Cover Story: Noisemakers and tunesmiths
Whether you go for the red-blooded patriotism of right-wing country stars, the jazz-pop explorations of pasty-white critics' darlings or the blue-veined antics of rockers and soul legends, there's plenty this fall to get your flag waving.
AUGUST: The Boston Pops run through Hooked on Classics fare at Chastain the 22nd. ... The Sprite Liquid Mix Tour fizzes over HiFi Buys the 29th, as critical darlings N.E.R.D., the Roots, Talib Kweli and Robert Randolph shill for Coca-Cola's "Obey your thirst" juggernaut. ... Kennedy Center honoree James Brown busts a move or two at Chastain the 31st.
SEPTEMBER: TMI queen Tori Amos and Ben Folds tickle the ivories at Chastain Sept. 1, while funky white-boy band Galactic and guitarist Jeff Beck stop by as part of the B.B. King Music Festival Sept. 5-6. ...Troubled Glitter-bug Mariah Carey alights at the Gwinnett Center on the 9th. ... Yo La Tengo plays to a roomful of music critics at Variety the 12th. ... The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra opens its season with violinist Pinchas Zukerman the 13th. ... Aerosmith and KISS fatten their imminent retirement accounts at HiFi Buys the 14th, the same day spiritual descendent Andrew WK parties hard at Masquerade. ... Steely Dan hawk Everything Must Go at HiFi the 19th, while the Dave Matthews Band arrives the 20th. ...Welsh pop sensations Super Furry Animals and dream-rockers Grandaddy co-headline the Roxy Sept. 29.
OCTOBER: Reactionary country blowhard Toby Keith and deified space-rockers Radiohead play to (presumably) different crowds at HiFi Buys on the 3rd and the 6th, respectively. ... Indian sitar god Ravi Shankar (aka Norah Jones' dad) and daughter Anoushka get strung out at Emory's Schwartz Center on the 9th. ... Electronic experimentalist Prefuse 73 distorts Echo Lounge on the 10th. ... Athens' own R.E.M. Corp. doubles its stock price at Philips on the 11th. ... John Hammond and harmonica ace Charlie Musselwhite get blue at the Ferst Center on the 12th. ... The increasingly indigestible Korn regurgitates its bass-heavy nu-metal sound at Philips on the 22nd, two days before Jim Morrison does another turn in his grave, as the Ian Astbury-led Doors of the 21st Century play Chastain on the 24th. ... Luckily, uplifting morna vocalist Cesaria Evora dazzles at Symphony Hall on the 29th.
NOVEMBER: Composer Alvin Singleton gets his props at a daylong celebration at Spivey Hall on the 18th, and acclaimed jazz vocalist Luciana Souza mixes Brazilian and American standards on the 22nd ... Continuing the regional theme, Doudou N'Diaye Rose & the Drummers of West Africa bang it out at the Rialto the same day.??