E-Mail This Article to a Friend The new Cosby Show Bill Cosby spreads his folksy wisdom, plus Wilco at the Newport Folk Festival and more BY MIKE MILIARD

Bolstered by a new guitarist, the protean and preternaturally talented Nels Cline, Wilco will be making their first appearance at the Newport Folk Festival on Sunday. And it’s an interesting gig for the band to take on when you consider just how far their new A Ghost Is Born (Nonesuch) finds them traveling away from their roots-rock roots and into the experimental æther. (See Matt Ashare’s review in last week’s Arts section.) But you needn’t dole out the dosh for a many-day, many-act festival to catch Jeff Tweedy’s sad and beautiful songcraft, since the band are playing a one-off at Portland’s intimate State Theater (617-931-2000) on Friday.

Ragged-but-right rock chick Lucinda Williams is one artist who’s never been afraid to let her roots show. She’ll be under the stars at the Shelburne Museum (802-863-5966) in Shelburne, Vermont, on Friday before swinging down for her own stint at Newport Folk on Saturday and then heading west to the Calvin Theatre (413-586-8686) in Northampton on Sunday.

Cyndi Lauper is one chick who just wants to have fun. That’s why she’ll be at Foxwoods Casino (800-200-2882) in Connecticut on Friday and the Meadowbrook Farm (603-293-4700) in Gilford, New Hampshire, on Saturday.

Ontario metal chicks Kittie may be Canadian, but they can still kick your ass. They’ll do so at the Worcester Palladium (800-477-6849) on Friday and again Saturday at the Webster Theatre (800-477-6849) in Hartford.

While we’re still on the subject of chicks: you might know Chk Chk Chk (also known as ! ! !) as the band who in the outro to their epic post-punk-dance smash "Me and Giuliani Down by the Schoolyard" repeatedly chant the chorus to Kenny Loggins’s "Footloose." We’re not sure whether that’s been responsible for a revival of the bearded bard of boogie’s career — you’ll just have to count the number of painfully hip electroclash leftovers in the crowd when Loggins plays the Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom (617-931-2000) in New Hampshire on Tuesday and the South Shore Music Circus (617-931-2000) in Cohasset on Wednesday. He’ll also be living for the wonder of it all at Foxwoods (800-200-2882) next Saturday, August 14.

How ’bout a guy who gets footloose with his mouth? Bill Cosby is well known as a stand-up comedian, super TV dad, pudding shill, and sometime moral scold. But anyone who’s given a spin to the just-released Quincy Jones and Bill Cosby: The Original Jam Sessions, 1969 and its companion title, Quincy Jones and Bill Cosby: The New Mixes, Vol. 1 (both Concord), knows that he’s also a wicked human beatbox. Culled from the cookin’ jazz-funk excursions Jones produced for The Bill Cosby Show (1969), "Hikky Burr" is a percolating tour de force of mouth-sound mumbo-jumbo. Maybe the Cos will bust it out at the South Shore Music Circus (617-931-2000) on Saturday. (He’s already sold out North Shore Music Theatre on Sunday.) He’ll also be making an appearance at the Newport Jazz Festival next Sunday, August 15.