Between a sluggish overall economy and ticket prices that everyone agrees are too high (without actually doing anything about them, of course), the concert industry has taken a pretty serious battering in recent years. But the outdoor-concert season still rolls around this time every year. While it looks like this year will be more of a last-minute/wing-it kind of thing than in years past, some decent stuff is still headed our way. For particulars about that and schedules for the venues, see the story in Friday's paper.

It's a bit chilly here in the 9-1-9, today, but the sun is shining in such a way that one's thoughts might turn toward music in a pastoral setting. So it's fitting that the Shakori Hills Spring Festival has just released the first chunk of its lineup for the April 16-19 edition. And it goes like this:

Amy LaVere
Boulder Acoustic Society
Christabel and the Jons
Donna the Buffalo
Eilen Jewell
Justin Townes Earle
Lost in the Trees
Mamadou Diabate
Midtown Dickens
Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys
Samantha Crain and the Midnight Shivers
Stephanie's Id