He’s been a renowned DJ and sound engineer for three decades now, but this native of rural northern Jamaica is likely best known among rock audiences as the producer of The Clash’s sprawling, dub-suffused Sandinista! Dread is also the dancehall-style toaster featured on The Clash’s single “Bank Robber,” and as galvanizing as that track is, it only hints at the glories of his crucial early singles “Proper Education,”  “Step by Step” and “Barber Saloon.” Some of these trippy, often outrageous hits were collected on 1978’s Dread at the Controls, which also was the name of the massively popular radio show he hosted before he moved to England in the late ’70s. Dread has had a varied career since that early flash of greatness—everything from remixes by dub luminaries King Tubby and Prince Jammy to crossover rock and rap videos on MTV and BET. Some of Dread’s later hits tend to suggest that he’s at his best when, in dub scientist mode, he’s at the controls. But as his engaging set at Slow Bar a few years ago attested, he’s a true original and very much worth catching firsthand. Exit/In —Bill Friskics-Warren Music Thursday, 8th BONNIE RAITT “I don’t want anything to change / There’s nothing I would rearrange,” Raitt submits on the wrenching ballad that anchors her sterling new Souls Alike. The song was co-written by Maia Sharp, her sometime opening act, and Raitt transforms it into a devastating monument to heartache. Yet the core sentiment expressed in its lyrics also doubles as a tidy summation of Raitt’s approach to making records, which at least since 1989’s Grammy breakthrough Nick of Time have more or less followed a discernible pattern. There’s always a mix of barbed blues, body-rocking undertow and middlebrow ballads on Raitt’s albums, and never enough of her surefire originals. Typically, there are also nods to or cameos by her heroes and unsung favorites. And there’s always just enough of Raitt’s slide playing and personality to keep even her blandest turns from the middle of the road. It all smacks of formula, but it’s never formulaic. Indeed, it’s often subtly revelatory. Consistently funkier than its worthy but consistent-to-a-fault predecessor, Souls Alike is rife with grooves and goodwill, its cover of homeboy Pat McLaughlin’s “Two Lights in the Nighttime” worthy of a future best-of. Louisiana singer-songwriter Marc Broussard opens. The show is sold out. Ryman Auditorium —Bill Friskics-Warren Friday, 9th LIVING COLOUR If you surf the net, you likely know what WTF means. But what about WTFF? Guitarist Vernon Reid calls it the “what the fuck factor” and uses the phrase to characterize the music of his rock band Living Colour, who disbanded in 1995 but regrouped in 2000. WTTF applies to all the questions the band raised with their thrashing political music in their late-’80s/mid-’90s heyday that remain unanswered. Questions like, “Why did some think it odd for four black men to create a rock band when blacks were the first to play rock ’n’ roll?” Or, “Why has Living Colour’s music been called ‘singleminded’ because it addresses race and politics?” Finally, and even if their music is steeped in sex, drugs and machismo like that of their early patron Mick Jagger, “Why would Living Colour’s career still look more like Chuck Berry’s than the Rolling Stones’?” Exit/In —Makkada B. Selah UNWED SAILOR Songwriter/leader Johnathon Ford has referred to Unwed Sailor not as a band, but as an orchestra—a designation that’d sound pretentious were it not for the sweet modesty of their music. Through various incarnations and endless touring, Unwed Sailor have explored the moody (and familiar) terrain of post-Slint instrumental rock, with guitar, bass and drums dexterously slithering around one another. On their most recent release, 2003’s The Marionette and the Music Box, their music takes on a fairy-tale quality—literally, as the CD artwork tells the simple tale of a marionette searching for his soul mate, a diminutive dancer ensconced in a music box. It’s a quiet suite of songs that has the warm feel of a bedtime story, and hints at the deep, if subtly expressed, range of emotions Ford and his fellow musicians are capable of. After playing a show here earlier this summer, they return to town, ready to showcase some of the material that’ll be featured on their two forthcoming albums, both out next year. (www.unwedsailor.com) The Anchor —Jonathan Marx STACIE ROSE Though this show marks this New Jersey singer-songwriter’s Nashville debut, you may already have heard her folk-pop on TV promotions for ABC and American Movie Classics. Her second album, this year’s Shadow and Splendor, is a hooky affair, but its sweetness is offset by sharp lyrics and a pouty delivery that sometimes recalls Jewel or Michelle Branch without the youthful earnestness. Rose tackles only one cover on the album, but it’s an ambitious one—U2’s “New Year’s Day,” which she reimagines as a dark, languid ballad. She also appears in an in-the-round at the Bluebird on Sunday night. Springwater —Katie Dodd Saturday, 10th DIRTY DOZEN BRASS BAND Mardi Gras will be scaled back, reconstruction may take decades and some amount of homogenization seems inevitable, but New Orleans’ gift to the world will survive—in Dr. John’s rolling left hand, the Meters’ second-line strut and this ensemble’s brass recontextualizations. The Dozen have recently delivered two career overviews, neither of which is definitive, but together they suggest the band’s tremendous breadth: from Dizzy Gillespie to Elvis Costello, bebop to Motown, “John the Revelator” to “It’s All Over Now.” Last year’s Funeral for a Friend, a return to their jazz funeral roots, proved an inadvertent memorial for co-founder Anthony “Tuba Fats” Lacen. The set now also serves as a tribute to the city and music they love—mourning its losses, celebrating its history and rejoicing in its rebirth. The Dozen’s shows are always a party; after Katrina, expect the fun to be shot through with added urgency and meaning. (www.dirtydozenbrass.com) The Mercy Lounge —Scott Manzler J.D. SOUTHER Though he never enjoyed quite the same level of fame as songwriting collaborators like the Eagles’ Glenn Frey and Don Henley, Souther has had significant success, helping to write some of that band’s biggest hits—“Best of My Love,” “Heartache Tonight” and “New Kid in Town”—not to mention developing a second career as a TV and film actor. He’s heading into the studio next week cut a new record (his first solo effort in 20 years) with some of Nashville’s finest jazz players, including saxophonist Jeff Coffin and trumpeter Rod McGaha. Souther and his band will play two shows that will also be recorded for future release. The Basement —Jack Silverman RED WANTING BLUE This Ohio quartet avoid the predictable hard-rock clichés of over-dramatized angst and over-computerized guitar chords by putting flesh and feeling into their songs. Over the course of five independent releases, including the recent Pride: The Cold Lover, Red Wanting Blue have built a reputation as rockers with a flair for old-school theatrics. They’re also gutsy enough to throw in a Coldplay-style piano number and otherwise flash tenderness, compassion and creativity amid their concise, muscular riffs. (www.redwantingblue.com) Hair of the Dog —Michael McCall Sunday, 11th MOUNTAIN HEART This virtuosic sextet could be considered a gospel bluegrass group, particularly since, in addition to their gospel album The Journey, much of their material expresses Christian spirituality. Yet Mountain Heart’s catalog also encompasses everything from traditional bluegrass to country-pop ballads. The band’s repertoire often juxtaposes the two, with the placid voice of lead singer and banjo player Barry Abernathy, who plays with a fingerless left hand, complemented by the cutting sound of Steve Gulley’s high tenor. The group’s live shows demonstrate the versatility of the genre at its best, deftly integrating driving bluegrass rhythms with progressive improvisation. Station Inn; also playing the Opry Friday and Saturday. —Dave Rudolph PATTERSON HOOD One of three accomplished songwriters in Drive-By Truckers, Hood released his first solo album, Killers and Stars, last year. In the liner notes, he describes the CD, an acoustic project that he recorded at his dining room table back in 2001, as “a sparse document of a shitty time.” But these raw, quirky songs, many of which elaborate on the bleaker, more unsettling undercurrents in his band’s music, retain a dark playfulness. What remains through it all is this bear of a man’s undeniable charisma and playing-for-my-daily-bread intensity. Performing without the constant (and delightful) hammering of the Truckers’ signature three-guitar attack, Hood is warm, personable and surprisingly talkative. Mercy Lounge —Lee Stabert Tuesday, 13th EARLY MAN Like The Fucking Champs, Early Man distill the stuff from the metal years that still kicks ass and reconstitute it with a vengeance. Yet while TFC tend to forgo metal’s often juvenile lyrics and instead augment their songs with rhythmic arithmetic, Early Man play it straight. The result is an album, Closing In, that sounds a lot like Black Sabbath, Kill ’Em All-era Metallica and, by extension, Megadeth. Early Man are the only metal band on Matador, and probably the only band on the label who would put the line “death is the answer to my prayers” in one of their songs. Closing In kicks its share of ass, but it won’t make anyone forget Osbourne, Ulrich or Mustaine. Exit/In —Steve Haruch LES KERR & HIS BAYOU BAND “Won’t you pray for New Orleans if you love her too / From sinners like me, prayers don’t always get through / The wind and the water will be here tonight / Pray for New Orleans and she’ll be all right.” No, Les Kerr’s song “Pray for New Orleans” isn’t a post-Katrina tribute, but an eerily prophetic song from his 2000 album Red Blues. And Kerr has felt the loss deeply—he was raised on Mississippi’s gulf coast and lived for a while in Mobile. What better way to soothe all our souls and celebrate the devastated area’s spirit than with a little “Christmas on the Bayou,” the annual holiday concert featuring Kerr and his Bayou Band, who blend Delta blues, zydeco and other regional sounds. The singer’s website, www.leskerr.com, is offering a special four-song Songs for the Gulf CD, with proceeds going to Katrina relief efforts. 3rd & Lindsley; also playing an acoustic show with Bryan Cumming Dec. 8 at Ri’Chard’s in Whites Creek. —Jack Silverman Wednesday, 14th MARDO Brothers Aron and Robert Mardo rock like they’re standing in front of a strobe and a stack of Marshalls as part of a mid-’70s stadium bill with Foghat and Thin Lizzy. Amid fist-pumping power chords and thick, Vanilla Fudge-like drums, the band employ phase shifters and old-fashioned guitar effects like they just stumbled onto some new sonic frontier. Their enthusiasm for rock’s simplistic core has more in common with Darkness cool than Grand Funk obviousness, and they’ve got a reputation for making it all work live. Exit/In —Michael McCall KINGS X This hard-edged power trio returned to working with an outside producer on their 11th studio album, Ogre Tones, after a few less focused in-house efforts. Recorded in Nashville with veteran metal producer Michael Wagener, the album follows on the heels of the band’s first live release, last year’s Live All Over the Place. Guitarist Ty Tabor, drummer Jerry Gaskill and bassist Dug Pinnick (who apparently made a recent revision to the spelling of his first name) have built their career around churning out adroit, muscular riffs and sharing Beatlesque vocal duties on lyrics that reveal a penchant for spiritual themes. Despite being shuffled from label to label, the band have been resilient, earning their faithful following mainly on the basis of fervid live shows. Exit/In —Jewly Hight Dance NUTCRACKER Nashville Ballet’s annual holiday classic promises the usual energetic performances from its gifted company, a 150-strong youth cast, the beautiful Tchaikovsky score rendered by Nashville Symphony, and a fresh paint job on the colorful sets. Continuing a tradition of recent vintage, the ballet welcomes local sports and media celebrities onstage to take their turns in the featured role of Mother Ginger. This year’s participants include Tennessee Titans tight end Erron Kinney and TV news personalities Harry Chapman, Rudy Kalis and Joe Dubin. Presented Dec. 9-18 at TPAC’s Jackson Hall. Phone 255-ARTS for tickets. —Martin Brady Theater BLACK NATIVITY Amun Ra Theatre’s 2nd annual production of this Langston Hughes holiday classic aspires to grander production values than last year’s inaugural presentation. The rousing retelling of the birth of Christ, directed by jeff obafemi carr, features a strong thread of gospel, jazz and blues under the musical direction of Terrance Brown and Alex Stadaker, along with performances from some 30 actors, singers and dancers, including featured appearances by Out of Eden’s Lisa Kimmey and Grammy-nominated Fisk Jubilee singer Brandon Singleton. Fisk University drama professor Peter Fields designed the choreography. The show is presented Dec. 8-18 at Tennessee State University’s Performing Arts Center. For tickets, phone 506-5988. —Martin Brady Art SAMANTHA CALLAHAN & TIFFANY DYER-DENTON: “ARCHANGEL” Edgehill Studios is one of the newest gallery spaces in town, located in a complex that also houses a coffee bar, digital printing facility, music venue and more. Its second show features work by two local artists, painter and jeweler Samantha Callahan and fiber/mixed-media artist Tiffany Dyer Denton. As the title indicates, the thematic material in the exhibit moves in a heavenward direction—appropriate enough for the holiday season. Though both artists’ work makes room for angelic imagery and a mood of wondrous contemplation, each has a distinct style, Dyer-Denton’s stitched designs in particular bursting with bright colors. Their joint show opens with a reception, 6-9 p.m. Saturday, and runs through Jan. 8 at Edgehill Studios, 1201 Villa Place, near Music Row. For more information, visit www.edgehillstudios.com. —Jonathan Marx KATA BILLUPS: “FAME IS A SERIOUSLY FUNNY THING” It was on a trip to Graceland that local painter Kata Billups got the idea to paint of series of works featuring Elvis Presley. After reckoning with the mythical figure presented by her tourguides, she wanted to get at some idea of the man himself. Neither kitsch or pure homage, Billups’ paintings of The King—along with The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan and other famous folks—seek to offer a humanizing, if surreal, view of famous figures, to show the ways that their fame has both obscured and transformed their identities. Her work is on view now through the middle of January at Bongo Java coffeehouse on Belmont. To get a preview, visit the artist’s website at www.rockandrolliconart.com. —Jonathan Marx

Books

ELI EVANS/JEWISH BOOK FAIR The featured speaker at the Gordon Jewish Community Center’s annual Book Fair, Eli Evans is the author of The Provincials: A Personal History of Jews in the South. Part memoir, part history, the book has received high praise from the likes of Pat Conroy, Pulitzer Prize winner Alfred Uhry and Israeli statesman Abba Eban. In commemoration of the 350th anniversary of Jews in America, UNC Press has published a new edition with a new introduction by the author. Evans speaks at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 8, and admission is $5. On Dec. 11 at 11 a.m., author and radio personality Teddy Bart will discuss his latest book, Hooligan, which combines three of his great interests: broadcasting, politics and the paranormal. And throughout the fair, which ends Dec. 14, the JCC will have available a wide selection of books with a Jewish perspective—history, theology, cookbooks, children’s books, fiction and more. For more information, visit www.nashvillejcc.org or call 356-7170. —Jack Silverman ELI EVANS/JEWISH BOOK FAIR The featured speaker at the Gordon Jewish Community Center’s annual Book Fair, Eli Evans is the author of The Provincials: A Personal History of Jews in the South. Part memoir, part history, the book has received high praise from the likes of Pat Conroy, Pulitzer Prize winner Alfred Uhry and Israeli statesman Abba Eban. In commemoration of the 350th anniversary of Jews in America, UNC Press has published a new edition with a new introduction by the author. Evans speaks at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 8, and admission is $5. On Dec. 11 at 11 a.m., author and radio personality Teddy Bart will discuss his latest book, Hooligan, which combines three of his great interests: broadcasting, politics and the paranormal. And throughout the fair, which ends Dec. 14, the JCC will have available a wide selection of books with a Jewish perspective—history, theology, cookbooks, children’s books, fiction and more. For more information, visit www.nashvillejcc.org or call 356-7170. —Jack Silverman THE CHRISTMAS HOPE/DAVIS-KIDD BOOKSELLERS  Donna VanLiere’s heartwarming Christmas stories have become an anticipated part of the holiday season. This year, fans have two reasons to celebrate: a made-for-TV adaptation of The Christmas Blessing (airing Dec. 18 on WTVF-Channel 5) and a new novel. In this third book, The Christmas Hope, social worker Patricia Addison enjoys sarcastic banter with her colleague and is devoted to the children who cross her path, going out in the middle of the night when foster parents call, visiting children in the hospital, mailing gift certificates to their recently released parents. But her marriage has all but disintegrated following the death of her son, and she finds herself dreading the impending holidays. When the Addisons welcome a sad little girl into their home, things begin to fall into place for Patti and everyone else in this story about carrying on after life’s devastating events. Donna VanLiere signs The Christmas Hope 1 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 10, at Davis-Kidd Booksellers. —MiChelle Jones Film PROTOCOLS OF ZION Those wacky Jews—controlling our media, eyeing our finances, advancing their secret plot for world domination. In his documentary, Marc Levin (Slam) tackles head-on the anti-Semitic slanders that have persisted for centuries as he investigates the notorious Protocols of the Elders of Zion—a blatantly fake “document” of Jewish skulduggery that remains Exhibit A for white-power loons. His search leads to a rogue’s gallery of street crazies, far-right agitators and calmly deluded folk—starting with the cab driver who casually mentions that no Jews died on Sept. 11, thanks to advance warning. The controversial doc opens Friday at the Belcourt, and the 7 p.m. screening next Wednesday, Dec. 14, will be followed by a panel discussion featuring Jay Geller, professor of religious studies at Vanderbilt; Shaul Kelner, professor of sociology at Vanderbilt; Sara Eigen, professor of German at Vanderbilt; and Judith A. Saks, communications and community relations director of the Jewish Federation of Nashville. —Jim Ridley EDVARD MUNCH “There’s no way of telling where the film ends and history begins,” critic Sam Adams wrote of Peter Watkins’ rigorously unconventional 1974 biopic—a statement that extends to the British filmmaker’s body of work, which breaks down the barriers between fiction and documentary. In depicting the life of the Norwegian expressionist, Watkins went so far as to cast contemporary Norwegians who dislike Munch’s work as the critics who reviled him during his lifetime. The movie gets a rare Nashville screening 7 p.m. Friday at the Frist Center, free and open to the public. —Jim Ridley THE SQUID AND THE WHALE The breakup of a New York literary couple (Jeff Daniels, Laura Linney) creates a rift between their adolescent sons in this intensely personal comedy-drama by Noah Baumbach (Kicking and Screaming). The movie opens Friday at Green Hills. —Jim Ridley THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE From the men who brought you A Grief Observed and Shrek: an adaptation of the first volume in C.S. Lewis’ epic fantasy, with Tilda Swinton as the White Witch. Opening Friday, everywhere. —Jim Ridley