Stephen Sanchez
December 3 at Mass MoCATwenty-one-year-old pop sensation Stephen Sanchez hit the Billboard Hot 100, the Australian ARIA Top 10, and the UK Singles Top 20 with "Until I Found You," the lead single from his 2023 debut album, Angel Face. The sweet-voiced Nashville singer-songwriter, who performs this date in North Adams, Massachusetts, racked up over 122,000 followers with his 2020 initial posting on TikTok, a cover of Cage the Elephant's "Cigarette Daydreams." Since then, he's gone on to appear on "The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon" and duet with Elton John at this year's Glastonbury festival in England. 8pm. $39, $49, $65.
Tab Benoit/Dirty Dozen Brass Band
December 3 at Tarrytown Music Hall
Known for his mastery of the Southern swamp and Chicago blues forms, Grammy-nominated guitarist Tab Benoit learned his craft firsthand when he began playing the clubs as a teenager. Formed in 1977, New Orleans's legendary Dirty Dozen Brass Band splits the bill. They've become global musical ambassadors, blending traditional Big Easy jazz with funk, soul, and other jazz styles and collaborating with Modest Mouse and Norah Jones. (Watchhouse and Yasmin Williams strum December 8; the Doo Wop Project does Christmas December 15.) 8pm. $45-$71.
Everett Bradley's Holidelic
December 8-16 at Kaatsbaan Cultural Park
Time to get down! Right here, Grammy-nominated percussionist Everett Bradley (Bruce Springsteen, Bon Jovi) brings da funk to Tivoli for two solid weekends featuring Holidelic, his supremely soulful holiday musical show. Inspired by his deep love of the sounds and sights of the legendary Parliament-Funkadelic, the revue stars Bradley in the lead role of Papadelic, a mischievous mashup of George Clinton and Santa Claus who guides a large ensemble of world-class musicians through a funky good time of highly danceable seasonal tunes. 8pm. $45.
Darlene Love
December 9 at Bearsville Theater
Now here's one of the most dependably uplifting holiday soul sessions of the season: R&B icon Darlene Love's "Love for the Holidays," which this month makes its always-anticipated return to the Bearsville Theater. Known for her lead vocals on the Phil Spector-produced Crystals hits "He's a Rebel" and "He's Sure the Boy I Love," the ever-ebullient singer famously reprised her standout performance of "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" on the 1963 compilation album A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector as an annual guest on "Late Night with David Letterman" for 28 consecutive years. 8pm. $60-$125.
Redshift Trio
December 10 at Avalon Lounge
Grammy-winning trumpeter Josh Deutsch and guitarist Nico Soffiato have been working together since 2006 and recently formed Redshift Trio, which here hits Catskill to perform the music of Redshift, their third collaborative album. Featuring originals and songs by Sufjan Stevens, Big Thief, and Robert Schumann, Redshift boasts the studio playing of drummers Allison Miller and Dan Weiss; last month, the touring trio played the Pacific Northwest with Ken Mastrogiovanni behind the kit. Tyler Wood and friends open. (H. pruz, Dead Gowns, and the Fascinating Chimera Project offer indie folk rock December 11; Arone Dyer, My Tree, and Lily Konigsberg appear December 13.) 8pm.
The Felice Brothers
December 30-31 at Colony
It's always an event when the Felice Brothers, the Woodstock area's biggest folk rock exports since The Band, whoop it up for the holidays. And here they are, at it once again and doing a big ol' double header—the second night being, of course, New Year's Eve. "Music is a medicine," says the group's songwriter, Ian Felice. "It can make our time on the planet a little more enjoyable." Amen. (The Misty Mountain Ramblers amble in December 23; Professor Louie and the Crowmatix honor Rick Danko December 29.) 8pm. December 30: 8pm; $35, $60. December 31: 9pm; $50, $85.
