Roadtrips

Billy Joe Shaver is a knuckle-scarred veteran of bar fights and domestic troubles -- not to mention decades of battles in the songwriting trenches of Nashville. After a spell of success in the '70s, when Waylon Jennings and Tom T. Hall championed his material, Shaver is now enjoying a renaissance fronting his own band called Shaver, which features his hot-pickin' son Eddy on guitar. He also appeared in Robert Duvall's masterful film The Apostle and has a new acoustic album, Victory. See him burn up the frets and the raw, two-fisted country material of his past at Johnny D's (617-776-2004) in Somerville on November 18 and the Iron Horse (413-584-0610) in Northampton on November 19.

Twenty-six-year-old jazz bassist Christian McBride has been one of the shining lights of the new generation of jazz stars -- a virtuoso who can simultaneously support and inspire in any setting. McBride's specialties thus far have been straight-ahead jazz, Miles-esque jazz funk, and, well, just straight funk. Now, the Portland Performing Arts has commissioned him to write a piece for the Maine Mass Choir. The result is The Movement, Revisited, McBride's first extended composition, a tribute to the civil-rights era of the '60s, scored for the 40-voice gospel ensemble and his own quartet. It premieres tonight (November 12) at Portland's State Street Church (207-761-0591) before traveling to the Artists' Collective (860-527-3205) in Hartford on the 14th and Mechanics Hall (508-754-3231) in Worcester on the 15th.

The hardest working woman in the indie-rock business, Tara Jane O'Neil, sounds, well, rather laid back on her new outing with Retsin, her folky collaboration with Ruby Falls frontwoman Cynthia Nelson. It's been more than two years since the last Retsin disc -- maybe because O'Neil's been busy releasing discs with her band the Sonora Pine and guesting on albums and tours by friends like Come, Sebadoh, and Danielle Howle. But she and Nelson are now focused on supporting their new Luck of Amaryllis (Carrot Top) with a tour that comes to the Middle East (617-864-EAST) in Cambridge on November 13 with Victory at Sea, the Vehicle Birth, and Cathode; and on the 14th at the Century Lounge (401-751-2255) in Providence, again with Victory at Sea and V for Vendetta.

Finally, the Saw Doctors are one of Ireland's most popular rock bands, and when you see their infectious live show, it's not hard to figure. They'll be at the Paradise (617-562-8800) in Boston on the 13th and Pearl Street (413-584-0610) in Northampton on the 18th.

-- CC