Music to be thankful for ... weekend picks

Again, a weekend with lots of choices ... here's a few on my radar:

Friday
Shows so popular, there's two chances to catch them -
Storm Large brings her Holiday Ordeal show to the Aladdin tonight and tomorrow, but both tonight and tomorrow are sold out ...

It's the third year for the wildly popular Next Waltz, a recreation of The Band's final show captured in the film, The Last Waltz, at the Alberta Rose. It's a benefit for the Jeremy Wilson Foundation and the Oregon Food Bank and features an almost impossible number of Portland's music community participating in a wonderfully fun and feel-good event, that even on it's third go round will have some surprising and moving musical moments ... Saturday night is sold out, but there's still some tickets left for tonight ... 8 pm, $25

Blitzen Trapper checks into the Doug Fir for a rockin' two nights .. plus a late afternoon show on Saturday (5 pm) . Opening for the evening shows is the Alialujah Choir on Friday and The Parson Red Heads on Saturday, and The Woolen Men on Saturday afternoon ... 9 pm Fri & Sat / 5 pm Sat.,  $25

And, Curtis Salgado and band appear for two nights at Jimmy Mak's ...$25 reserved/$20 available at Ticket Tomato

Also tonight ... Typhoon is at the Crystal Ballroom ...  9 pm, $20

Acclaimed singer/songwriter Freedy Johnston continues his week-long residency at Al's Den in the Crystal Hotel (drop by before the Typhoon show, if you're headed that way) ... 7 pm, no cover

Cat Power will be at the Hawthorne Theater ... 9 pm, $35

Seattle's The Cave Singers are at Mississippi Studios ... 9 pm, $17

And today is a great day to music shop at Music Millennium ... and you can feast your ears to the New Orleans sounds of Portland's Roseland Hunters at 5:30 with free Voodoo Donuts, Porter's BBQ Po'boy sliders and Cajun jambalaya, and beer from Laurelwood ... now that's the way to shop on Black Friday!

Saturday

Besides the 2nd nights of the aforementioned shows ... Tony Furtado is making Saturday after Thanksgiving an annual event at Mississippi Studios ... this year he's joined by members of Dirty Martini (like his wonderfully talented wife, Stephanie Schneiderman) and the Ruth Moody Band ... a great show with one of Portland's most widely acclaimed musicians ... 8 pm, $18

If none of these gets you out of any lasting leftover Thanksgiving food coma, check any music calendar and get out to some live music ....

And before you go ... check out the following from Oregon Music News about David Bromberg ... at the Aladdin on Wednesday ... highly recommended!