Lucinda Williams When it comes to surviving the ravages of the heart and finding redemption, Lucinda Williams has written the song catalogue, at least as much as any current singer-songwriter. And West , the roots artist's latest, has been getting some of the best reviews since her 1998 breakthrough, Car Wheels on a Gravel Road –Robert Christgau pronounced the tune "Are You Alright?" as one of Williams's best ever, which puts it in such esteemed company as "Passionate Kisses", "Right in Time", and "Lonely Girls". Even without such high praise, a chance to hear that bloody-but-unbowed voice ring out in defiance in the idyllic setting of Malkin Bowl on Tuesday (June 12) should not be missed.

The Great Outdoors Food, booze, and entertainment basically make the world go round–at least our world. So naturally, we'd be supporters of a disc named after those three staples, even if it wasn't as good as the Great Outdoors's third album. Fortunately, we can in good conscience give a ringing endorsement to the Adam Nation–fronted band's latest, which gets the CD-release party treatment with a show at the Chapel (304 Dunlevy Street) tonight (June 7). Nation's folk-pop laments are dyed-in-the-wool Canadiana, as warm and reassuring as a Hudson's Bay blanket, as poetically inspired as a Neil Young tune ( Harvest / After the Gold Rush period), and sometimes even kind of funny ("Too Many Jennifers"). The show is a great opportunity to hear one of the city's most underrated acts, as well as pick up a copy of Food, Booze, and Entertainment , which is as much a conversation piece–it comes in book form, with illustrations by artist Daniel Brodie–as it is a musical experience.

The Rosebuds This Saturday night (June 9) you'll be at the Media Club for the Rosebuds. Why wouldn't you be? You love hooky, intelligent pop songs, and the North Carolina band, formed around the core of Ivan Howard and Kelly Crisp, has plenty of 'em. The Rosebuds' latest Merge Records release is Night of the Furies , a vaguely conceptí¢â‚¬”˜ish, somewhat British-sounding disc (an Echo & the Bunnymen record may have been harmed in its making) that is perfect nighttime driving music. You'll want to arrive early enough, too, to see opening act Land of Talk, a Montreal band arriving with quite a bit of buzz of its own.

Cesaria Evora Cesaria Evora paid her dues in music long ago. The 65-year-old grandma with the magnificently smoky, bittersweet voice spent her early years in poverty on the parched Cape Verde islands, off West Africa, where she honed her craft singing for dockworkers and sailors in lowlife bars. Since being discovered in the late '80s, however, the "barefoot diva" has become a world-music superstar, selling out venues like New York's Carnegie Hall. On Tuesday (June 12), Evora and her eight-piece band come to the opulent setting of the Orpheum Theatre to perform the bluesy morna and jaunty coladeira rhythms of their homeland, with percussive Cape Verdean guitarist Tcheka opening.

Music Waste If you blinked, you might have missed Music West this year, but that's no reason to skip Music Waste. The annual band showcase was originally a response by acts not included in the more official conference but has grown into a high-profile event of its own (we're waiting for an anti–Music Waste movement). This year's four-day (June 7 to 10) spectacle features, at various venues, more than 40 acts, which is too many to mention here so we'll just plug our favourite names: Sex Negatives, the Yesterdais, the Bloggers, Cheerleader Camp, Japandroids, and Tarran the Tailor. If their tunes are half as inventive, music fans could be in for a treat. You can find more info at www.musicwaste.ca/ .