Ordinarily, a primary election happening after presidential nominations are set would be a low-key affair. But that's not the case in North Carolina this year, thanks to Amendment 1 -- which would write into the state constitution that the only valid legal domestic union is marriage between one man and one woman.

While numerous business and political leaders have weighed in against it, Amendment 1 still appears headed for passage with a solid double-digit lead in most opinion polls. And in a move reminescent of past campaigns against the late Sen. Jesse A. Helms, North Carolina's music community has taken up the cause of trying to rally voters against it.

One such event is Thursday night at Durham's Motorco Music Hall, a benefit for Protect NC Families.  Superchunk's Mac McCaughan, Mountain Goats' John Darnielle and Reigning Sound's Greg Cartwright will all play, with comedian Tara Defrancisco serving as host. Cover is $20; but if you want to shell out for the $100 VIP ticket, you get to request a song they'll play.

On April 27, Stu McLamb from The Love Language, John Howie and others will play at Carrboro Town Hall from noon to 4 p.m. This one is to raise awareness about early voting (which begins Thursday).

The biggest local anti-Amendment 1 show so far is the Concert to Defeat Amendment One May 6 at Haw River Ballroom, with Bob Mould, David Cross, Stu McLamb, comedian Tig Notaro, Superchunk in acoustic-duo format (!) and Amber Tamblyn. Tickets are $80 and include a silkscreened event poster.

There's also been at least one very fine new song inspired by this, "Vote Against Amendment One." Composed by Greensboro's Laurelyn Dossett (of "The Gathering" fame), it features Molly McGinn, Carolina Chocolate Drop Rhiannon Giddens Laffan and others.

Read more about the campaigns for and against the amendment here.

Most of the time when Rhiannon Giddens is singing with her old-time stringband Carolina Chocolate Drops, you'd never know that she has a classical background. But she started out as an opera singer at Oberlin College, and she flashed some of those chops onstage Friday night at the North Carolina Symphony’s Holiday Pops show at Meymandi Concert Hall. She did a lovely star turn on "O Holy Night," which was the first high point of the evening.

Still, that was just a warm-up for the main event, the symphonic preview of "The Gathering" -- Laurelyn Dossett's holiday song cycle about the ups, downs, joys, tears and fears of holiday-season family get-togethers. It was truly lovely, with composer Aaron Grad's Americana-by-way-of-Aaron-Copland arrangements meshing perfectly with the stringband quartet of Dossett, Giddens, banjo player Joe Newberry and mandolin man Mike Compton.

On the outro to the high-spirited "Redbird," Giddens kicked off her high heels to dance and Newberry (a self-described "recovering clogger") was right there with her to do an impressive little soft-shoe number. All I've got to say is it was a far better way to kick off the holidays than a midnight Black Friday sale. "The Gathering" also plays two shows on Saturday, and it's well worth checking out. Hope they will perform it beyond this weekend, too.

Laurelyn Dossett has been a consistent presence in North Carolina old-time/folk circles over the last decade, in part because she's versatile enough to do a lot of things well. Among other things, that led to her collaboration with the NC Symphony on "The Gathering," a lovely piece of music about a prodigal daughter's holiday-season return that has its full-orchestra premiere on Friday.

"I keep finding myself in collaborations I didn't expect, whether in theater, this with the symphony -- or my next one, with Daniel Bernard Roumain. He's a classical violinist who plays like this hip-hop violin. As an instrumentalist, he's into telling stories people can connect to and he writes beautiful things, but he's always having to explain what they're about. So that's his desire to work with a lyricist."

That should be fascinating to hear. Meantime, "The Gathering" is right pretty and there's a story about it in Sunday's paper.

Justin Robinson's departure from the Carolina Chocolate Drops seems curiously timed, since there's every chance the group will win a Grammy Award next weekend. But the split has been brewing for a while. The Chocolate Drops spent 250 days on the road in 2010, a grind that was especially tough on Robinson.

"Some like to tour, some don't," Thompson's bandmate Rhiannon Giddens said recently. "Justin has other things in his life, he's a very outdoorsy guy. It's a very amicable thing. We were together five-and-a-half years, which is more than a lot. We hope he'll play with us some here and there, some shows with us next year, and on the next album. It's hard because we're having a lot of success with the Grammy nomination. It's hard to contemplate changes. But you don't want to hold someone against their will."

Meantime, plans for that next album continue apace. Guitarist Buddy Miller, who was just in Raleigh playing behind Robert Plant, is tentatively set to produce. And Robinson's new group, Justin Robinson and the Mary Annettes, will play Feb. 19 at Durham's Motorco Music Hall.

(Thanks, Wendy.)

ADDENDUM (2/14/11): Grammy victory!