Roadtrips

Break out the Birkenstocks -- it's folk-festival season. Today (July 26) through Saturday, the Podunk Bluegrass Festival (860-291-7350) takes over Martin Park in East Hartford. The main draw is Emmylou Harris -- who also makes an appearance at the Calvin Theatre (413-586-8686) in Northampton on Sunday -- but the fest also boasts the Larkins, Northern Lights, and many more. The Lowell Folk Festival (978-970-5000), the nation's largest free folk festival, runs Friday through Sunday on six outdoor stages. The roots on view range from zydeco and conjunto to Malian song and Irish fiddle ballads; included are the talents of Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys, Nathan and the Zydeco Cha-Chas, Michael and David Doucet, Seamus Connolly, the Holmes Brothers, and Solas. Meanwhile, this Friday through Sunday, some 40 acts -- including Vance Gilbert, Jimmy LaFave, Mary Gauthier, Lucy Kaplansky & John Gorka, Entrain, and Gillian Welch -- congregate on four stages in the Berkshires for the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival (860-364-0366) on Long Hill Farm in Hillsdale, New York.

Neo-folk pop star Shawn Colvin hits the bricks in support of her recent Whole New You (Columbia) with gigs on Wednesday at the FleetBoston Pavilion (617-931-2000) and next Thursday (August 2) at the Cape Cod Melody Tent (508-775-9100) in Hyannis. Local Grammy-nominated blues mama Susan Tedeschi swings through with the 24-year-old gospel steel-guitar prodigy Robert Randolph as her opening act; the pair are at Pearl Street (413-584-7771) in Northampton tonight (July 26); at the Cape Cod Melody Tent on Friday; and at the FleetBoston Pavilion on Saturday. Then Randolph hooks up with his pals John Medeski and the North Mississippi All Stars, who've collectively recorded an album of Sacred Steel-style gospel instrumentals as the Word. They'll hit the Paradise (617-423-NEXT) in Boston next Thursday (August 2) and Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel (401-272-5876) in Providence next Friday (August 3) before heading to the Newport Folk Festival (401-847-3700) that weekend.

Carrying the flag for sleazy hard rock, a somewhat dispirited Buckcherry are on the road in support of their ball-breaking paean to AC/DC-strength cheap thrills, Time Bomb (DreamWorks), a swell album that's not selling all that great. We think it's tops. The 'cherrys, along with upstarts Sinomatic and Econoline Crush, are at the Webster Theatre (860-525-5553) in Hartford tonight (July 26); at Lupo's on Friday; at the Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom (603-929-4100) on Saturday; and at the Paradise on Sunday.

Primus's main man continues his jam-band diversion, as Les Claypool's Frog Brigade march on Lupo's this Monday. Southern-fried boogie metal humpers Clutch are on tour with progressive jazz-metal dudes Candiria and local hardcore stalwarts Tree; the bill hits Chantilly's (800-477-6849) in Concord, New Hampshire, on Friday and Pearl Street on Saturday.
-- Carly Carioli