E-Mail This Article to a Friend Doin’ it live A full slate of winter shows BY TED DROZDOWSKI

The winter concert scene’s got something for everybody, from Averi to Zakir Hussain. Okay, I couldn’t resist that bit of alphabetical hackery, but it’s true. Major rock, world-music, and country stars coming through the region include the Rolling Stones, Billy Joel, and Mötley Crüe, Ladysmith Black Mambazo and the Kronos Quartet, Brad Paisley and Brooks & Dunn. The clubs are offering buzz bands like Marah, alt-rock pioneers like Camper Van Beethoven and Guided by Voices’ Robert Pollard, and local MVPs like guitarist Chris Brokaw and freewheelers Sunburned Hand of the Man.

Notable by its absence is polka, but in Boston it’s St. Pat, not St. Casmir, who’s more revered. And one of the most irreverent respected traditions here is the annual Dropkick Murphys’ St. Patrick’s Day concert series at Avalon (15 Lansdowne St, Boston). This year they headline with a football-team-sized roster of guest openers March 15-19. Our home-town punk heroes have some serious competition for one of those nights, however, since the original Pogues — including Shane McGowan, who along with cockroaches will be the sole human survivor of the ultimate nuclear conflagration — are regrouping on Boston’s Orpheum Theatre (1 Hamilton Place) stage on March 14 and 15. Meanwhile, venerable Irish ensemble the Chieftains play their annual Bank of America Celebrity Series St. Paddy’s concert at Symphony Hall (301 Mass Ave, Boston) on March 11 (617.266.1200).

The week before, on the 8th, the only slightly less impervious Mötley Crüe, with at least three members who’ve been declared medically dead, continue to surprise by playing the godawfully named Dunkin’ Donuts Center (1 LaSalle Square) in Providence. Then again, is the TD Banknorth Garden (1 FleetCenter Place) that much better a moniker? I’ll hang here in my American Standard apartment and ponder that — at least until the Rolling Stones tumble into the house where Boston Garden once stood on January 13 and 15, with alt-rock survivors Sloan as their opener. Billy Joel will do his three-night stand there on January 19, January 30, and February 4.

If you’re hankerin’ for some big time country, you’re gonna have to head south. But only to the Mohegan Sun Arena (on Mohegan Sun Blvd) in Uncasville, Connecticut, where Brad Paisley and Sara Evans tip their wide-brimmed hats on February 10 and Brooks & Dunn sidle up two nights later. The casino/entertainment center will also host INXS, the Aussie funk-pop phoenixes who’re enjoying a shot in the arm from reality TV — the same bullet that killed television writing and wounded pop-culture literacy — on February 16. Coldplay are there on April 4, and you can hear them at Manchester’s Verizon Wireless Arena (where they better have damn good cell-phone reception) on April 3.

If you find INXS’s corporate-engineered rebirth as despicable as I do, you might prefer to take refuge in Boston’s Orpheum on February 7 or at the State Theater (see, those are real venue names) in Portland the night before and get lost in the warm sonic universe of Icelandic art-rockers Sigur Rós. Another reunion show takes place at the Somerville Theatre (55 Davis Square) on January 19. Chris Squire has regrouped with singer Steve Nardelli in the service of the Syn, the band the two shared in swinging ’60s London before Squire joined Yes and Nardelli went into the apparel business. They’ve also recorded their first album in 40 years, Syndestructible (Umbrello). And if that’s all too deep, there’s Ricky Martin at Boston’s Opera House (539 Washington St) on February 8.

George Carlin, comedy’s first rock star, is at Boston’s Wang Theatre on February 25, and Nine Inch Nails, who put on dynamic live shows but are always, alas, sparing on laughs, play the Cumberland County Civic Center in Portland on February 28.

The Paradise Rock Club (967 Comm Ave, Boston) has some sizzlers in its main room. The " Hot Stove Cool Music " fundraising series for the Red Sox Foundation has another two-show streak next week, January 7 and 8, with Averi, Downbeat 5, and others rockin’ on Saturday and former Letters to Cleo frontwoman Kay Hanley, Buffalo Tom, the Gentlemen, and Furvis on Sunday. Nashville tip-jar journeymen BR549 play the three-decade-old Boston concert space on January 19; Supergrass take over February 10. New England music’s " it " girl, Grace Potter, and her folk-rock troupers the Nocturnals perform February 18, just two nights after reborn rockers Black Rebel Motorcycle Club bring their new rawer, roots-derived approach to Avalon. Bob Pollard, a late riser since he quit his day job as a schoolteacher for Guided by Voices, won’t arrive at the Paradise till April 21.

As always, Cambridge’s Middle East club (472 Mass Ave) is shakin’ plenty of action. Camper Van Beethoven roll into the downstairs room on January 13 with openers Trampled By Turtles, an alt-bluegrass outfit from Minnesota. Although CVB have been doing reunion shows since 2000, this time they’ve actually cut a new album, New Roman Times (Pitch a Tent). Leader David Lowery says it’s a concept disc: " The main character is a soldier from the Fundamentalist Christian Republic of Texas, and the songs follow this soldier and other people through the story. But it’s not really that serious — there’s space aliens, and we blow up the disco at the end. "

Upstairs two days later, it’s the " Maxie Awards " at the blinding hour of 1 pm. That’s a little early for heavy drinking, but many of the presenters — who include Robby Roadsteamer, founder T Max, Peter Moore, Michelle Paulhaus, and Pat McGrath — at the annual event sponsored by durable local fanzine the Noise are likely to make an exception for this splendid affair that honors members of the Boston-area music scene.

The roster of Middle East downstairs shows includes more indie-rock heroes, like rising stars Of Montreal (all ages; March 5), the Smoking Popes (March 6), Magnolia Electric Company (March 27), and veterans the Wedding Present (March 7) and the Silver Jews (March 19). The Middle East is also sponsoring a concert by slow-rockers-turned-, well, rockers Low at the Somerville Theatre on Groundhog Day, February 2. His Name is Alive and Death Vessel share the stage. The bad news is that if any of these musicians sees his shadow, we’ll have six more weeks of moronic music journalists praising the " honesty " and " intimacy " of Ashlee Simpson’s I Am Me (Geffen).

Just around the corner at T.T. the Bear’s Place (10 Brookline St), a band who’ve got a cut on nearly every college hipster’s iPod, Philadelphia’s Marah, play on January 12. They’re eclectic, they’re interesting, they rock like SOBs, and they still can’t quite become the new Replacements, but they’re working hard at it. And local heroes Dear Leader may have come along too late to catch the emo train to the majors, but their hearts-on-sleeves rock songs and former Sheila Devine frontman Aaron Perrino’s soaring, epic voice have captured plenty of fans here, as their January 27–28 booking attests.

Back in Somerville’s Davis Square, Johnny D’s Uptown Lounge (17 Holland St; 617.776.2004) gets down and dirty in late February, with Clifton Chenier on the 23rd and the Holmes Brothers the following night. Louisiana’s Chenier is the son of the late inventor of zydeco, Clifton Chenier, and he does his daddy proud, generating plenty of heavily swinging dance-floor stomp. The Holmes Brothers are Harlem’s reigning blues ambassadors, and though they may be playing the Devil’s music, they sing in angelic harmonies and throw the occasional gospel song into the mix just to keep Satan’s minions at bay. But you don’t have to wait that long for a good dose of blues. Locals Bill McQuaid, Lloyd Thayer, and Mark Tolstrup play the room on January 10. Farther afield, New Orleans–bred songwriter Chris Smither is there on March 7, in a rare local club date, and fellow Louisiannes Beausoleil deliver their Cajun artistry on March 25. Afropop fans can also catch Sankai Sound 7 on January 20.

Like a little poetry with freewheeling music? Then Sunday is your night at Cambridge’s Lizard Lounge (1667 Mass Ave; 617.547.0759), where spoken-word master Jeff Robinson and his trio hold court. The music ranges from jazz to blues to country to rock to groove, sometimes all in the same piece as Robinson and guests keep the words and the ideas flowing. On January 20 at the Lizard, local rocker Chris Mascara and his band Mascara celebrate the release of their new Spell (Mr. Fibul’s) along with co-billers Binary System (featuring Mission of Burma’s Roger Miller and Bad Saints’ Larry Dersch), Ramona Silver, and RevEREND Glasseye.

P.A.’s Lounge (345 Somerville Ave; 617.776.1557) has emerged as a well-needed refuge for avant-garde rock as it’s hosted recent shows by Eugene Chadbourne and Bright. On January 12 the unpredictable Sunburned Hand of the Man collective arrive at the club’s intimate stage; guitar wrangler Chris Brokaw (of Codeine, Come, Consonant, and a slew of bands whose names begin with other letters) brings his own group in February 4.

They don’t call Allston " Rock City " for nuthin’. Proof: Paranoid Social Club cart their psychedelic-garage-plus-funk-soul-ska sound to Harpers Ferry (156 Brighton Ave; 617.254.7380) on January 20 with openers Headcold, a tribute to Radiohead and Coldplay. (I’m betting they won’t play much from Amnesiac.) But the club’s much more than a home for three-chord fusion and Thom Yorke clones. On January 27, bluegrass youngbloods Steep Canyon Rangers and Hot Day at the Zoo step in; they respect the music’s tradition but tug the genre in ways Bill Monroe and Earl Scruggs never expected. Also worth noting are the regular Tuesday-night bluegrass jams at the Cantab Lounge (738 Mass Ave, Cambridge; 617.354.2685), where players at all levels get an opportunity to dive in and host Geoff Bartley features headliners that are often among the best up-and-comers on the national touring circuit.

Given Boston’s eclectic tastes and demographics, it’s no surprise this is one of the country’s top markets for world music. Or that one of the nation’s chief world-music promoters, the aptly named World Music, is based in Cambridge. World Music and its more experimental arm, CRASHarts, have a very active line-up of concerts this winter; visit http://www.worldmusic.org/or call 617.876.4275. Among the highlights is their annual " Flamenco Festival, " which runs January 26-29 at the Cutler Majestic Theatre (219 Tremont St, Boston). The first two nights feature the traditional dancing of Noche Flamenca, the next two an appearance by the innovative Nuevo Ballet Español.

Cape Breton fiddle queen Natalie MacMaster keeps the focus on the fingers, not the feet, when she brings her blazing approach to Celtic music to Harvard’s Sanders Theatre (45 Quincy St) on February 4. She’s followed there by the revered African vocal ensemble Ladysmith Black Mambazo — of both Paul Simon’s Graceland and Lifesavers-commercial fame — on February 11. Cape Verdean singer Cesaria Évora, whose fiery emotions smoked Cassandra Wilson’s headlining set a few years back at the Fleet Enema Pavilion or whatever the hell that place on Boston Harbor was called back then, plays the Orpheum on March 31, delivering a lesson in authoritative song salesmanship that transcends language. African trumpet ’n’ groove bossman Hugh Masekela hits the Somerville Theatre on April 14, and the great percussionist Zakir Hussain, best known by Western audiences for his trailblazing fusion recordings with John McLaughlin, brings his Masters of Indian Percussion troupe to Boston’s Berklee Performance Center (136 Mass Ave) on May 18.

If you’re looking for something packed with edge, note that Boston’s Alloy Orchestra have created a soundtrack for Alfred Hitchcock’s 1929 Blackmail. This sordid tale of attempted rape and murder, the first British film with sound, is right up Alloy’s inventive alley; they’ll perform it March 25 at the Somerville Theatre. The Kronos Quartet are also offering a film-inspired program when they and guest vocalist Asha Bhosle play Berklee on April 9. They’re touring behind You’ve Stolen My Heart (Nonesuch), an homage to Indian pop-film scorer Rahul Dev Burman, a kingpin in Bollywood.

Road tripping’s your style? Well, there’s fun to be had in Worcester — honest! Union Blues (2 Washington Square; 508.767.2587), the swanky club in the beautifully reconditioned train station, has J. Geils Band bassist Danny Klein’s Stonecrazy on January 14, and on the 27th James Montgomery holds court. Across town at Ralph’s Chadwick Square Diner (148 Grove St; http://www.ralphsdiner.net/), punks the Ducky Boys headline a bill that includes hair-metal joker Robby Roadsteamer on January 13, and there’s a Boston ’80s-rock-scene flashback on the 14th with the Lyres and the Classic Ruins.

The easiest way to get tickets and more information for the Orpheum, Dunkin’ Donuts Center, Avalon, the Paradise, the TD Banknorth Garden, Mohegan Sun, Verizon Wireless Arena, Cumberland Civic Center, the Wang Theatre, and the Paradise is to visit http://www.cc.com/on line. Somerville Theatre tickets can be purchased at the box office or via Ticketmaster on-line or at 617/518.931.2000. Middle East tickets can be purchased at the club’s box office (617.864.EAST) or via Ticketmaster. World Music/CRASHarts tickets are available at http://www.worldmusic.org/ or at 617.876.4275.