7 Charlotte concerts to check out this week

The acclaimed singer-songwriter, whose writing has been compared to greats like Bob Dylan, ends his 2016 tour cycle this weekend with two intimate acoustic shows. A joyful live performer, he spent most of the year playing with his band while wearing the painted overalls he sported on the cover of his last album, “Sermon on the Rocks.” He’ll try out new songs live in early 2017, so there’s a possibility of a preview here.

Charlotte native Joe Firstman’s Nashville-based quartet finds the humbled former Atlantic Records artist and “Last Call with Carson Daly” band leader making some of the best music of his diverse career, which has included opening for Jewel and Willie Nelson and playing everything from jazz to rock to folk. Cordovas veers toward the latter, with Eagles-worthy harmonies and an astute group of players and writers.

At 32, the Mississippi blues guitarist/vocalist missed the first three and half decades at the soon-to-be-closed Double Door. Yet he’s one of many younger artists to have frequented the club over the past five years. This marks the revered player’s final performance there, but it certainly won’t be the last time he brings his intense performance and emotive playing to the Queen City.

The sometime Wu-Tang Clan member celebrates the legendary hip-hop group live at Off the Wall’s Wu-Tang Forever Vol. 4 show. Having appeared on Wu crew releases from 1995 (Raekwon’s “Ice Cream”) through 2008’s “8 Diagrams,” the emcee’s set will hit on his solo work, Wu tracks and famous collaborations.

The Columbia, S.C., blues powerhouse is tapped as the entertainment for the final Charlotte Blues Society’s Christmas party at the Double Door (although the group meets there again next month). With a raucous presence, a punchy horn section, rippling keys and feisty guitar, the Untouchables don’t tread in gut-wrenching blues. With its mix of boogie, jump and funk, it revels in the joy of the genre.

WEND 106.5’s Not So Acoustic Xmas concert brings the ’90s rock stalwarts and one of the station’s staples indoors for a more-intimate set than the ones the group did this summer at Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza. Nashville’s Bassh (the duo from CJ Hardee and Jimmy Brown from Charlotte band Matrimony) open the show.

Thirty-seven years after his first record, the renowned instrumentalist/composer taps a number of friends from the musical worlds he frequents – jazz, folk and classical – for his first holiday collection, “Appalachia Christmas.” With a mix of carols and non-Christmas tunes, it’s the third chapter in the Appalachia trilogy that started with the 1996 top-selling album “Appalachia Waltz” with Yo-Yo Ma and Edgar Meyer, who both return for the third installment.

This story was originally published November 30, 2016 at 10:21 AM with the headline "7 Charlotte concerts to check out this week."