Here's what looks to be the Americana-type roadshow of the summer: The "Big Surprise Tour," Aug. 10 at Cary's Booth Amphitheatre with Old Crow Medicine Show, Dave Rawlings Machine (featuring Gillian Welch, of course), Felice Brothers and Justin Townes Earle (whose dad plays Wednesday in Carrboro).

The show's format calls for two 90-minute sets, with lots of cameos, collaborations and sitting in among all four acts. Tickets go on sale Friday at 10 a.m.

Try to control the shock and disappointment this will no doubt bring on, but comedian Larry the Cable Guy's May 16 show at Cary's Booth Amphitheatre has been canceled. Refunds are available at point of purchase; phone and online orders will be automatically credited.

No reason was given for the cancelation, but Cary isn't the only LtCG date to get scotched without explanation. A Thursday performance in Great Falls, Mont., has also been called off.

Smooth retro-nuevo soul man John Legend was just through the Triangle a few months ago; and he must have liked it here well enough, because he already has a return engagement on the books. Legend is scheduled to play Cary's Booth Amphitheatre on July 12, according to a tour schedule from his publicist. Ticket-sale details to come.

My goodness, the show announcements are flying in fast today. Now we've got the first big rock show of the season at Cary's Koka Boothe Amphitheatre at Regency Park -- Kings of Leon on April 28. Tickets go on sale next Friday, Feb. 13.

When Cary's Koka Booth Amphitheatre at Regency Park announced last month it was changing promoters and going with a firm that does a lot of comedy and theater, that signaled a change in booking direction. And now we have further evidence, Booth's first big-time comedy show. Blue Collar Comedy regular Larry the Cable Guy will perform at Booth on May 21, according to Pollstar listings.

Monday's paper has a somewhat wonky story about Cary's Koka Booth Amphitheatre at Regency Park (site of last summer's triumphant Avett Brothers show, among others) leaving the Live Nation fold and changing to a new promoter for its roadshows. Nashville-based Outback Concerts is Booth's new "preferred promoter" and will present at least 10 shows there this year. Live Nation, which did 13 shows at Booth as last year's "pp," will concentrate its energies on Raleigh's Time Warner Cable Music Pavilion at Walnut Creek.

Since Booth is about one-third the size of Walnut Creek, the two venues should be able to keep out of each other's way this year. Come next year, however, things might get interesting in a competitive sort of way if the proposed downtown Raleigh Amphitheater is a reality by then. Check here for some further background on that.

Way back in 1991, the year Walnut Creek Amphitheatre opened in Raleigh, it booked the closing show of its debut season in November -- R&B singer Patti LaBelle. It was an utter catastrophe, as temperatures plummetted down to near the freezing mark. That might still be the most uncomfortable night I've ever spent out there, and it was all for naught. After an interminable delay following opening act Freddie Jackson, LaBelle came onstage to announce that, due to the frigid temperature, she didn't feel as if she could give us "the show you deserve," with the clothes and the hair and the wailing. So she wasn't going to perform.

The crowd erupted into boos, with many shouting at her to leave and never come back. LaBelle did return to play Walnut Creek a few years later, during the heat of the summer, and all seemed forgiven. But Walnut Creek has never booked a show in November since, choosing instead to end every outdoor-music season in October (including this year, which is scheduled to wrap with Martina McBride on Oct. 4).

Cary's Booth Amphitheatre, however, is going to roll the dice. Just announced: A Nov. 8 date with country singer (and Hannah Montana dad) Billy Ray Cyrus as headliner. It's part of a concert celebration "recognizing the missions of the American Red Cross and the National Veterans Freedom Park, while honoring our Nation's veterans, military personnel and their families."

We'll see how that goes. Meanwhile, tickets go on sale at noon Tuesday.

Friday's paper has some preview verbiage on the '80s-centric "Regeneration" tour, which plays Cary's Booth Amphitheatre on Wednesday. The package includes a quick check-in on Ali Score, a Triangle resident who was the original drummer in A Flock of Seagulls way back when; but who isn't participating in his tour with AFOS due to "finances and logistics." For some background on AFOS' last two decades, including the original lineup's brief reunion in 2003-04 for VH1's "Bands Reunited" series, go here.

Word is that G. Love & Special Sauce's Cary show, scheduled for Thursday at Koka Booth Amphitheatre, has been canceled. No reason has been given, but refunds are available from point of purchase starting Wednesday (phone and web orders will be refunded automatically starting Tuesday).