet Clint Black is celebrating the 35th anniversary of his outstanding debut “Killin’ Time” (7:30 p.m. Vetter Stone Amphitheater, Mankato, $50-$265); the Minnesota String Gathering bundles together some of the scene’s hottest new roots-music pickers, including Brotherhood of Birds, Pot Luck String Band and No Man’s String Band (7 p.m. Hook & Ladder Theater, $17-$23); folky strummer Katy Vernon’s new rock band Favourite Girl, featuring Turn Turn Turn’s Barb Brynstad and more ace players, celebrates a single/video with some of the Cities’ favorite women rockers, Annie & the Bang Bang, Mayda and Former Crush (6-9 p.m., Mixed Blood Theatre, $20-$30); topical punk revivalists the Silent Treatment hit Cloudland Theater with Sunken Planes (8 p.m., $12-$15); the New Standards squeeze in a couple more gigs at the Dakota while in the midst of planning their jazzy trio’s beloved holiday shows (6:30 & 8:30 p.m., $30-$50).

4. Grand Rapids Riverfest: An event that has brought many Twin Cities music lovers up north in recent years with previous headliners such as Jason Isbell and Wilco, Riverfest boasts a lineup this year that reads like a hipsters’ guide to modern Austin, Texas, scene makers. Enduring indie-rock favorites Spoon tops the bill amid a relatively low-key year featuring assorted festival dates and a 10th anniversary reissue of the “They Want My Soul” album. Bluesy roots-rocker Shakey Graves and Grammy-winning bluegrass/folk singer Sarah Jarosz also join the I-35 North caravan. Kentuckian S.G. Goodman and northern Minnesota’s own Corey Medina & Brothers round out the one-day fest, which takes place in a convenient and cozy riverfront downtown site. (1-11 p.m. Grand Rapids Library Amphitheater in Grand Rapids, Minn., $129, $10-$39 for kids, grandrapidsriverfest.com)

5. Rock Bend Folk Festival: Like We Fest, this greater Minnesota festival has been going for a long time — 33 years — with a slew of volunteers making it happen. The big difference is this two-day, two-stage folk fest in St. Peter has free admission. Saturday’s lineup includes St. Paul finger-picking ace and humorist Pat Donohue, Twin Cities folkie Humbird and City Mouse, Billy Steiner’s revered Mankato institution that has performed at every Rock Bend. The roster for Sunday includes Minnesotans Mike Munson and Phil Heywood and Wisconsin’s Them Coulee Boys. (noon Sat. & Sun., Minnesota Square Park. St. Peter, free, rockbend.org)

Also: Swooning and dramatic Chicago indie-rock band Brigette Calls Me Baby kick off their tour here led by the golden-voiced Wes Leavins, who sang in the “Million Dollar Quartet” on Broadway and in Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis” movie (8 p.m. Fine Line, $20-$35); touring in support of his “Wildflowers Vol 1″ album with pianist Sullivan Fortner, extraordinarily adventurous, Grammy-winning jazz vocalist Kurt Elling, a Gustavus Adolphus alum, will be be accompanied by pianist Joey Calderazzo (6:30 & 9 p.m. the Dakota, $30-$40); it seems fitting to have Lamont Cranston, which has been boogieing in Minnesota for more than five decades, to help celebrate the 50th anniversary of James J. Hill Days (7 p.m. Lake Street, Wayzata, free); while their current tourmates Spoon head up to Grand Rapids, Austin’s wild throwback punk band A Giant Dog stops in Minneapolis to play a special mini-fest in the backyard of Grumpy’s Bar with staffers’ bands Bermuda Squares, TV for Dogs and Michael Gay and His Dang Band (2-9 p.m., $25).

6. 10th Wave Chamber Collective: Since 2017, this ensemble of instrumentalists has been collaborating with a lot of fascinating folks, emphasizing music by living, local and underrepresented composers. For its season-opening concert at the Lakewood Memorial Chapel — a really nice place for music — the group will present works that combine poetry and music, most notably celebrated film composer Brent Michael Davids narrating his work, “The Last of James Fenimore Cooper III.” Elwyn A. Fraser Jr. will also will perform on a program that features pieces by Michael Maiorana, James Rolfe and Vivian Fung. (3 p.m. Lakewood Memorial Chapel, 3600 Hennepin Av. S., Mpls., $20-$30, 10thwave.org)

Also: With her 2023 EP, the Band Perry’s Kimberly Perry has gone solo and sings about how she wants to flip the script on her trio’s country classic “If I Die Young” and bury her on a bed of roses and “send me away with the words of a love song” (8 p.m. Fine Line, $28-$45); Twin Cities songwriting hero Dylan Hicks and his large, neo-jazzy all-star ensemble Small Screens celebrate the release of their second album, “Modern Flora” (7:30 p.m. Parkway Theater, $20-$25); Rondo ‘56, Dan Chouinard’s compelling musical theater piece about St. Paul’s Black neighborhood being displaced by I-94, features stellar Twin Cities vocalists Thomasina Petrus, T. Mychael Rambo and Charmin Michelle (4 p.m. Crooners, $30-$40); with Willie Wisely on vocals and Tommy Barbarella on organ, this new Twin Cities combo will explore vintage organ pop from the catalogs of Brian Auger, Booker T. Jones and others (7 p.m. the Dakota, $15-$25).

7. Shaboozey: With the shamelessly formulaic but undeniably catchy summer megahit “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” for his calling card, this Virginia-reared singer has one of the more curiously watched concert tours of the fall. He’s being churned out by the Nashville sausage-making machinery, but he’s also earning dance club, pop and hip-hop rotations thanks to various remixes of the song and other tracks such as “Drink Don’t Need No Mix,” featuring Texas rapper BigXthaePlug. Yep, the dude has a thing for drinking songs. Let’s see how well he goes down in this Twin Cities coming-out gig. (7:30 p.m. First Avenue, 701 1st Av. N., Mpls., resale tickets only, first-avenue.com)

8. Gillian Welch and David Rawlings: The new album by the influential, Grammy-winning bluegrass/folk couple not only marks their first collection of new tunes in seven years, it also signals the rebuilding of their recording studio and neighborhood in Nashville after it was ravaged by a tornado in 2020. Named “Woodland” after the studio itself, the record is rife with raw emotions and lessons on getting through hard times and hanging on to what’s good. Of course, that’s been their musical m.o. going back to Welch’s T Bone Burnett-produced 2001 debut “Revival,” but it hits hard again here. They’re settling in for two nights, with Rawlings also singing tunes to round out the shows. (8 p.m. Mon. & Tue., Fitzgerald Theater, 10 E. Exchange St., St. Paul, $59-$125, axs.com)

Also: Naturally 7, the New York a cappella group often seen opening for Michael Bublé, offers movie themes from “Titanic,” “Grease,” “West Side Story” and others (7 p.m. the Dakota, $55-$65).

9. Dave Alvin and Jimmie Dale Gilmore: The former is the Los Angeles roots-rock hero from the Blasters who’s getting a lifetime achievement award later this month at the Americana Fest. The latter is the windy-voiced Texas Panhandle cosmic twanger from the Flatlanders who just did an enlightened interview for Marc Marmon’s “WTF” podcast. Together, Alvin and Gilmore are enjoying something of a late-career revival working with their band of all-star alt-twang players, the Guilty Ones, beautifully exemplified by their new album, “TexiCali.” (7:30 p.m. Cedar Cultural Center, 416 Cedar Av. S., Mpls., $35-$40, thecedar.org)

Also: Last seen as a vocalist backed by David Bowie’s former touring musicians in 2018, Guatemalan polymath Gaby Moreno, who won a Grammy for best Latin pop album this year (for “X Mi (Vol. 1″), is touring in support of her new record “Dusk” (7 p.m. the Dakota, $40-$45); tenor Jonathan Yarrington, a specialist in Czech and German art song and a former regional winner of the Metropolitan Opera’s National Council Auditions, will perform with pianist Owen Lovell (7:30 p.m., Ultan Recital Hall, Ferguson Hall, University of Minnesota, free).

10. Black Pumas [rescheduled from a rainout in June]: After their cool-grooving 2019 sleeper hit “Colors” turned them into unlikely pop stars and even earned them a best new artist Grammy nomination, Texas studio partners Eric Burton and Adrian Quesada made good on the buzz by beefing up their band and putting on some true soul-stirring live shows. They continue to grow and strengthen on their long-awaited follow-up album, “Chronicles of a Diamond,” which leans into Burton’s Al Green-smooth voice and puts some innovative spins on modern soul music. The opening act has changed to Chicago’s jazzy and soulful hip-hop star Ric Wilson. (7 p.m. Surly Brewing Festival Field, $50, axs.com)

Also: Ahead of their hometown release party at the Fitzgerald Theater two days later, the Cactus Blossoms will play an in-store duo set to promote their fourth LP, “Every Time I Think of You” (7 p.m. Electric Fetus, free with album purchase); new operators of Minneapolis’ old workhorse club the Cabooze are kicking off a reopening weekend with a new weekly residency by groovy jammers Twine (8 p.m., free); two of the Twin Cities’ best-loved folkie singer/songwriters, Sarah Morris and Haley, pair up at one of our best listening rooms (7 p.m. the Dakota, $30-$35).

Classical music critic Rob Hubbard contributed to this column.

Note: This story was updated after the NBNL Festival, scheduled for Sunday, was canceled.