Heavy Dates

We're big fans of Hightone Records, the only label that, knock on wood, has never sent us a dud album. And that includes Juno Award-winner James Keelaghan who was added to their already impressive stable of songwriters. Keelaghan's debut release is called Road. Which is what he's on these days. Keelaghan plays this Friday at the Bull Run Restaurant along with fellow-Canuck and Rounder Records folkie, Connie Kaldor. This past week, someone actually wondered out loud where Seven Hill Psychos had disappeared to. We thought it was a joke. Some people lead pretty sheltered lives. The hardest workin' band in all of rapcore don't know what a weekend off is, and to prove it they play Friday at Commercial Street. Sets from Drained, Shed, and God Stands Still round out the evening. Elsewhere, John Brown's Body lay down a reggae-groove at Gilrein's, and Slipknot play the Plantation Club. Dave Van Ronk turned a nifty phrase or two on Tom Russell's brilliant new release, The Man from God Knows Where (Hightone), and now he's out hawking his own wares. Best-known as the guy who let a young up-and-comer named Dylan (as in Bob, not McKay) crash at his Greenwich Village pad many (many) moons ago, Van Ronk visits the Bull Run with an armload of just-as-great stories. Also on Saturday, Young Neal and the Vipers, blues-rock extraordinaires, return to Jillian's, and the Tiki Hut features roots-rebels Jason James and the Bay State Houserockers. May always means Muscular Dystrophy benefit, and this year's no exception. The Lucky Dog Music Hall features a 19-band throw-down that lasts 11 hours total. Chillum, Hoosier Daddy, White Knuckle Sobriety (whose disc Fat End First is outta sight), Huxley, Split, Junk Sculpture, and One Way Down are just the tip of the iceberg on this one, and it will only set you back seven clams. That's roughly thirty-eight cents an act, not to mention the karma-points bonus. On Sunday, those lovable cats and chicks of Sticker split the bill at the Funny Bone Cafe with Spedfarm, and the Palladium features the awesome, unmitigated power of Monster Magnet, whose most recent release, Powertrip, was a close second to Nashville Pussy on the ass-kick scale. On Tuesday, the Lucky Dog hosts acoustic night with Scott Anderson featuring a set from the great Mike Duffy. Wednesday, Jim Devlin plays gratis at the Black Orchid, and Phoenix fave Dennis Brennan does the same at Vincent's. And on Thursday, Troy Gonyea and the Premiers rave and roll at the Firehouse Cafe, while Gilrein's features the Irish eyes of Ceilidh.

-- John O'Neill

BOSTON/PROVIDENCE

Lucinda Williams makes her only area stop this time around at Lupo's, (401) 272-5876, in Providence, on May 6 with Patty Griffin. Former Rank and File/True Believers hero Alejandro Escovedo is at Johnny D's, (617) 776-2004, in Somerville, on May 6 and at the Iron Horse, (413) 584-0610, in Northampton, on May 8. Folkie singer-songwriter Jonatha Brooke is at Pearl Street, (413) 584-0610, in Northampton, on May 7 with local-singer-songwriter-boy-done-good Jude, who's been touring with the Cranberries of late, and has a disc out on Madonna's Maverick label. After that Brooke moves on to the Berklee Performance Center, (617) 931-2000, in Boston, for a gig on May 8. And John Medeski -- of Martin Medeski & Wood -- sits in with the Hal Crook Group to lay down some organ on live tracks they'll record during shows on May 11 and 12 at Providence's AS220, (401) 831-9327.

File under: shameless impersonation. Heard a band on the radio recently who sounded an awful lot like Sugar -- and, it turns out, have the gall to call themselves Fuel, which just happens to have been the title of one of the last Sugar albums. They're climbing the modern-rock radio charts, and they'll be at Lupo's on May 14 with fellow active-rock hopefuls Finger 11.

-- Carly Carioli