Roadtrips

Everyone's having a good chuckle over the rumor that Los Lobos landed big money from Hollywood Records because the label wanted to get in on the current Ricky Martin-led Latin Loca-motive. Motives aside, the band are performing at a creative peak right now, and This Time, their latest disc, finds them at a juncture of critical acclaim and mainstream popularity they haven't had since that cover of "La Bamba." As comfortable in hipster basements as in open-air mass-festival settings, they'll do both this weekend. This Thursday (August 12), they'll play the Middle East (617-864-EAST) in Cambridge; on the 13th they'll headline the first night of the three-day Berkshire Mountain Music Festival (888-245-7081) at Butternut Valley Ski Area in Great Barrington. Day two of the BMMF, on Saturday, features hip-hop's the Roots alongside a bunch of hippies including Strangefolk and Jiggle the Handle; Sunday's gig features NYC downtowniks Soul Coughing, again supported by a bunch of hippies.

Rhode Island assumes the position of jazz capital of the world this weekend with the annual JVC Jazz Festival -- Newport at Fort Adams State Park (401-847-3700). It kicks off on Friday the 13th with a less-than-stellar preview featuring Manhattan Transfer and the Royal Crown Revue at the Newport Casino, and Saturday's headliner is that smoothie Harry Connick Jr., but McCoy Tyner leads a trio on Saturday, and Sunday's bill is a stellar one with Diana Krall, Branford Marsalis leading a trio, and Joshua Redman heading a quartet.

In the midst of negotiating a Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young reunion in 1988, Atlantic Records' Ahmet Ertegun -- who had the first three under contract -- was attempting to bargain with David Geffen, who held the keys to Neil Young. According to Frederic Dannen (in his excellent record-industry muckraker Hit Men), Geffen wanted a 50-50 split, even though Ertegun had three-quarters of the band: "`Listen, Ahmet!', Geffen seethed . . . `Crosby, Stills, and Nash are OLD FAT FARTS! The only one with any TALENT is Neil Young!' " Well, it's 11 years later, and over the course of the last year a CSN&Y reunion has been booked, unbooked, rebooked, and scaled down; it has yet to pass -- apparently because the Only One With Any Talent keeps backing out. But if you're really, really jonesing, one of those old fat farts, David Crosby, brings an outfit he's been calling CPR -- we'll have mercy and avoid the obvious jokes -- to the Iron Horse Music Hall (413-584-0610) in Northampton on Thursday the 12th (tonight) and to Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel (401-272-5876) in Providence on Friday the 13th.

Ah, those plucky lads from Ireland -- what a sense of humor. Some folks have put together a "Luck o' the Irish" Festival . . . on Friday the 13th. Of course, on a day like that we'll all need all the luck we can get, so a trip to the Pines Theater (800-843-8425) in Northampton to catch the Saw Doctors, Robbie O'Connell, and Rubyhorse mightn't be amiss. If you're feeling superstitious, you can also catch the Saw Doctors on August 14 at Waterworks (617-689-0600) in Quincy.
-- Carly Carioli