E-Mail This Article to a Friend Live roots The world, blues, and folk concert scene BY TED DROZDOWSKI

Your definition of what roots music means probably depends on which sonic tree you swing in. But in its broadest form, it’s folk music — whether from our own culture, like blues, Cajun, or country, or from other parts of the globe. So this spring, the region’s roots umbrella will spread over such diverse performers as jug-band musician Jim Kweskin, blues master B.B. King, reggae toaster Eek-a-Mouse, Colombian singer Marta Gómez, Celtic trailblazers Solas, and Louisiana country pluralists the Red Stick Ramblers.

The high point of the live roots season, however, may be the return of Zakir Hussain, whose last local appearance was with Remember Shakti in early 2003. Then he was leading the group he founded with guitarist John McLaughlin to celebrate the music of their Indian-classical-music-inspired ’70s band Shakti. This time, for his May 14 appearance at Sanders Theatre (45 Quincy Street in Harvard Square; call 617-496-2222), Hussain will be sole captain, and the group are billed as Zakir Hussain & His Masters of Indian Percussion — a name that’s accurate, if not inclusive of everything they’ll play.

"The performance will bring forth a whole gamut of Indian musical forms, from North and South Indian classical music and percussion to folk music and the dance of Manipur in Northeast India," Hussain explained via e-mail from Australia, where he was performing at Peter Gabriel’s annual World of Music and Dance festival. "Moreover, we have percussionists in the group who have journeyed into other musical traditions and will be playing drums from other cultures." Altogether 11 artists will be on stage, including South Indian clay-pot virtuoso T.H. Vinayakram, violinists Ganesh and Kumaresh, Fazal Qureshi on tabla, and Vijay Chauhan on North Indian folk drum.

Hussain himself is the world’s best-known tabla player. He first distinguished himself internationally with Shakti, and then, as he explains, worked "almost 20 years to build my reputation as a world musician. I feel Shakti opened the door for me to a certain audience, but it was my classical music, my roots, which really took me out to the world." Indeed, his popularity was obvious here last April when the crowd roared each time he stepped out of Remember Shakti’s fold to deliver one of his unpredictable improvised solos within India’s classical rhythmic traditions. And his pop-star-level charisma doesn’t hurt.

For charisma, Cambridge folk scene veteran Jim Kweskin, who debuted at Harvard Square’s long-gone Club 47 some 46 years ago, relies on Samoa Wilson, the charming young singer whose abilities prompted Kweskin to revive his jug band and abandon musical retirement several years back. They’ll play Club Passim, Club 47’s successor (47 Palmer Street in Harvard Square; 617-482-7679), on April 10, performing a mix of old and new repertoire with local drum kingpin Jerome Deupree also in the fold.

Blues will have a good run this spring beginning with Muddy Waters band veteran Luther "Guitar Junior" Johnson’s Chicago style delivery on April 2 and 3 at Worcester’s new Union Blues (2 Washington Square; 508-767-2587) and guitar virtuoso Ronnie Earl’s April 9 appearance at Maynard’s Sit ’n Bull Pub (163 Main Street; 978-897-7232). Local heroine Nicole Nelson brings her band to Johnny D’s in Davis Square (17 Holland Street in Somerville; 617-776-2004) on April 10. And Roomful of Blues hit Union Blues on April 16 and 17. New England saxophone kingpins Gordon Beadle and Doug James have put a band together to play blues and R&B standards for a special one-night stand April 23 at the Sit ’n Bull. And the next night, the Handy Award–winning team of guitarist Paul Rishell and harmonica player Annie Raines will bring their electric country-style blues to Club Passim. Also keep an eye out for Annie Raines and the Hurricanes, a new electric band fronted by Raines that includes Rishell.

April’s blues schedule will close with a week of the venerable R&B juggernaut Tower of Power April 27, 28, and 30 and May 1 and 2 at Scullers Jazz Club (400 Soldiers Field Road at the Mass Pike; 617-562-4111). And on May 1, the genre’s leading performer, B.B. King, visits Lupo’s at the Strand in Providence (79 Washington Street; 401-331-5876) for a 7:30 p.m. show. An equally regal presence, the great R&B singer Ruth Brown, will hold court May 6 through 8 at the Regattabar (1 Bennett Street in Harvard Square; 617-876-7777), where Roomful of Blues will convene on May 14. The next night, Texas guitarslinger Smokin’ Joe Kubek makes his Union Blues debut. New England’s premier traditional blues and jazz guitarist, Duke Robillard, plays the Regattabar on May 21.

Although Boston is not known as the most welcoming place for country music, three bands who cling to different limbs of the genre will hit clubs soon. On April 29, Vermont-based bluegrass fusionists the Gordon Stone Band will bring their funk-and-Latin-music-doused sound to Harpers Ferry (156 Brighton Avenue in Allston; 617-254-9743). Cajun country musicians the Red Stick Ramblers will make the trek from Lafayette, Louisiana, to Johnny D’s on May 12. And little Austin swing band the Hot Club of Cowtown, who takes cues from both Bob Wills and Django Reinhardt, will visit there on May 26.

But visitors from farther afield will make some of the season’s most playful music. The Boston area has long been a stronghold for reggae, so Eek-a-Mouse will doubtless find a warm home April 8 when he plays downstairs at the Middle East in Central Square (472-480 Massachusetts Avenue; 617-864-EAST). Eek, who was born Ripton Hilton in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1957, is touring behind a new best-of collection that captures the balance of gangsta and giddy that’s made him one of the dancehall style’s kings. On April 14, the Rastamen of Israel Vibration come to Axis in Boston (13 Lansdowne Street; 617-262-2437). An interesting side note: IV founders Cecil Spence and Lascelle Bulgin, a/k/a Skelly and Wiss, met as children in a rehabilitation center where they’d been placed by their families after contracting polio.

The West Indies and India aren’t the only nations that will be sending musical representatives to us. The young Boston-based Colombian singer Marta Gómez brings her group to the Regattabar on April 10 to play a mix of cumbias, bambucos, sones, zambas, landos, and other forms of music from her native land as well as from Argentina, Cuba, and Peru. Four nights later, trumpeter Jesús Alemañy will bring his 15-piece Cubanismo to Scullers to re-create the sound of Cuba’s great nightclub bands of the 1950s. Those who’ve seen the Boston-based indie film Next Stop Wonderland will already be familiar with the music of Sergio Brandão, who scored the movie. He’ll bring his band Manga Rosa, who’re fueled by the folk sounds of Rio de Janeiro and Northern Brazil, to the Regattabar on April 16. And Portuguese fado sensation Mariza comes to the Berklee Performance Center (136 Massachusetts Avenue in Boston; 617-876-4275) on April 17.

Although St. Patrick’s Day is well past, Boston is an essential stop for a band like Solas. Now based out of New York City but formed in Ireland, the group — who play Sanders Theatre (617-876-4275) on April 3 — are one of the pre-eminent practitioners of traditional Celtic music, yet they take risks, blending their homeland’s sounds with those of jazz, blues, and other forms.

Although fans of edgy rock may know Simon Shaheen from his collaborations with producer/bassist Bill Laswell, the oud virtuoso, who plays Sanders (617-876-4275) on April 18, is a living introduction to the sounds of the Arab world. Shaheen has delved deeply into the styles of the Middle East, North Africa, and India as well as Western classical music and jazz, to come up with the unique approach employed by his Near Eastern ensemble. This concert will be a tribute to two of the late, great spirits of Middle Eastern music: the influential composer Mohamed Abdel Wahab and the singer Umm Kulthum.

But the main African-music event of the spring will be Orchestra Baobab’s Boston-area debut on April 24 at the Somerville Theatre (55 Davis Square; 617-876-4275). The Senegalese group, who burst on the Dakar club and concert scene in 1970, have reunited after a hiatus of more than 15 years thanks to Buena Vista Social Club instigator/producer Nick Gold, and they’ll be performing songs plucked from their catalogue of more than 20 albums.