'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.