Looks like Raleigh will have Ballas Fever next Wednesday.

Right after "Dancing with the Stars" champ Mark Ballas finishes up with his dance workshop at Arthur Murray Studios, he'll race downtown to rock out at The Berkeley Cafe.

Mark Ballas with Jason Adamo Band will perform at the Berkeley at 8pm on January 26.

According to the Ballas bio at the Berkeley website, Ballas has been playing the guitar since he was 4 and began writing his own music at 12. His debut solo CD, "HurtLoveBox," will be released next month.

Jason Adamo is a North Carolina-based soul/rock singer songwriter. He has toured all over the country and has played with artists such as Ben Harper, Jack Johnson, Corey Smith, and Hootie and the Blowfish.

The doors open at 7pm and the show starts at 8pm. Tickets are $15. Berkeley Cafe has more information.

Ryan Bingham looks like he should be hanging onto a bull for dear life, or riding a fenceline to tend to a herd of cattle somewhere -- and there have been long stretches when he did indeed live the life of a cowboy. But nowadays, Bingham is a very fine singer/songwriter; and he lives in the glamorous, non-rural environs of Los Angeles.

"It's a different deal for sure, but I enjoy it," Bingham says of living in California. "I love having my own place with a mailbox and everything, and the weather's nice. I grew up all over New Mexico and Texas, so I've had my share of that. I'm not scared of contrast every now and then. It's been a nice change."

Bingham plays Sunday night at Raleigh's Berkeley Cafe. For details on that plus more chit-chat, see the interview in Friday's paper.

In the two decades the Bottle Rockets have been at it, the music industry certainly hasn't gotten any easier to navigate. According to BoRox main man Brian Henneman, however, the way to success has become immeasurably more confusing.

"Things are tough all over," Henneman said in a recent phone interview. "The competition is ferocious, but it's competition that's hard to describe. It's like playing on the back porch or something. Some bands still get out with it, try to take it places, but it seems fewer are doing the actual touring side of it. Used to be there were 10,000 indie bands on the road at the same time. But it's weird times now with the damn Internet; like menus. Ever go to a Greek diner, one of those places where there's so much on the menu that you end up unable to read any of it? 'Breakfast anytime, pot roast, gyros, tacos' -- and you just pick something you don't even really want because the menu makes you tired; a bagel, maybe. That's what it reminds me of these days, when 8 quatrillion bands are available at the click of a mouse."

For more, see the interview in Friday's paper. The Bottle Rockets play Raleigh's Berkeley Cafe tonight -- and by the way, the opening act is worth showing up for, too.

ADDENDUM (9/9/09): Another interview. 

Singer/guitarist Sarah Borges is, shall we say, a very active performer. Borges, who plays Raleigh's Berkeley Cafe on Tuesday, spends a good bit of time moving about the stage and climbing things, which is one reason why she wears cowboy boots rather than high heels onstage. But she comes by her performance tendencies honestly, having studied music theater at Boston's Emerson College -- although it wasn't something she actually enjoyed.

"Oh, that was so competitive, it scared me," she says. "There was a lot of auditioning and stuff like that, which is not how music is to me. So I was terrible at it. I don't think I'm as good at that kind of singing as the playing and singing that I do now. I was good at the improv and ad-libbing, but not at 'reciting with feeling.'"

Another indirect vestige of Borge's college days can be found on her new album, "The Stars Are Out" (Sugar Hill Records). One of the album's five covers is "Ride With Me" by the Lemonheads, who were a hugely popular hometown band in Boston during Borges' college days.

"We had a huge Lemonheads poster in our room," she recalls. "So it was great to be from Boston and record a song by a big Boston band. Plus my boys in the band do three-part harmony on that one, so I was able to get them out of their shells and singing like choir boys. Although it turns out I've been playing that song wrong since I was 18 -- wrong words, wrong words. I feel good about finally getting it right, after playing it wrong for so long."

For more, see the interview in Friday's paper.

New to the Berkeley Cafe concert calendar, Norwegian singer Jonas Fjeld on Feb. 12, backed up by the Triangle's own Chatham County Line. Fjeld and CCL are wildly popular over in Fjeld's home country, and this show is a "dress rehearsal" for the duo's upcoming Norwegian tour in support of "Brother of Song" -- due out Feb. 24 in Norway. No U.S. release yet, but we can hope.

ADDENDUM: Here's a bit of CCL live, courtesy of NBC-17.