Our Pick of the Week

With women like Destiny's Child yearning for street soldiers, it's little wonder the boy-band veterans of the Scream tour are eager to flex like macho men. Unfortunately, their thug posturing isn't very convincing. Bobby Valentino, however, makes the boy-to-man transition with a bit more élan than the others. Like his tour mates, he's eager to prove himself a street Lothario, yet the best songs on his self-titled debut have him playing the innocent romantic, cooing and huffing like Michael Jackson on ballads like "One Girl to Love" and "I Said I Really Love You." The production is crisp and flashy, and his team takes chances, avoiding the formulaic smooth R&B/club bounce of Valentino's peers. "Give it to Me" samples Screamin' Jay Hawkins, and "Everytime They Come Around" is minimalist R&B with trip-hop accents. If Valentino is the burgeoning talent of this tour, Pretty Ricky promise to be the most entertaining. These four rapping, singing kids out of Miami have agile dance moves and Luke Campbell's over-the-top libido. Their idea of a manly come-on is "Get out your pink slip girl, let me lay you off." Now that's a scream. Gaylord Entertainment Center —Mark Mays

Music

Thursday, 18th

BUDDY GUY With Clapton openly declaring Guy to be his favorite bluesman, the man who defined the Chicago school has profited from two major "revivals." The first exposed Guy and harp player Junior Wells to the Fillmore crowds at the cusp of the '70s. Then, two decades later, the second revival put Guy in the same venues as the megawatt guitar heroes who appeared on his "comeback" album, Damn Right, I've Got the Blues. If blues-rockers like Clapton and Jeff Beck gain a form of validation by playing alongside Guy, it's not as if he ever needed their help, except in broadening his appeal. Every spare, biting guitar line in the British invasion was blueprinted by Guy years earlier on Chicago's West Side. And, for all their study of his urgent soloing, none of the Brits could come close to his vocal chops, a cathartic display of anguish that puts his shows in the same league as those of Otis Rush, Muddy Waters and Little Walter. Dancin' in the District, Riverfront Park —Bill Levine

ADRIAN BELEW Since the beginning of the year, Belew has released two of three "sides." About 35 minutes apiece, these CDs clock in somewhat longer than the vinyl sides of art-rock they're modeled after and offer three, well, "sides" of Belew's multidirectional musical personality. Best known for his role in the second edition of King Crimson, Belew's work on seminal Bowie, Talking Heads and Zappa projects has made him adept in avant-garde forms, ironically crafted pop and funk, and any number of other ways to orchestrate the voice of the guitar in a kaleidoscopic vision of rock history. Though he's put his 2005 albums together mostly on his own, Side One makes occasional use of a power trio and generally relies on traditional song structures, whereas Side Two experiments with electronica, minimalism, looping and ambient effects, both comforting and dissonant. Dancin' in the District, Riverfront Park —Bill Levine

GREG GARING It's been a decade since this mercurial hillbilly revivalist was lighting up the back room of Tootsie's on Lower Broad. It's been nearly as long since he abruptly shifted gears and released a solo debut that swathed his high lonesome in understated electronica, compliments of then-courant Seattle producer Mark Walk, before moving to New York and going hillbilly again with his Alphabet City Opry. There's no telling where Garing's head is at now, or from which bag he'll be working at this last-minute gig, but his show's likely to be brilliant, or at least memorable, particularly with omnivorous raconteur and picker Jim Calvin opening. The Basement —Bill Friskics-Warren

JEANNIE SEELY Loretta Lynn and Tammy Wynette get credit for introducing the country audiences of the 1960s to the modern woman, but neither of those singers was the first to wear a miniskirt on the Opry. That distinction belongs to Seely, whose shapely gams have been gracing the Opry stage ever since. But Seely isn't just a pair of pretty legs. Her single "Don't Touch Me," which was a huge hit in 1966, is a country-soul ballad nonpareil. The song was written by Seely's then-husband Hank Cochran and features her breathy, understated vocal, which conveys every bit as much psychological tension as those of Lynn and Wynette. Seely's appearance is part of the Tootsie's to the Ryman series, which celebrates the bar's role as the Opry's unofficial backstage. Tootsie's Orchid Lounge —Paul V. Griffith

JANICE YOUNG CD RELEASE PARTY w/THE NASHVILLE STRiNGDUSTERS Young and personable, armed with an excess of talent and a growing bundle of original material, the Stringdusters have come on like gangbusters in recent months as they head toward completion of their debut album with producer Tim Stafford. While they'll happily nod in the direction of the classics, the sextet are steeped more in contemporary bluegrass, adding their eclectic twist to produce a variant that promises to appeal to broad audiences. As it happens, the Stringdusters' more traditional side has made it to disc first, as they backed Adrienne Young on one selection from her new CD and contributed heavily to the charming, country-flavored first album from transplanted Westerner Janice Young (no relation to Adrienne), whom they'll be accompanying before playing their own show. Station Inn —Jon Weisberger