TOP 3 CONCERTS
LUCINDA WILLIAMS
Twenty years ago, the album “Car Wheels on a Grave Road” helped define the Americana genre, with its folk-rock compositions and vocals delivered with an authenticity that may not have been achieved since.
The disc was Lucinda Williams’ first to sell gold and won her a Grammy for Best Contemporary Folk Album and a nomination for Best Female Rock Vocal for the single “Can’t Let Go.” The Village Voice voted it Album of the Year.
Five years later, on Oct. 2, 2004, World Cafe Live opened, offering emerging and critically favorite acts such as Williams on two stages. It has since introduced such acts as Adele, Ellie Goulding, Alabama Shakes and Billie Eilish. To celebrate the disc’s anniversary, Williams will perform it in its entirety with visual elements in a storyteller presentation, plus a second set of songs. It’s part of a week of shows, several free, to mark the venue’s 15th anniversary.
8 p.m. Tuesday, World Cafe Live, 3025 Walnut St., Philadelphia. Sold out; resale tickets available, www.worldcafelive.com, 215-222-1400.
EMMYLOU HARRIS
2 Emmylou Harris’ musical credentials are impeccable. In a career of 50 years, she’s had 10 gold and platinum albums and nearly two dozen that hit the Top 10 on the Country chart, and nearly three dozen singles that hit the Top 20. She’s won 14 Grammy Awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Award last year.
City Winery, the restaurant/ live music chain that started in New York in 2008, has an impeccable record of its own, booking great talent, mostly singer-songwriters, in its intimate spaces.
The two will come together when the seventh City Winery, which opened in Philly last week, holds its first concert Friday, with Harris as its headliner.
8 p.m. Friday, City Winery, 990 Filbert St., Philadelphia. Sold out; resale tickets available, www.citywinery.com/ Philadelphia, 267-479-7373.
JOURNEY
3 Power balladeers Journey’s 1970s and ’80s hits have made it one of the Top 30 bestselling bands ever in the United States.
Of course, top among those hits is “Don’t Stop Believin’,” which though barely a Top 10 hit when first released in 1981, gave the band second life when it was used for the popular TV show “Glee,” making the song the bestselling digital song released in the 21st century. It sold more than 4 million downloads, then also was used in the series-ending sequence of the popular HBO drama “The Sopranos.”
Of course, Journey had many other hits — 18 Top 40 songs from “Lovin’ Touchin’ Squeezin’ ” in 1979 to “I’ll be Alright Without You” in 1987. Its other hits include “Any Way You Want It,” “Faithfully,” “Separate Ways” and “Wheel In The Sky.”
7:30 p.m. Oct. 1, Wind Creek Event Center, 77 Wind Creek Blvd., Bethlehem. Sold out, but resale tickets available, www.windcreekeventcenter.com, 800-745-3000.