Right after Mable John earned her doctorate in divinity, she visited her old boss Ray Charles—who is said to have cracked, “This is the devil and God meeting.” But the devil’s music and gospel were old acquaintances, certainly long before John signed on as director of Charles’ redoubtable backing singers the Raelettes. The sister of late R&B great Little Willie John (“Fever”), Mable got her first job in 1947 at a Detroit insurance company; the woman who hired her introduced her to her son, a budding music entrepreneur named Berry Gordy. John became the first woman signed to Gordy’s Tamla label, the predecessor to Motown, where her backing musicians reportedly included singers who would form a group called the Supremes. But her blues sides failed to catch on. She did better when she moved in 1966 to Stax, where she cut her signature song, “Your Good Thing (Is About to End).” But it was as director of the Raelettes for nearly a decade that she found lasting fame, before she left to join the church and minister to the homeless people of Los Angeles. Even then, she and Charles remained close, especially toward the end of his life. She’ll discuss her life and work with Brother Ray 3 p.m. Saturday at the Country Music Hall of Fame as part of its ongoing Ray Charles exhibit; she’ll also sign copies of her new novel, Sanctified Blues (co-written with Charles biographer David Ritz), and perform a set with Nashville R&B torch-carriers the New Imperials. Advance word says she’s as dynamic a speaker as she is a singer—so hit the road, Jack. Country Music Hall of Fame —JIM RIDLEY MUSIC THURSDAY, 6TH JEFF W/ CAKE BAKE BETTY Tempo and career-wise, it’s hard to keep up with Jake and Jamin Orrall. The teenaged pair (who are the spawn of acclaimed songwriter Robert Ellis Orrall) run their own multi-media cottage industry (Infinity Cat) and are members of numerous high-speed bands, including Be Your Own Pet, The Sex and Jeff. Jeff, who are headlining, are Jake and Jamin’s guitar-drum duo, and their latest, Castle Storm, is punky and art-rockish like a mix of Wire and Sonic Youth on trucker speed. Fellow Infinity Cat artist Cake Bake Betty (a.k.a. Lindsay Powell) is more laid-back. Her record, Songs About Teeth, is plaintive and ethereal, combining maritime accordion and tinkling celestes with discomforting themes such as cannibalism and dentifrice. ( www.infinitycat.com ) The End ––PAUL V. GRIFFITH THE WOGGLES Anyone who’s ever been to a Woggles show knows that most audience members couldn’t stand still if they tried, if for no other reason than that the danger of tripping over an instrument cable as the band careens through the crowd is just too great. Their last visit to the Exit/In concluded with an airborne guitar inadvertently landing on the heads of a couple in the front row. The band might be a little long in the teeth, but they’re still dangerous—they’ve spent those years perfecting their distillation of 60’s garage rock, giving them the chops to back up the swagger. Imagine the gritty, simple rock ‘n roll of Here Are the Sonics with the occasional splash of surf guitar and a heavy dose of proto-punk. They also have a nasty habit of making any other band sharing the bill look like complete chumps. This is a band whose sheer enthusiasm means they never have to ask their audience to come closer to the stage. And on the off chance that doesn’t work, they’ll come to you. ( www.myspace.com/thewoggles ) Exit/In ––MATT SULLIVAN CHRIS CROFTON’S STORYTELLERS If Eddie Vedder’s mumbling during Pearl Jam’s “Storytellers” has whetted your appetite for some unnecessary oversharing, then check out the premiere of Chris Crofton: Storytellers. In addition to illuminating the geneses of his touching, twisted songs, Crofton promises, “If people get tired of the real stories, I’ll make some up... ‘This is one that me and Gary Coleman wrote while we were on Outward Bound together.’ ” He said he also might offer fans an exclusive glimpse into the writing process of “Leaving on a Jet Plane,” which he wrote back in 1967 when he had much longer hair and was living in Colorado with his wife Annie. Stand-up comedian and frontman of the Alcohol Stuntband, this event should be a perfect showcase for Crofton’s myriad of talents (and a chance to light a shitload of candles at the Basement). Mark Holder, formerly of the Black Diamond Heavies, will join Crofton for this rare singer-songwriter style performance. The Basement; The Alcohol Stuntband plays Saturday at 3 Crow Bar —LEE STABERT FRIDAY, 7TH ROB MCNELLEY CD RELEASE For about a decade, guitarist Rob McNelley has been a steady presence in Nashville studios and road bands, most recently as a member of Delbert McClinton’s group. But he’s just coming into his own as a frontman, and his second solo effort, Ev’rything Is Sunshine, has upped the ante considerably. In a town where respected sidemen release chicken-pickin’ Telecaster wankfests every other day, McNelley’s old-school soul is a breath of fresh air—something that hasn’t slipped by McClinton, who in concert typically lets his guitarist do a song or two of his own. McNelley has always been a strong singer (at times approaching the emotional abandon of Al Green and Marvin Gaye), but his writing has evolved, resulting in a more cohesive sound than on his first disc, Go. The superb title track channels Fresh-era Sly & the Family Stone and features the coolest mid-song breakdown of the year. And the bone-dry production and divinely laid-back groove of “Naturally” evoke the understated glory of Shuggie Otis’ Inspiration Information. ( www.robmcnelley.com ) 7 p.m. at 3rd & Lindsley —JACK SILVERMAN RUTHERFORD COUNTY STUMBLERS What sets the Stumblers’ music apart from the high-flying precision of modern bluegrass is that it sounds like drunks could play it. But that’s not a bad thing—this band will make your ears think you’ve found a lost tribe of Appalachian folk musicians. A familial anonymity is induced by the fact that all the members have taken the last name Stumbler. Like their city cousins Jake Leg Stompers, the Stumblers play with a gusto that even the heartiest metal combo would have difficulty mustering. RCS and their musical compatriots the Half-Runners will play later Friday night after their appearance at Uncle Dave Macon Days in Murfreesboro. ( www.myspace.com/thercstumblers ) Grand Palace —COLLIN WADE MONK SATURDAY, 8TH WATERTOWN JAZZ FESTIVAL Where can you find the best lineup of Nashville jazz artists all in one place, playing on the same bill each summer? About 50 miles east of town. Catch the all-day event in Watertown and hear Pat Coil, Jeff Coffin, Jim Ferguson, the reinvented Bonnie Bramlett and Ray Charles Orchestra vet Ernest Vantrease. Vantrease and his brother Earl perform with guest pianist Donald Brown, a UT-Knoxville faculty member who broke into big league jazz circles with the early ’80s editions of Art Blakey’s Messengers that included a generation of “young lions” like the Marsalis brothers. This year’s headliner is tenor saxophonist Ernie Watts, who’s backed by the Nashville Jazz Machine, and has played with virtually every major force in the pop, R&B and jazz worlds since settling in as an L.A. session player in the ’70s. Emerging as a leader late in his career, his talent for compressed soloing in a tempered Coltranish style refurbishes the mainstream repertoire. Performances begin at 3. ( www.watertownjazz.com; www.erniewatts.com ) Public Square, Watertown —BILL LEVINE JAMIE CULLUM This English jazz-pop guy would probably kill to entertain Harry Connick Jr.’s audience—at least in this country, where he’s nowhere near as famous as he is in the U.K. But Cullum’s got more in mind than a career as a throwback crooner. For his most recent album, last year’s Catching Tales, he sought production help from Dan the Automator (the Bay Area beatmeister who’s helmed records by Gorillaz and freak-rap star Kool Keith), and tried his hand at a version of “Catch the Sun,” a tune by the hip Brit-rockers Doves. Onstage, Cullum works hard to emphasize his youth appeal; last time I saw him he climbed beneath his piano to provide handmade percussion for a cover of Pharrell’s hip-hop jam “Frontin’.”  ( www.jamiecullum.com ) James K. Polk Theater —MIKAEL WOOD KENNY CHESNEY, BIG & RICH, GRETCHEN WILSON, DIERKS BENTLEY, LITTLE BIG TOWN The mainstream-country event of the season? Sure looks like it. Headliner Kenny Chesney plays good-time party music perfect for a laidback summer evening; if his recent divorce from actress Renée Zellweger dampened his spirits at all, he’s not showing it. Big & Rich haven’t quite succeeded in taking their “country music without prejudice” as far into the mainstream as they’d originally hoped, but the flying of their freak flag is always worth watching. Similarly, Gretchen Wilson’s second album didn’t really kick up the rebel-chick dust her debut did, but it hasn’t stopped her from working her redneck mojo. Dierks Bentley makes dependably rugged country-rock, while Little Big Town pull off harmonies you’ve gotta be a real grump not to appreciate. This show is sold out. ( www.kennychesney.com; www.bigandrich.com ) The Coliseum —MIKAEL WOOD SUNDAY, 9TH TWIN CITIES GAY MEN’S CHORUS Compared to places like San Francisco or Key West, southern cities can seem like downright difficult audiences for openly gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender performers. That’s precisely why non-profit, activism-meets-music outfit the Twin Cities Gay Men’s Chorus is launching the Great Southern Sing-Out Tour, with stops in Nashville, Birmingham, Jackson, Mobile and New Orleans. In its 25th year of existence, the chorus boasts 140-plus members. For a group that must navigate the terrain between stereotype, entertainment and a socio-political cause, fully embracing camp is a necessity. Past shows—often termed “outreaches”—have ranged from revisitations of the ’60s, complete with the musical theme from The Brady Bunch to holiday medleys, to “Snow White and the 130 Dwarves,” with names such as “Cheeky” and “Flirty.” All proceeds from the group’s Nashville performance will go to the Tennessee Equality Project and Nashville in Harmony, the latter of which will open the evening. The Ryman —JEWLY HIGHT MONDAY, 10TH MICHAEL MCDONALD/STEELY DAN Call it nostalgia with a heavy dose of irony, but both Steely Dan and Michael McDonald’s solo career have enjoyed smooth comebacks. Any irony in McDonald’s safely distant revisiting of the Motown catalog is, of course, unintentional. (Check out www.channel101.com to see a hysterical multi-episode parody about the history of “Yacht Rock,” in which low-budget actors playing McDonald and Kenny Loggins engage in soap operatic battles with Hall and Oates.) Even as his throatily remorseful baritone nicely shadowed Donald Fagen’s more frail voice on the tough notes in “Peg,” McDonald was already guiding the Doobies to the built-in nostalgic riffs of mellow AOR malaise. Never forgetting their belated East Coast-hipster roots, Dan’s Walter Becker and Fagen—affectionately called “Manson and Starkwether” when they backed Jay & the Americans—have dubbed this the “Steelyard ‘Sugartooth’ McDan (and the Fab-Originees.com) Tour.” ( www.steelydan.com ; www.michaelmcdonald.com ) Starwood Amphitheatre —BILL LEVINE TUESDAY, 11TH J DIMENNA J DiMenna is skilled at understatement—the Asheville-bred, Brooklyn artist goes simply by an initial. His singing is languid, airy and tenuous, seldom rising far above a half-whisper or manifesting any discernable emotion aside from mild pain or whimsy. His sonic palette is often hushed and vaudevillian, with fine layers of resonating guitars, wispy keyboards, strings and xylophone and subtle, sleepily intoxicating melodies. This year’s Awkward Buildings, issued in March on Exotic Recordings, is DiMenna’s first release. What he allows to be heard and experienced is darkly beautiful, eliciting more than a few Elliot Smith comparisons. Sterling V and Codaphonic also play. The Basement —JEWLY HIGHT WEDNESDAY, 12TH DANIELSON Daniel Smith, mastermind behind the Danielson projects (Danielson Famile, Br. Danielson, Tri-Danielson), creates suburban post-pop in his New Jersey home with family members and friends as contributors. Singing like a cross between Marc Bolan and Daniel Johnston—minus the respective drugs and psychosis—Smith creates a sonic experience that can at times sound like a mash-up of Can and The New Christy Minstrels. Lyrics and song titles like “Time That Bald Sexton” can be obtuse to a fault, but the collegial atmosphere of the recordings and live shows emits a warmth that covers the gravest of musical sins found here. In the past the band has taken to the stage dressed as doctors, nurses and trees. This time they will be going nautical to keep in theme with their new CD Ships. ( www.danielson.info ) The End —COLLIN WADE MONK ROMAN CANDLE Plenty of bands that cut their teeth playing beer-slogging toga parties in college never advance very far beyond the feel-good party vibe. Roman Candle is not one of those bands mired in post-adolescent oblivion. The Chapel Hill quintet—which began at University of North Carolina and built around the familial partnership of Skip Matheny, his wife Timshel and younger brother Logan—delivers crisp, intuitive roots-rock, built on keen observation and solid pop craftsmanship. The band has already weathered a significant false start (the first incarnation of their debut never saw the light of day at Hollywood Records), but a newly revamped version, renamed The Wee Hours Revue, has finally appeared after a four-year wait. The twelve-song set is a (belated) triumph, with Skip’s jaunty, pinched, sharp-edged vocals, Logan’s DJ Shadow-influenced approach to the drum kit and the band’s vintage-tinged jangly guitars and Rhodes undertones. This show concludes the band’s biweekly residency with Thad Cockrell. The Basement —JEWLY HIGHT THEATER HAMLET Shakespeare makes the coffeehouse scene the next two weekends when the newly formed New Bear Players present this up-close-and-personal rendition of the tale of the Melancholy Dane at Bongo After Hours Theatre. The brainchild of Marc Mazzone and Matt Bassett, the fledgling company claims adherence to the performance principles in place when the Bard first mounted his plays, which translates into a semi-improvisational group-think wherein actors are not guided by a single directorial vision. The classic drama, filled with treachery, revenge and murder, will be played out in all five acts by a cast of 10, including Mazzone, Erin Mihalik, Valerie Meek and Phil Perry-Dixon, with Bassett in the title role. The production runs July 7-9 and 14-16. For tickets, phone 385-1188. —MARTIN BRADY KAFKAPALOOZA: AN EVENING OF FUN, FRIENDS AND FRANZ Belmont University’s summer theater program explores the work of Franz Kafka via original adaptations of his novellas—The Metamorphosis and The Castle—as well as through excerpts of the absurdist author’s letters and quotations. The program is co-directed by Matt Chiorini and Jessika Malone and features 13 student-actors experimenting with Kafka’s compelling, strange and haunting themes. Performances are July 6-9 at Belmont’s Little Theatre. Admission is free. For more information, please call 300-7263. —MARTIN BRADY COMEDY BILL MAHER Great talk-show hosts always have a few silver-screen skeletons in their closets. Jon Stewart received fifth billing in Death to Smoochy. As Cabin Boy’s “Old Salt in Fishing Village,” David Letterman coined the phrase “Wouldja like to buy a monkey?” Then there’s the host of HBO’s Real Time With Bill Maher (and earlier, ABC’s Politically Incorrect), who in 1983 busted his feature-film cherry alongside Mr. T and Gary Busey in the Joel Schumacher-directed ensemble comedy D.C. Cab. Steering clear of the film sets for now, the actor-host-producer -author-political humorist is in the midst of a 20-plus-date stand-up tour, coming to Ryman Auditorium on Saturday, July 8, and he’s armed to the gills with material aimed squarely at the current administration. And fear not—while he recently launched Amazon Fishbowl with Bill Maher, his new online talk show broadcast weekly at www.amazon.com, there’s no talk of Maher reprising the role of “Jim” in Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death 2. —JULIE SEABAUGH NEIL HAMBURGER A few select bons mots from Neil Hamburger’s 2005 album Great Moments at Di Presa’s Pizza House: “Why did Madonna feed her infant baby Alpo dog food? She had no choice, that’s what came out of her breasts!” He shuffles his feet and clears his throat. “Why did God invent the Paris Hilton sex tape? So the mentally retarded would have something to masturbate to!” Shuffle, clear. “And why did Colonel Sanders’ daughters absolutely refuse to eat KFC extra-crispy fried chicken? Well, it brought back too many bad memories of their late father’s foreskin!” Alternative comedy’s top absurdist is dyin’ here, and he wouldn’t have it any other way. For the permanently tuxedoed, ambiguously alcoholic Hamburger, laughs arrive in the spaces between his setups and (questionable) punchlines. He’s prolific as hell (with a dozen-plus releases to his name), the subject of a comic book entitled Laugh Riot, and the near-deity worshipped at Neil Con, an annual convention held in Mesa, Ariz. And the meat only gets thicker: Hamburger’s The World’s Funnyman DVD will be available from www.neilhamburger.tvheaven.com on August 22; he’ll appear as “Comedian” in the upcoming Jack Black rawk-romp Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny—and, best of all, he’ll perform at The End on Wednesday, July 12. —JULIE SEABAUGH ART ERIN ANFINSON AND LISA KLAKULAK After several years of operating within The Arts Company’s space on Fifth Avenue North, TAG gallery is moving into its own street-level space down the block in August. For its last show before the move, the gallery is pairing two artists with strong styles that don’t go together in obvious ways, which opens up the possibility for interesting interactions. Anfinson is a painter known for reducing scenes of the natural world to a nearly monochromatic palette in which the colors are organized in discrete ranges like a paint-by-numbers set. These paintings look like an abstract camouflage pattern until you acclimate to the visual system and can make out the landscapes. This show also includes more recent pieces in thick encaustic that overlay globes of color on found images of fighting and flight in the animal kingdom. Klakulak comes out of the fine craft tradition, a fabric artist working principally with felt. She represents a younger generation of artists who have taken a cue from “fine art” appropriation of craft techniques, using traditional materials and media to explore meaty issues. In Klakulak’s case, the issues include human vulnerability, the need for security, and isolation. TAG will have an opening reception on Saturday, July 8 from 6 to 8 p.m. —DAVID MADDOX DEONE JAHNKE: “PICTURING THE MUSIC” As a commercial photographer, Jahnke has been working in the music industry for 20 years, shooting ads, CD covers, magazine spreads and promo shots of all sorts. (She recently did the cover for Dave Alvin’s latest CD West of the West.) But as a fine-art photographer, her first love is capturing the artists and environments of the traditional and alt-country communities, as evidenced by this show at Fido coffeehouse in Hillsboro Village. “Picturing the Music” features both live and posed portraits of folks like Jim Lauderdale, Rosie Flores, Joy Lynn White, Robert Reynolds and Buddy Miller. Appropriately, the opening reception, 7-10 p.m. Wednesday, July 12, features music by a couple of Nashville’s harder-working roots-rock acts, Dave Coleman and Amelia White. The exhibit will be on view through Aug. 21. —JACK SILVERMAN BOOKS T.R. PEARSON This beloved Southern novelist, author of such charming, offbeat books as A Short History of a Small Place and Off for the Sweet Hereafter, has surprised everyone by publishing a nonfiction account of 20th century sea-rafting: Seaworthy: Adrift With William Willis in the Golden Age of Rafting. Willis was a largely forgotten adventurer from the 1950s who joined the then-faddish practice of making lonely sea journeys aboard homemade rafts, trying to prove theories of ethnography and human migration. The era’s ur-rafter, of course, was Thor Heyerdahl, who sailed from Peru to Polynesia on the balsa raft Kon-Tiki and wrote a famous book about it. But Willis duplicated Heyerdahl’s trip and then bested him completely by crossing the Pacific from South America to Australia in 1964. He was 71 years old at the time. Following his Pacific triumph, he made three subsequent forays into the North Atlantic trying to reach England, but finally disappeared somewhere off Ireland at the age of 75. Pearson tells the story with verve, gusto and detailed accuracy, ultimately producing a portrait of a very brave man who was obsessive to the point of madness. Pearson will appear at Davis-Kidd Booksellers on July 7, 6 p.m. —WAYNE CHRISTESON CYNTHIA MORGAN Why would a civilian willingly go to work in a war zone? Money? Escape? Moral conviction? For Tennessee truck driver Cynthia Morgan, it’s all of the above. After her third husband tried to kill her, Morgan understandably wanted to start a new life, and (somewhat less understandably) signed on with Halliburton to drive trucks in Iraq. In her new memoir, Cindy in Iraq, Morgan describes her year in one of the most dangerous jobs in the world amid a culture that’s not exactly female-friendly, convinced that she and her country did the right thing. Her story is told in a simple, straightforward style and highlights the many missions she and her fellow drivers undertook to keep American forces equipped with food and that most valuable of resources for life in the desert: ice. The truckers get pelted with rocks, bullets and bombs, they suffer post-traumatic stress disorder, and to top it off they have to deal with two layers of bureaucracy—the army’s and Halliburton’s. As Morgan memorably notes, “I woke up breathing and didn’t get shot at today, so it is a good day.” The things she learned, the relationships she formed and the appreciation she felt from the troops convinced Morgan to go back and do it all again, despite physical and emotional wounds. She appears at Davis-Kidd Booksellers at 6 p.m. July 11. —CHRIS SCOTT FILM THE DEVIL AND DANIEL JOHNSTON/“THE ALUMINUM FOWL” In January, the Belcourt was picked as one of 14 independent theaters across the country given a one-time offer: access to the Sundance Film Festival’s 25-year roster of indie cinema, from Reservoir Dogs and Clerks to Donnie Darko and Garden State. The resulting retrospective will play throughout the year, starting this weekend with Jeff Feuerzeig’s documentary portrait of Austin singer-songwriter Daniel Johnston, the troubled savant whose unclassifiable music made him a cult hero to everyone from Kurt Cobain to Beck. It opens Friday on a bill with Nashville filmmaker James Clauer’s Sundance short “The Aluminum Fowl,” reason enough to go on its own. —JIM RIDLEY THE LOST CITY This dream project by actor-director Andy Garcia was the last film scripted by the great Cuban novelist and film critic Guillermo Cabrera Infante, whose previous screenplay credit was the 1971 cult favorite Vanishing Point. Bill Murray and Dustin Hoffman (who plays gangster Meyer Lansky) are among the large ensemble of Garcia’s epic drama, set against the backdrop of 1950s Havana, the fall of Batista and the rise of Castro. It opens Friday at Green Hills. —JIM RIDLEY SKETCHES OF FRANK GEHRY Two old pros commiserate about the struggle to balance personal vision and commercial assignments with integrity: Gehry, whose fanciful, unruly designs have made him the most famous and controversial architect of the day; and director Sydney Pollack, his longtime friend, who makes his documentary debut with this peek inside his creative process. It starts Friday at Green Hills. —JIM RIDLEY PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN’S CHEST Yarrgh! Hoist the mizzenmast, ye scurvy rogues, and set sail a second time for high-seas adventure with Johnny Depp’s Capt. Jack Sparrow and—well, whoever the hell else was in the first one. Friday. —JIM RIDLEY FIFA WORLD CUP 2006 FINAL Watch the deciding game in style on the big screen at the Belcourt, broadcast from Berlin at 1 p.m. Sunday. Doors open at noon, and food and drink will be available. Bring your own hooligans. —JIM RIDLEY AWESOME; I FUCKIN’ SHOT THAT! Question: Whaddaya get when the Beastie Boys throw a show for the five boroughs and let 50 amped-up fans do the filming? Answer: Ill! Wash down that Dramamine with a Brass Monkey for this sensory assault, shot on 50 fan-wielded cameras and edited by noted Swedish auteur Nathaniel Hornblower. It screens 11:30 Friday and Saturday night at the Belcourt as part of the launch of the theater’s Sundance Institute Retrospective.—JIM RIDLEY ROCK ’N’ ROLL NIGHTMARE W/ THOR LIVE There’s only one man of steel on Nashville screens this weekend, and he ain’t wearing no tights. Kneel before Thor, god of hellfire and hair metal! Yes, the 1987 headbangers-vs.-Satan extravaganza that set the bar for hard-rock horror movies—or at least adjusted it to a realistic level of expectation—will be showing one night only at The Basement, in honor of its deluxe new DVD edition from Synapse Films. Now get this: bodybuilder star Jon-Mikl Thor will be here live in Nashville to smite the sorry asses of those who oppose the righteous hammer of his three-chord divinity. Not only will he offer live DVD commentary, but he’ll also perform his infamous metal-bending, monster-beating show on a bill with opener Destroy Destroy Destroy. Eat my studded fist, Loki! It all starts Saturday with a 4 p.m. in-store at Grimey’s, then continues later downstairs, where you can hoist a flagon of mead to sing of his brawny exploits. —JIM RIDLEY