Raleigh's Time Warner Cable Music Pavilion at Walnut Creek won't wrap up its 2009 season until next month, but the first show of 2010 is already on the schedule. Arena-country superstar Tim McGraw has released dates for next year's "Southern Voice" tour, and it comes to Walnut Creek on Aug. 14. That makes two big country shows in Raleigh for next year.

Coldplay plays at the Time Warner Pavilion at Walnut Creek on Thursday night, Aug. 6, 2009.

Coldplay held forth in Raleigh on Thursday night, and it was a pretty nice old-school Big Rock Event. Click through to see the review, and check out a very fine photo gallery of shots from the show here.

Coldplay comes to the Triangle next week and we scored an interview to preview the show -- but not, of course, with the guy you'd recognize. Click through for further illuminative details.

Well, here we go again. Rapper Lil Wayne has been announced as coming to the big shed in Raleigh on Aug. 8. But you'll forgive me for being a bit skeptical. Last fall, Wayne was supposed to play Raleigh's RBC Center on Halloween night -- and the show was canceled with no explanation. He wound up playing in Greensboro and Charlotte instead.

In any event, tickets go on sale Friday at 10 a.m.

It just wouldn't be an outdoor-music season without them: Allman Brothers are coming back to Raleigh's big outdoor shed on Oct. 11, in what might turn out to be the final show of the season. That will extend the venerable Southern rock icons' streak to 19 straight years playing Walnut Creek, as the only act to play there every year since it opened in 1991. And if you were wondering why Widespread Panic isn't playing its usual weekend stand at Walnut Creek next month, it's because they're on the Allman Brothers bill as opening act.

Tickets go on sale Friday. 

Lock up the liquor cabinet and hide your daughters -- Motley Crue is coming to town. The definitively decadent 1980s-vintage hair-metal band will play Raleigh's big outdoor joint on Aug. 23, as part of its annual Cruefest tour. The rest of the lineup will be released next month, and the fan-club ticket pre-sale begins today.

ADDENDUM: And this just in, No Doubt has been added to the Walnut Creek schedule for June 8.

The weather outside might be frightful, but next summer's shows are already popping up for the Triangle's big warm-weather venues. Raleigh's Time-Warner Cable Music Pavilion at Walnut Creek has its first show of 2009 on the calendar, country icon George Strait on May 16, according to his online tour schedule. No surprise that it's a country show, since Walnut Creek has been more of a country venue than a rock one for years now.

Over at the NC Museum of Art, meanwhile, two concerts are already on the schedule, according to Pollstar listings -- Pink Martini on June 6, and the venerable Doc Watson on Sept. 26.

I've read so many stories over the years about Gregg Allman being a "difficult" interview that I wasn't expecting much when I got him on the phone last week. To my surprise, however, the Southern rock icon could not have been chattier about a variety of subjects -- including one of his estranged former bandmates.

"The band has changed a lot since Derek and Warren joined, back to more like it was in the beginning," Allman said. "We don't have two guitar players fighting, then one dies and the other takes on this thing of, 'Oh God, I've gotta fill his shoes.' Then instead of the way some people turn wimpy and say they can't do it anymore, he turns bully.

"But hey," he concluded, "if you can't say anything nice, why say anything at all?"

For lots more on everything from presidential politics to Hepatitis C, check the interview in Friday's paper. Allman Brothers play Raleigh's big outdoor joint tonight, extending their run as the only act to play there every year the place has been open.

3 Doors Down was schedule to play Time Warner Cable Music Pavilion on Tuesday, but the show has been postponed. Raleigh is one of seven shows to be scratched on doctor's orders -- 3 Doors Down lead singer Brad Arnold has reportedly been advised that he needs to rest his voice.

A rescheduled date will be announced soon. In the meantime, tickets purchased at the box office or Ticketmaster outlets will be refunded at point of purchase beginning Friday. Tickets purchased online or by phone will be refunded automatically.