The Big Gigs: Our critics' music picks

POP/ROCK Varsity Theater staffers didn't have to go far to find the perfect inaugural act for a new series called "Quiet, Please," accentuating the venue's velvety, couch-adorned intimate quality: They got Low to kick it off, promising two sets with no opener and plenty of room (capacity is limited to about 250). The internationally revered Duluth trio can play hushed, harmonious indie-rock with the best of them, even though it cranked up the volume on its last two albums. The band has been working on a dance project with choreographer Morgan Thorson (coming to Walker Art Center March 4-5), and frontman Alan Sparhawk and bassist Steve Garrison are gearing up for an ambitious 2010 run with their noisier band Retribution Gospel Choir. So they make every Low gig count these days. (8:30 p.m. Fri., Varsity. 18 & older. Sold out.) (C.R.)

The Snaps are Robert Wilkinson's other band. He's been making good-time riff rock with the Flamin' Oh's since the 1970s. With the newish Snaps, it's a blend of stripped-down pop with his version of Americana. The highlight of the quartet's new CD, "Spokes and Wires and Shiny Words," is "Rain on Me," a gospelly/bluegrass fiddle tune that is the best Levon Helm-like Band song I've heard in years. With the Blue Mollies and Patches & Gretchen. (9 p.m. Sat., 400 Bar, $5.) (J.B.)

Starting in his teens, Robert Gordon became an influential rockabilly singer, first with a group called the Confidentials in the mid-'60s. The Maryland-bred rocker made a couple of albums with Link Wray in the mid-'70s and then, with his band the Tuff Darts, was adopted by punk rockers. That latter relationship resonates in his new all-star band, The Gang They Couldn't Hang, a cross-Atlantic team featuring Stray Cats drummer Slim Jim Phantom, original Sex Pistols bassist Glen Matlock and longtime guitarist pal Chris Spedding, who produced the Pistols' early demos and has toured with John Cale and the reformed Roxy Music. Local punkabilly bands the Reckless Ones and F- Knights open. (9 p.m. Sat., Lee's Liquor Lounge. $25-$30.) (C.R.)

Dolly herself seems impervious to aging, but a handful of local theater starlets are blowing out the candles for her with the Dolly Parton Birthday Extravaganza. The classy, cabaret-style, all-female tribute will include "Jolene," "9 to 5," "I Will Always Love You," performed by the likes of Catherine Battocletti, Christine Nelson-Karki, Zoe Pappas, Allison Rupp and Courtney Sebo. Parton will be 63, by the way. (7 p.m. Mon., Bryant-Lake Bowl. $12-$15.) (C.R.)

With two Pitchfork-praised albums under their belt, Raleigh, N.C., indie-folk duo Bowerbirds have built up a modest buzz with a minimal sound. Led by boyfriend/girlfriend duo Phil Moore and Beth Tacular with various musicians helping out, it's built around acoustic guitar and accordion, with poetic, bookwormy songs that fall somewhere between the Mountain Goats and Andrew Bird. Opener Sharon Van Etten is an edgy, Tennessee-bred singer/songwriter. (9 p.m. Tue., Varsity Theater. 18 & older. $12.) (C.R.)

On this week's "Rain in the City," his first album in eight years, Freedy Johnston plays the sad sack once again, waxing about "Lonely Penny" on a sidewalk or warning "Don't Fall in Love With a Lonely Girl." The Austin, Texas-based folk-rocker known for the mid-'90s classic "Bad Reputation" certainly enhances his rep with this welcome made-in-Nashville disc. (10 p.m. Thu., Bryant-Lake Bowl, $15.) (J.B.)

Because the debut of Nick Jonas & the Administration won't be released until Feb. 2 (and no preview copies are available), we can't vouch for the youngest Jonas bro's foray into more mature soul-rock territory. But we can give thumbs up to his band of Twin Cities-bred musicians, who have played together for a couple of decades. Bassist John Fields, who produces Nick and the Jonas Brothers, put together this top-notch group featuring former Prince sidemen Michael Bland on drums, Tommy Barbarella on keys and Sonny Thompson on guitar. The band impressed recently on Letterman, but it was too little to judge Nick by. Soulful songbird Diane Birch opens. Read an interview with Jonas in Sunday's Variety A+E. (7 p.m. Thu., State Theatre. Sold out.) (J.B.)

BLUES A 35-year veteran of the Chicago scene, Maurice John Vaughn has quietly gone from upstart to elder statesman, never quite achieving stardom but always staying busy. His many talents -- guitar, sax, songwriting, singing, arranging, producing -- have served him well, whether as bandleader or a sideman/producer. He's worked notably with A.C. Reed, Detroit Junior, Phil Guy, Johnny Dollar, Son Seals and Shirley Johnson. A thorough pro, he knows how to work a crowd. (9 p.m. Fri.-Sat., Wilebski's Blues Saloon.) (T.S.)

The Hopkins Center for the Arts couldn't have found a more fitting and inspiring opener for its new series Take Five Tuesdays than James Cotton. His once-mighty voice has been diminished by throat surgery and radiation therapy, but at 74 he still plays a ferocious harmonica. Sonny Boy Williamson taught him, Muddy Waters hired him and Cotton started fronting his own band in the mid-1960s. Others in the series include R&B powerhouse Bettye LaVette and bluegrassers the Traveling McCourys. Each show is preceded by a 6 p.m. social hour. (7 p.m. Tue., 1111 Mainstreet, $32.) (J.B.)

CHILDREN'S Fans of great melodic pop-rock are missing out on some of the more inspired songs the genre has to offer if they aren't hanging with the toddlers at Ralph's World gigs. This is children's entertainment for parents who remember psychedelia, the first Woodstock, Ruby Tuesday before she was a restaurant, and that the walrus was Paul. Ralph Covert's new CD, "Rhyming Circus," is catchy, funny and frankly brilliant. For proof, you can stream all 13 songs at the Ralph's World website. (11 a.m. Sat., Cedar Cultural Center. $15, children under 2 free; 4 pack of tickets, $45.) (T.S.)

COUNTRY We already knew how much Texas honky-tonker Dale Watson enjoys playing Lee's Liquor Lounge, because he wrote a song about the place. There's no stronger declaration of love on his part, though, than coming to Minneapolis from Austin in mid-January to squeeze in another gig here. The classic countryman spent 2009 promoting another well-received collection of blue-collar road anthems, "The Trucking Sessions, Vol. 2." Minne-Mex hippie soul rocker Javier Trejo opens. (9:30 p.m. Fri., Lee's. $15.) (C.R.)

JAZZ When you've been playing drums professionally since age 5, the credits tend to pile up. Kevin Washington excels at his first love, jazz, and he's also tackled funk, soukous, Latin music, reggae, African music and more. You may have seen him with Moveable Feast, the Nownet, Bruce Henry, national sax star James Carter, Nachito Herrera, Alicia Wiley, Doug Little's Quartet (with whom he toured Europe), Andres Prado's band (with whom he played festivals in Peru), not to mention his musician parents Donald & Faye Washington. This weekend, he gets to lead his own quartet, which should be a kick. (9 p.m. Fri.-Sat., Artists' Quarter. $10.) (T.S.)

The marquee name in the Dakota's Djangofeast is Mark O'Connor, the versatile violin giant who crosses many borders. The Seattle native made his name in bluegrass, then country and classical, but cut his teeth playing with Grappelli, who was Reinhardt's partner in the Hot Club of France. His current group, Mark O'Connor Hot Swing, featuring guitarists Frank Vignola and Julian Lage and bassist Jon Burr, has made two stellar studio recordings and one smokin' concert CD. (7 & 9:30 p.m. Wed., Dakota, $25-$45.) (J.B.)

CLASSICAL As their three-week-long Stravinsky Festival draws to a close, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and Minnesota Orchestra come together for their first joint concert since 2005. The orchestras will bring to life two of the composer's ballet masterpieces. Under SPCO artistic partner Roberto Abbado, the Minnesota Orchestra will play "The Firebird," which launched the Russian's career at age 28, while the SPCO performs the complete "Pulcinella," Stravinsky at his neo-classical best. (7:30 p.m. Thu., Orchestra Hall, $28-$75. 8 p.m., Sat., Ordway Center, $11-$59.) (W.R.B.)