Jamey Johnson, The Babies, Southern Belles, Carbon Leaf, Bush League

You all have nothing to do at work this week anyway, so go out and have some beer and listen to a band before you head off on your holiday journeys.

Wednesday night, funky jam band Southern Belles will be at Cary St. Cafe. It's free to get in and the show starts at 10.

Susan Greenbaum will do a solo show Wednesday night at Ashland Coffee & Tea. Show starts at 7 and it's $5 to get in. Here's a little ditty for the holidays from Susan:



New outlaw country hero, Jamey Johnson, comes to The National on Thursday night. Tix are $25 in advance, $28 at the door. Doors open at 6:30, show starts at 7:30 with opener Chris Hennessee. AllMusic called Jamey's latest album, "Living For a Song: A Tribute to Hank Cochran", "a modern honky tonk classic" and named it to their best albums of 2012 list. Here's Jamey with Alison Krauss doing a number from that album, "Make the World Go Away":



Noise pop band from Brooklyn (hipster alert!), The Babies, will be at Strange Matter on Thursday night. The Babies are fronted by Cassie Ramone of the Vivian Girls and Kevin Morby of Woods. Tix are $8 in advance, $10 day of show. Doors open at 8 and openers will be Invisible Hand, Positive No, and Ar-Kaics.

Also on Thursday, yacht rock cover band Three Sheets to the Wind will be at Republic. Show starts at 9:30 and there is no cover. Maybe they'll play this one, Hall & Oates style!



Friday night, homeboys Carbon Leaf, return to town for a show sure to be full of friends, family, and Christmas cheer. They'll be at The National and tix are $18 in advance, $21 at the door. Doors open at 7 and show starts at 8 with American Aquarium. Carbon Leaf will have a new album out in February. It's called "Lord of the Rings of a Tree" which may also be the title of the second Hobbit movie. Here they are performing "What About Everything" a few days ago:

On Friday, you can get your Latino Navidad on with Bio Ritmo at Balliceaux. Show starts at 10:30 and it's $8 to get in. BTW, is that Ikea Monkey in that poster above? Here's the band peforming at The Jewish Mother in VA Beach earlier this year.



Saturday night, check out Bush League at Capital Ale House Downtown. The show will start around 9 and it's $5 to get in. The band will be celebrating the release of their CD, "Can of Gas & a Match". The band was a semi-finalist in the 2012 International Blues Challenge.

Have a very Merry Christmas, everyone!

Tony Jordan