How long it takes to "make it" in the music business varies from artist to artist; band to band, and never happens for the vast majority. If the crowning achievement within that phrase is a Grammy Award nomination, then it took J.J. Grey & Mofro (www.jjgrey.com) a quarter-century.
But the band's namesake singer, songwriter, guitarist, keyboardist and harmonica player wasn't exactly waiting by the phone for such an announcement, because "making it" also depends on an artist's or band's definition of the term.
"That's cool," Grey says by phone from his home in northern Jacksonville. "My manager told me about that, because I don't really pay attention to that kind of stuff. I'm happy for my management, my mom, and my friends and family who care about those things. But music isn't my entire life. When I'm on the road, I'm thinking about playing; when I'm home, like I am now, I'm thinking about whether or not I need to fix the sink or put new wheels on the tractor. But I love it here, and don't think I'll ever leave this area."
Other than for touring, he hardly ever has.
A Jacksonville native with a Southern accent and a baritone speaking and singing voice, Grey personifies a reality check in an industry rife with egos and personas. His website includes links to the Florida-based nature preservation and conservation organization Live Wildly, plus Grey's signature bourbon, Rolling Rooster.
The Grammy nod is for the group's latest release, [i]Olustee[i] (Alligator), its 10th bluesy, swampy, funky, soulful offering of hybrid roots music. It's the band's first release in nine years, and its title is taken from the Muskogean language spoken by Creek and Seminole Native Americans and translates to "black water."
"Olustee is a place a few exits west of Jacksonville off of I-10," he says of the unincorporated area, "near where my grandfather was born and raised. It might be best-known for its Civil War reenactments. I believe it was the only battle during that war fought in the state of Florida. But the song is about my grandfather telling me about running from a forest fire when he was a kid."
Grey's group was initially just called Mofro, a made-up word meant to imply a Southern sound. And it became renowned for its own runs of live shows in support of its first two releases on Fog City Records, [i]Blackwater[i] (2001) and [i]Lochloosa[i] (2004).
Some of the band's early South Florida tour dates were at the Bamboo Room in Lake Worth Beach, opened and overseen during two 1999-2014 stints by the husband-and-wife team of Russell Hibbard and Karen McKinley. The upstairs venue in the 102-year-old Paradise Building reopened for a fourth time this February as Rudy's at Bamboo, with MaryBeth Sisoian at the helm.
"I first saw them at a barbecue shack in Eustis during the year we first opened," says Hibbard. "Their initial gig with us was on an Easter Sunday. Chatting at the bar after the show, I included a good bonus in the pay envelope and handed it to J.J. 'One of these days we won't be able to afford you,' I said, 'but I sure hope you'll visit us now and then.' J.J. grinned and said, 'Always!'"
Mofro would play multiple annual anniversary shows at the venue before it took on Grey's name prior to the 2007 release of its third album and Alligator Records debut, [i]Country Ghetto[i].
"I told [Alligator Records founder] Bruce Iglauer he should sign them, probably around 2004," Hibbard says. "It took him a bit, but I got the good news when [i]Country Ghetto[i] was released."
Six of the band's most recent seven releases have been on the acclaimed blues Alligator imprint, including its latest. But [i]Olustee[i] is the first album self-produced by Grey, and further illustrates his penchant as a vocalist and composer for delivering some truth. That 21st Century rarity is exemplified by selections like "The Sea," "Wonderland," "Deeper Than Belief," and its title track.
"J.J. is a serious soul singer who's as unpretentious as flannel and denim," says Hibbard. "I hear Tony Joe White and Al Green in his writing and phrasing; even a bit of J.J. Cale."
His own list of influential musical artists goes even further afield, with Grey mentioning everything from soul, reggae and R&B to Southern rock, punk, and New Wave. And beyond.
"I'd have to say Otis Redding," he says. "Plus Toots Hibbert, Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Cure, Dead Kennedys, Donny Hathaway, Stevie Wonder, and Luciano Pavarotti, to name a few. To me, it's all soul music. If it feels real to me, that's enough."
The original Mofro touring lineups were roughly half the size of some of Grey's current ensembles, which include backing vocalist Katie Dutton, guitarist Pete Winders, multi-instrumentalist Eric Brigmond, trumpeters Marcus Parsley and Dennis Marion, bassist Todd Smallie, and drummer/percussionist Craig Barnette. Sometimes that isn't even enough.
"Everyone's been with me for the last 10 years or so," Grey says. "And sometimes I add another percussionist, a saxophonist to make it a three-piece horn section, and another female vocalist as well."
Whether eight is enough or Grey decides to go to 11, the result is a soulful, symphonic Southern sound he says fans can expect on a full circle of catalog material, from [i]Blackwater[i] all the way through to [i]Olustee[i].
"As long as it feels janky," Grey says with a laugh, "that's the way I like to keep it. Janky moments, beautiful moments, rocking moments, dark moments, light moments, happy and sad moments."
"'Florida' or 'Lochloosa' should be our state song," Hibbard says of two of J.J. Grey & Mofro's early gems. "Hard to believe it's taken 25 years to become an overnight sensation."

If You Go
J.J. Grey & Mofro perform at Revolution Live, 100 Nugent Ave., Fort Lauderdale.
When: 7 p.m. Dec. 6
Tickets: $47.50
Info: 954-449-1025, www.jointherevolution.net

There hasn't so much been a war against artistic live popular music, but a slow-moving coup. It was started by the industry's business class, and has culminated in the ultimate evidence of commerce over creativity -- tribute acts. Disco created the initial class war by removing syncopation from funk and rock in the mid-to-late 1970s, leading to the plasticine music video era launched in the '80s. By the '90s, with the exception of a blip of grunge backlash, producers, studio technology and even deejays had largely usurped musicianship and authentic live performance.
And the 21st Century? Schizoid, man. Foreigner released a 2012 "best of" CD called [i]Jukebox Heroes[i], but what founding guitarist Mick Jones and the Sony Legacy label didn't want purchasers to notice was that the subtitled "digital recordings of Foreigner's greatest hits" was actually re-recordings of those songs by Jones and all the singers and musicians who'd replaced original Foreigner personnel. The album is by a famed tribute act to itself. Speaking of, Oasis is coming back. Yawn. The music biz has more than enough ego already. If Jefferson Starship hadn't punished us enough with "We Built This City," they must be very proud counting their earnings now that the song is being used for multiple toiletry themes in TV ads. And the "influencer" celebrity daughter of the man who cursed us with "Achy Breaky Heart" is one of the world's biggest stars.
Modern popular music is now a figuratively-orchestrated patchwork of metrically-perfected, synthesized electronic programming, sampling, auto-tuning, pitch correction, auto-harmonizing, and AI, the results of which are mostly streamed to cell phones, laptops and earbuds rather than stereo systems and speakers. As pointed out in the new documentary [i]How Music Got Free[i] on Paramount+, artists now only get paid substantially through soundtracks, ads, or tributes since LPs, tapes and CDs eventually turned into streaming, stunting creativity and dumbing everything down. How else can one explain the popularity of TV's [i]The Masked Singer[i]? Video indeed killed the radio star, and even nurtured the oxymoron known as smooth jazz, deservedly ignored here in that genre's season previews.
COVID-19 poured another bucket of dumb into the mix, and pushed already-exorbitant concert ticket prices, especially for festivals, even higher. All-night shows with all-star lineups once existed, with reasonable ticket prices and even people getting in for free, and well after Woodstock. No more under the Ticketmaster/Live Nation cartel. And South Florida's radio stations play self-tributing dinosaurs, not new artists. With a few exceptions, the 2024-2025 South Florida concert season is a blend of stylized hairdos, toothpaste models, retreads, "creators" and talent-optional celebrity tributes. Relevance is so 20th Century.

With name recognition and branding creeping from entertainment into national politics as outsized prerequisites, and a reality TV star born in Queens, New York having once grabbed its top rung, musical celebrities like rapper Nicki Minaj could probably make a deep political run (with an altered birth certificate). The 41-year-old, Trinidad-born artist formerly known as Onika Tanya Maraj-Petty moved to Queens with her family at age 5; attempted an acting career after graduating high school, and was fired from multiple waitressing jobs for her temperament. Minaj gained initial celebrity by releasing her first mixtape in 2007, leading to an official recording career bookended by her 2010 debut album [i]Pink Friday[i] and her latest, [i]Pink Friday 2[i] (2023). She's since gained all the prerequisites for hip-hop fame, including multiple videos and film roles, and public beefs with peers like Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion. And she'll appreciate your vote of confidence via a ticket purchase.
9 p.m. Oct. 6 at the Kaseya Center, 601 Biscayne Blvd., Miami (786-777-1000, $119 + up).

Will he show you to your seat? At least, in the era of nicknames, Usher Raymond IV chose his actual first name. The 46-year-old, Dallas-born R&B vocalist moved to Tennessee with his family as a child, showing early promise in a youth church choir. A move to Atlanta, Georgia, furthered that promise as Usher released his self-titled 1994 debut album while still in high school at age 15. And the "Past Present Future Tour" star hasn't needed to take any jobs in the service industry since. The path toward his latest album, this year's [i]Coming Home[i], included Usher becoming the best-selling R&B artist of the 2000s; multiple Grammy Awards, an acting career that includes more than a dozen films since the turn of the century, and headlining the Super Bowl LVIII halftime show last year in Las Vegas as well as being a contestant mentor on the TV show [i]American Idol[i], part owner of the NBA basketball team the Cleveland Cavaliers, a recording label founder, and a political activist.
8 p.m. Oct. 11, 12 & 14 at the Kaseya Center ($269 + up).

Listing concert ticket prices for Taylor Swift's "Eras Tour," which have likely gone up even from these bloated fees, is pointless because the shows will sell out regardless. Still, filling a stadium on three consecutive nights puts one in the rare air of solo artists like Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson. Thankfully, Swift seems more grounded than those two enigmas, even if her boyfriend is fellow stadium-filling, all-pro NFL tight end Travis Kelce, who once had his own personal TV dating show and is further riding her coattails into Hollywood via the unnecessary [i]Happy Gilmore 2[i]. Swift is a 34-year-old Pennsylvania native who writes her own hit songs (she was named for a pretty fair singer/songwriter in James Taylor), and plays multiple instruments. Her latest album, the 2024 release [i]The Tortured Poets Department[i], has dominated the charts this year, and like Elvis, MJ and TK, she's appeared onscreen in comedies, dramas, musicals, and animated films as a voiceover artist.
7 p.m. Oct. 18-20 at Hard Rock Stadium, 347 Don Shula Dr., Miami Gardens (305-943-8000, $2,023 + up).

Tribute shows have become common cliches in South Florida. But when tribute is paid to rock's all-time visionary guitarist, and by a collective of guitarists including native Texas virtuoso Eric Johnson and the exceptional family legacy artist Dweezil Zappa, exceptions can be made. "Experience Hendrix" celebrates the legacy of singer, guitarist and songwriter Jimi Hendrix (1942-1970), the Seattle-born artist who recorded and toured with the Isley Brothers and Little Richard before practically inventing modern electric rock guitar playing with his own trio, the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Other participants are Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Zakk Wylde, Noah Hunt, Chuck Campbell & Calvin Cooke of the Slide Brothers, Mato Nanji of Indigenous, Dylan Triplett, Mathias Lattin, and Henri Brown. Fans can expect renditions of Hendrix classics like "Foxy Lady," "Manic Depression," "Are You Experienced," "Purple Haze," "Fire," "Little Wing," "Stone Free" and "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)."
8 p.m. Oct. 18 at Pompano Beach Ampitheater, 1806 N.E. 6th St., Pompano Beach (561-223-7231, $44.50-$69.50).

Sting will likely never admit it, but his current trio "3.0 Tour" with guitarist Dominic Miller and drummer Chris Maas might be an attempt to draw out fans of The Police, his extraordinary 1977-1986 pop trio with guitarist Andy Summers and drummer Stewart Copeland. Sure, the artist formerly known as Gordon Sumner has had the most commercially successful solo career of the three retired Police men, with a string of hit singles since 1985. But a solo career means getting to call all the shots rather than taking a few in the process like he did with The Police, particularly from Copeland, the result of which was creative tension that produced uncommon results. Miller is, like Summers, a textural minimalist who's worked with Sting since his third album [i]The Soul Cages[i] (1991). Maas could be the wild card, as Sting's recording career includes only top-shelf drummers, from Omar Hakim and Vinnie Colaiuta early to Manu Katche and Josh Freese on his latest release [i]The Bridge[i] (2021)..
8 p.m. Oct. 20-21 at the Fillmore Miami Beach at Jackie Gleason Theater, 1700 Washington Ave., Miami (305-673-7300, $174 + up).

Southern Hospitality is a regional all-star group, co-led by leaders of their own bands, that proves Florida can indeed provide blues authenticity. With a new album, [i]Yard Sale[i], the quintet consists of Sunshine State native Damon Fowler and longtime Boca Raton resident J.P. Soars on vocals and guitars, Savannah, GA native and Memphis, TN resident Victor Wainwright on vocals and keyboards, plus his own band's bassist (Terrence Grayson) and Soars' drummer (Chris Peet). Fowler's versatility as a slide and lap steel guitarist and dobro player is matched by Soars' own slide work, cigar box guitar prowess and Gypsy jazz nuances. Grayson and Peet provide rock-solid rhythms, and Wainwright effortlessly shifts between being part of that rhythmic foundation and taking the spotlight with his barrelhouse piano playing. The result is blues infused with swing and soul, a unique mix that Southern Hospitality has displayed since its Tab Benoit-produced 2013 debut album [i]Easy Livin'[i].
7 p.m. Nov. 2 at the Funky Biscuit, 303 S.E. Mizner Blvd., Boca Raton (561-395-2929, $40-$65).

Cue the drinking jokes. Before he recently became best-known for a driving under the influence arrest in Long Island, New York, 43-year-old pop vocalist Justin Timberlake had become one of the world's multi-media stars. And the Memphis-born artist did so from beginnings that might be proving questionable to the careers of his peers, like singer and former girlfriend Britney Spears. Timberlake competed on the TV show [i]Star Search[i] as a child; became a cast member of the Disney Channel's [i]Mickey Mouse Club[i], and was a member of the boy band NSYNC until starting his solo recording with the 2002 album [i]Justified[i]. Since then, he's only won 10 Grammy Awards; capably appeared in two-dozen films, co-starred with Janet Jackson in the 2004 Super Bowl XXXVIII "wardrobe malfunction" halftime show controversy, performed Memphis soul music for President Obama in the White House in 2013, and released his latest album, this year's [i]Everything I Thought It Was[i].
7:30 p.m. Nov. 8 at Amerant Bank Arena, 1 Panther Parkway, Sunrise (954-835-7000, $109 + up).

Numerous acts have emerged from Georgia to become stars, and Atlanta-formed band Blackberry Smoke has carved a niche for itself in the Southern rock and jam band circuits. But if they'd formed in the 1990s instead of 2000, and released their debut album in the 20th Century instead of when the major recording labels' influence was waning in 2003, they might've exploded internationally like fellow Georgians the Allman Brothers Band or the Black Crowes. Still, with two live albums and eight studio efforts including this year's [i]Be Right Here[i], lead-singing guitarist Charlie Starr, guitarist/vocalist Paul Jackson, bassist/vocalist Richard Turner, keyboardist Brandon Still, multi-stringed instrumentalist Benji Shanks, and drummer Kent Aberle make a joyful noise as favorites along the Southern touring corridor. Ever versatile, the sextet has landed albums on both Billboard's Country and Americana/Folk Album charts, the U.K. Rock chart, and the Independent Albums chart.
8:30 p.m. Nov. 10 at Pompano Beach Ampitheater ($34.50 + up).

Dwight Yoakam and The Mavericks.make quite a country double-billing, and beyond. Opening act The Mavericks blend roots and Latin music in a rare tale of Miami-based substance over programming and production value. The band formed in 1989, and still features original members in vocalist/bassist Raul Malo and drummer Paul Deakin. Guitarist Eddie Perez and keyboardist Jerry Dale McFadden complete the Grammy-winning quartet, which is likely to play material from its self-titled 1990 debut album through this year's [i]Moon & Stars[i]. Veteran headliner Yoakam is a Grammy-winning vocalist, guitarist and renowned songwriter whose signature stage leg-twitch maneuver is straight out of the Elvis Presley playbook. The Kentucky-born artist turns 67 years old in late October, and has as many recent film appearances as albums. That side hustle jump-started with him portyaying evil stepfather Doyle Hargraves in Billy Bob Thornton's classic 1996 vehicle [i]Sling Blade[i].
6:30 p.m. Nov. 15 at Pompano Beach Ampitheater ($59.50 + up).

Blues is a roots music genre that's become bastardized over generations, but the two-day Boca Blues Festival features both firepower and authenticity in headlining vocalist/guitarists Tab Benoit and Samantha Fish. Benoit is a Louisiana native whose soulful voice and no-frills guitar approach -- his effects pedal-free arsenal includes only the instrument, an amplifier and a cord -- cement his legitimacy. His new album [i]I Hear Thunder[i] is his first after a 13-year recording hiatus. Fish is the 35-year-old phenom from Kansas City, Missouri known for her screaming solos and pinup girl stage persona. Having started playing live as a teenager, she'll perform material from throughout her 15-year recording career. Also featured are guitarist/vocalists Tommy Castro & the Painkillers, Ray Fuller & the Bluesrockers, Ally Venable, John Primer, and Florida's own Selwyn Birchwood; saxophonists Vanessa Collier and Kimmy Carpenter, and blues icon Muddy Waters' son, singer Mud Morganfield.
Noon-9:30 p.m. Nov. 16-17 at Sunset Cove Ampitheater, 20405 Ampitheater Circle, Boca Raton (772-492-6105, $50 daily).

Bruce Springsteen they're not. Bon Jovi they're not. But yes, Blues Traveler formed in New Jersey (Princeton, specifically) in 1987 before becoming one of America's most popular 1990s bands. Its "30 Years of Four Tour 2024" might be more creative than the album title that inspired it, but the 1994 release [i]Four[i] spawned a hit single in "Run-Around" that reached the Billboard Top 10, and a tour that included a memorable stop at SunFest in West Palm Beach. The group's centerpiece remains John Popper, the expressive vocalist whose circular breathing technique on harmonica is akin to what titanic jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker might've sounded like on that instrument. Blues Traveler also introduced and starred in the multi-artist H.O.R.D.E. Tour starting in the mid-1990s. Its lineup is rounded out by original guitarist Chan Kinchla and drummer Brendan Hill, bassist/vocalist (and Chan's brother) Tad Kinchla since 1999, and keyboardist/vocalist Ben Wilson since 2000.
8 p.m. Nov. 16 at Revolution Live, 100 Nugent Ave., Fort Lauderdale (954-449-1025, $38.50-$45).

It's difficult to pinpoint the nucleus of the popular American folk-rock movement, but the Avett Brothers have certainly been a prime 21st Century practitioner. Lead-singing multi-instrumental siblings Scott Avett and Seth Avett launched the group from their native North Carolina in 2000, eventually recruiting fellow singing multi-instrumentalists Bob Crawford and Joe Kwon for explorations including guitars, cello, horns, musical saw, kazoos, and foot-played percussion. Touring drummer Mike Marsh, pianist Bonnie Avett-Rini and singing violinist Tania Elizabeth often join that quartet on stage. The result is a gumbo of not only folk and rock, but also elements of bluegrass, pop, and jug band music that have helped define the popular modern tag of Americana. Having received multiple Americana Music Awards and Grammy nominations, the roots music group has offered up a seemingly-backward recorded career of titles via its 2002 debut [i]Country Was[i] through this year's self-titled release.
7 p.m. Nov. 17 at Hard Rock Live, 1 Seminole Way, Hollywood (866-502-7529, $89-$289).

"Piano Man." Everyone knows who wrote the most obviously autobiographical hit song of all-time in 1973 without a mention of his name. And 75-year-old singer, pianist and songwriter Billy Joel has indeed carved out a lengthy, award-winning career of putting the spotlight on himself. The New York City native reportedly endlessly talked his way into early nightclub slots, perhaps wearing down owners and managers into hearing him sing to get him to stop speaking about his talents. Yet those proved impressive, from his high vocal range and piano expertise to his compositions, even the autobiographical ones. Like British artist Elton John, Joel peaked in the 1970s, and the two piano men engaged in hugely successful co-headlining nostalgia tours from the mid-1990s through 2010. Joel also recently completed a monthly 2014-2024 residency at Madison Square Garden in New York City, featuring songs from his best works, [i]Turnstiles[i] (1976) and [i]The Stranger[i] (1977).
8 p.m. Nov. 23 and Jan. 17 at Hard Rock Live ($499 + up).

Bonnie Raitt is the bright side of a cautionary tale, because she could've been her friend Lowell George (1945-1979). Both were born in California in the 1940s, and became brilliant and hard-partying singers, songwriters and guitarists, particularly slide guitarists. George cut his teeth playing in Frank Zappa's challenging ensembles before forming his inimitable band Little Feat in 1969, then simultaneously performing and recording with Raitt over the next 10 years before dying from a heroin-induced heart attack at age 34. Raitt started her solo career in 1970, and released a string of critically-acclaimed albums that nonetheless struggled to gain her mass appeal. Yet after another great guitarist, Stevie Ray Vaughan, helped inspire her to give up alcohol in 1987, Raitt's next album was the multi-Grammy Award-winning 1989 release [i]Nick of Time[i]. At age 74, the 2000 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee hasn't needed to cautiously look back into the dark rearview mirror since.
8 p.m. Nov. 25 at Dreyfoos Hall at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, 701 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach (561-832-7469, $49.50 + up).

A 21st Century band that rose out of the Northern Florida swampland, JJ Grey & Mofro's "Olustee Tour" celebrates its first album in nine years, providing a bookend to its 2001 debut [i]Blackwater[i]. Equal parts blues, soul, rock and funk, the group first formed when Grey and singing guitarist Daryl Hance signed with a United Kingdom recording label and toured Europe as Mofro Magic. After shortening its name to just Mofro, Its initial releases were under only that band name before Grey and his gritty baritone voice and guitar, keyboard and harmonica playing took the lead in its moniker. With 10 total releases and a deserved reputation as a must-see live act, the group has wowed crowds at festivals like Lollapalooza and Bonnaroo. The band's lineup has shifted over the years, but now features guitarist Pete Winders, multi-instrumentalist Eric Brigmond, vocalist Katie Dutton, trumpeters Marcus Parsley and Dennis Marion, bassist Todd Smallie and drummer/percussionist Craig Barnette.
7 p.m. Dec. 6 at Revolution Live ($47.50).

Cheap Trick. The band name itself exemplifies truth in advertising. The 51-year-old quartet from Rockford, Illinois first paired two rock star-looking model types in lead vocalist/guitarist Robin Zander and bassist/vocalist Tom Petersson with two geeky-looking band members in lead guitarist/vocalist Rick Nielsen and drummer Bun E. Carlos. They've even put the models on their album cover art and relegated the geeks to back covers. Carlos retired in 2010, but made a one-off appearance for Cheap Tricks' long-overdue induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2016 after Nielsen's son Daxx Nielsen had taken his place behind the drum kit. The group's breakout release was the 1979 live album [i]At Budokan[i], which was initially available only as a Japanese import but became a triple-platinum domestic LP. Many guitar picks will be thrown during sing-alongs of "Surrender," "Dream Police," "The Flame," "If You Want My Love," "Tonight It's You, and "I Want You To Want Me."
8 p.m. Dec. 18 at Hard Rock Live ($77.25-$205).

Perhaps not since Iron Butterfly's 1968 song "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" (a slurred attempt at "In the Garden of Eden") has a name been as misinterpreted. "Dawn of the Buffalo" was the suggestion to Donna the Buffalo, the roots music act that formed in upstate New York in 1989. By any other name, the 35-year-old group has shuffled members but gained a sizable audience. Nicknamed "The Herd," the band's followers display a Grateful Dead-like fervor, especially when it comes to outdoor festival settings, the quintet's specialty. Its nucleus remains lead singer and multi-instrumentalist Tara Nevins and guitarist/vocalist Jeb Puryear, its primary songwriters. Keyboardist David McCracken, bassist Ted Pecchio, and drummer Chris English round out the lineup. And like the Dead, Donna the Buffalo specializes in both original compositions and unique cover song renditions. Members of "The Herd" can catch them in consecutive indoor and outdoor tour stops in Boca Raton and Stuart, respectively.
7 p.m. Jan. 2 at the Funky Biscuit ($25-$40), 7 p.m. Jan. 3 at Terra Fermata, 26 S.E. 6th St., Stuart (772-286-5252, $25-$30).

Vocalist/keyboardist Marcia Ball defies blues stereotypes by being a star female artist who not only doesn't play guitar, but also doesn't fall into the genre's often-expected tales of pain and hardship. The 74-year-old has the goods, having been born in Texas and raised in Louisiana, and her 50-year recording career presents the blues as something to celebrate, not wallow in. Ball enlivens her blues piano playing with elements of zydeco and boogie woogie, and her often tongue-in-cheek vocal delivery adds character to her master story-telling. Jazzy tinges of the Big Easy have also crept into her catalog, which was primarily released on the historic label Rounder Records during the first half of her career and the iconic Chicago-based blues imprint Alligator Records since, including her latest release [i]Shine Bright[i] (2018). And kudos to Ball, and the South Florida venues presenting her, for keeping her ticket prices exactly the same as when she appeared in the pre-Covid-19 era of 2019.
9 p.m. Jan. 3 at the Funky Biscuit ($30-$50), 7 p.m. Jan. 4 at the Lyric Theatre, 59 S.W. Flagler Ave., Stuart (772-286-7827, $45).

He may not have the fame or the flame of his baby brother Stevie Ray Vaughan (1954-1990), but the native Texan and namesake leader of Jimmie Vaughan & the Tilt-a-Whirl Band has always delivered with his own special spin. The 73-year-old guitarist and vocalist was, after all, an opening act for the Jimi Hendrix Experience in Fort Worth in 1969, plus a major influence on his incendiary sibling and a founding 1974 member of the Fabulous Thunderbirds, a group that achieved chart-topping success with him that it hasn't equaled since his 1990 departure. Vaughan left the band that year, in part, to record the album [i]Family Style[i] with his brother. It was released a month after the younger Vaughan died in a helicopter crash. A four-time Grammy Award winner, this Fender Stratocaster maestro started a lengthy solo recording career with the 1994 album [i]Strange Pleasure[i], and his six-piece band always includes the cream of the crop from within the Dallas-Fort Worth scene.
7 p.m. Jan. 11 at the Lyric Theatre ($65).

More performers with name recognition have emerged from Los Angeles than any other American city, and Los Lobos remains one of the best and most underrated. The band celebrated its 50th anniversary last year, and features original members in vocalist/guitarist David Hidalgo, guitarist/vocalist Cesar Rojas, bassist/vocalist Conrad Lozano and drummer/vocalist Louie Perez. Keyboardist and woodwinds player Steve Berlin has been on board since 1982, and drummer/percussionist Alfredo Ortiz is a recent addition for live shows. Los Lobos initially covered American Top 40 and traditional Mexican songs before its 1984 major label debut [i]How Will the Wolf Survive?[i] and its star-making cover version of the 1958 Ritchie Valens hit "La Bamba," from the 1987 film of the same name. Since then, the little East L.A. band survives and thrives, having won its fourth Grammy Award, a "Best Americana Album" nod, for its latest release [i]Native Sons[i] (2021).
8 p.m. Jan. 11 at Sunrise Theatre, 117 S. 2nd St., Fort Pierce (772-461-4775, $59.50-$86.50).