Best of the Week (Nov. 3-10): Tyler Childers, 'A New Brain,' Rachel & Vilray, Black Grace, 'Votes for Women,' SPCO, more

'Country Squire' on fire

Already announced as the opening act for Sturgill Simpson's big spring tour, 28-year-old old-school twanger Tyler Childers might be bigger than his fellow Kentuckian by next year following his second record, "Country Squire." The album landed the semi-bluegrassy singer at No. 1 on the Billboard country chart with help from Simpson, who coproduced, but also with the accolades and cultish following he had already built up off his prior LP, "Purgatory." He's a clever songwriter and moving singer, and he has two nights here to settle in and step it up live. Chris Riemenschneider

7 p.m. Sun. & Mon. First Avenue, 701 1st Av. N., Mpls. Sold out.

How did "A New Brain" nev­er make it to Broad­way? The musical one-act or­bits com­pos­er Gor­don Schwinn (Ri­ley Mc­Nutt), who's hav­ing a quar­ter-life cri­sis. As he's try­ing to craft a song called "Frogs Have So Much Spring" for a kids' show, he develops a brain tu­mor. Director Ben Mc­Gov­ern, con­duc­tor Ani­ta Ruth and chor­e­og­ra­pher Hei­di Spesard-Noble find joy, hu­mor and spir­ited life in the show's re­gion­al pre­miere. They breathe beau­ti­ful life into this odd duck.

Rohan Preston

7:30 p.m. Wed.-Sat.; 2 p.m. next Sun. Artistry, 1800 W. Old Shakopee Road, Bloomington. $17-$46, artistrymn.org.

Lake Street Dive singer Rachael Price has branched out from her jazz-pop band for a mellower side project, Rachael & Vilray, with a guitarist and singer/songwriter she and her bandmates worked with at the New England Conservatory of Music. Vilray writes hushed, lightly jazzy, unabashedly vintage love songs that Billie Holiday might've sung. He's found the perfect vocalist in the sultry and smoky-voiced Price. Their eponymous album just dropped on Nonesuch Records.

C.R.

7:30 p.m. Sun. Cedar Cultural Center, Mpls. $30, thecedar.org.

New Zealand choreographer Neil Ieremia incorporates indigenous movement from the Pacific Islands in dance pieces performed by his company, Black Grace. Ieremia, who is part Samoan, also investigates issues like toxic masculinity and the onslaught of negative news, in addition to childhood memories of rugby and wrestling. These are brought together with a contemporary dance vocabulary, an infusion of percussive sounds and chanting, and a dose of J.S. Bach.

SHEILA REGAN

7:30 p.m. Thu. Northrop, 84 SE. Church St., Mpls. $21-$50, 612-624-2345, northrop.umn.edu.

The passage of the 19th Amendment is celebrated in Hennepin History Museum's new exhibit "Votes for Women." Roles that county residents played in the suffrage movement are explored. Artifacts include a Susan B. Anthony-signed ribbon from an 1897 conference in Minneapolis and a vintage voting machine from 1899. Throughout the exhibit, "Suffrage Saturdays" will feature educational activities related to voting rights.

Melissa Walker

Tue. through July 5, 2020. Hennepin History Museum, 2303 3rd Av. S., Mpls. $8, hennepinhistory.org.

Nathalie Stutzmann built her reputation as a contralto singer. But she has turned increasingly to conducting, earning accolades. Her Minnesota Orchestra program plumbs the 19th-century romantic repertoire, with the intensely yearning prelude and "Liebestod" from Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde" coupled with Brahms' glowing Second Symphony. Concertmaster Erin Keefe is featured in Dvořák's "Romance for Violin," with a clutch of Brahms' lively Hungarian Dances thrown in.

Terry Blain

11 a.m. Thu., 8 p.m. Fri. & Sat. Orchestra Hall, Mpls. $12-$125, minnesotaorchestra.org.

Preservation Hall Jazz Band may be renowned for making traditional New Orleans jazz in a weathered 1803 building in the French Quarter, but when the current incarnation went to Cuba in 2015 to trace its musical roots, the results were an acclaimed new documentary, "A Tuba to Cuba," and an excitingly invigorating soundtrack album. Now the ensemble has taken to the road with Cuban singer Yusa to celebrate the musical mashup.

Jon Bream

7:30 p.m. Tue. Fitzgerald Theater, St. Paul. $25-$30, etix.com.

The St. Paul Chamber Orchestra muscles up for Beethoven's 250th birthday celebrations next year by wheeling out its entire string section for the Third Razumovsky String Quartet. The winds play Mozart's Serenade in E flat in a program that also features principal flute Julia Bogorad-Kogan in Mozart's Andante in C.

T.B.

7:30 p.m. Thu., Temple Israel, Mpls.; 11 a.m. Fri. & 8 p.m. Sat., Ordway Concert Hall, St. Paul. $11-$50, 651-291-1144 or thespco.org.

Atten-tion! The Twin City Model Railroad Museum salutes the troops with an exhibit of military trains. Honoring Veterans Day, trains in various scales from the 1940s to 1950s roll on the tracks. A Navy and Marine train will whiz by in one direction, while an Army train will travel in another. The distinctive designs, such as a military Lego train, are created by local aficionados, while others are manufactured.

M.w.

10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sat., noon- 5 p.m. next Sun., 10 a.m.-3 p.m. next Mon. Twin City Model Railroad Museum, St. Paul. $10, tcmrm.org.