Roadtrips

It's hotter 'n the sweat on a bull's balls come slaughter time, which can mean only one thing: we're due for a dollop of that sweet country music. Had he never picked up a guitar, Junior Brown's wit and bottom-of-the-well baritone might've still guaranteed him a spot in the annals of C&W novelty singers. As it is, his hybrid lap-steel guitar is a wonder, and his virtuosic playing has its own cult. Not to mention that his version of neo-traditionalism -- "free-range country," he calls it -- is among the most adventurous out there. His new Mixed Bag (Curb) incorporates strains of Dixieland jazz; the album brings him to Johnny D's (617-776-2004) in Somerville tonight (August 16) with local honky-tonk outlaws the Stumbleweeds; Brown continues on to the Wellfleet Beachcomber (508-349-6055) on Friday.

Lyle Lovett's no enemy of the movies -- his failed marriage to Julia Roberts notwithstanding. Lovett's last outing was the soundtrack to long-time pal Robert Altman's gynecological farce Dr. T & the Women, for which he revisited the cream of his compositions for his Large Band, plus some incidental music and a few new instrumentals. This week, Lovett and his Large Band are back on the road with shows tonight at the Cape Cod Melody Tent (508-775-9100) in Hyannis, Friday at the FleetBoston Pavilion (617-931-2000) in Boston, and Saturday at the North Shore Music Theatre (978-232-7200) in Beverly.

More tales of Nashville outsiderdom come from Mary Chapin Carpenter, who's out in support of her new Time Sex Love (Columbia), on which she longs for all three, though not necessarily in that order. Carpenter brings along the grizzled country-rock renegade Steve Earle for dates at the Providence Performing Arts Center (401-421-2787) on Friday and the FleetBoston Pavilion on Saturday. Earle -- who recently completed his first collection of short stories, a volume of drug- and music-propelled prose called Doghouse Roses -- headlines his own show Sunday at Pearl Street (413-584-7771) in Northampton.

Calvin Johnson, the imperial kingpin of the formidable Northwest indie label K Records and an inventor of bedroom pop with the infamous Beat Happening, would rather you didn't refer to his latest undertaking, The Moon Is Up There: A Paper Opera, with the words "improv," "multimedia," "musical," or "audience participation." Nonetheless, The Moon appears to be a partly improvised multimedia musical with audience participation. Khaela Maricich from Get the Hell Out of the Way of the Volcano (that's a band) and Microphones man Phil Elvrum are also involved. It'll be presented Tuesday at the City Hall Ballroom (978-465-4407) in Newburyport and Wednesday at the Coolidge Corner Theatre (617-734-2500) in Brookline.