So yeah, we ignored our colleagues up at the Portland Phoenix when they were raving about some guy from Lewiston calling himself Raycharles. I mean, c’mon — nothing ever happens in Maine. Shoemaker who looks like Grizzly Adams and lives in a log cabin and sings folk songs like a ’50s soul man? Pffft — sure, whatever. So now sitting here listening to Ray LaMontagne’s RCA debut, Trouble, we feel a little stupid. Okay, make that a lot stupid. Because the guy’s an amazing singer: he’s often compared with Van Morrison, but his sandpapery, melismatic magic reminds us more of Sam Cooke. Singing Cat Stevens and Nick Drake songs. On a Ryan Adams record. Damien Rice: meet your Michael Bolton. All right, shutting up now about Ray (Mikael Wood has more to say about him on page 11), but only on the condition that our Portland branch forgives us our trespasses and takes a long listen to this indie-folksinger kid from the Cape called Willy Mason, whose Where the Humans Eat (quietly issued last fall on Conor Oberst’s new label, and available as a free download in its entirety at www.team-love.com) is voice-of-a-generation stuff too. Ray and Willy kick off a tour Friday at the Big Easy (207-871-8817) in Portland before hitting the Paradise (617-562-8800) in Boston on Saturday and the Iron Horse (413-584-0610) in Northampton on Sunday.

Under the fab nom-de-rap Baby Donut, riot-grrrl progenitor and Bratmobile founder Allison Wolfe has been moonlighting as a booty-tech princess in the snarky DIY hip-hop outfit Hawnay Troof while also cranking up her digi-punk side project Baby Truth (Lied). But since moving to DC, she’s formed a killer all-lady punk trio called Partyline that also includes the frontwoman from the capital’s best synthpunk band, Hott Beat’s Angela Melkisethian. Their Girls with Glasses demo practically screams where-were-you-in-’92, its giddy enthusiasm colliding head-on with basement-hardcore amateurism in lo-fi playground rants that are, as their best song is titled, "Unsafe at Any Speed." (You can download that track at partylinedc.com.) The band hit Flywheel (413-527-9800) in Easthampton on Saturday.

Elsewhere, PETA starts a circle pit with the "Hardcore Against Fur" tour, which brings H20, Stretch Armstrong, and With Honor to the Palladium (800-477-6849) in Worcester on Friday. People for the ethical treatment of former Anthrax singers, on the other hand, will have to take the bus to Hartford, where Joey Belladonna headlines the Webster Theatre (860-525-5553) on Saturday.