Tiempo Libre, a Miami-based "timba" group, returns to Wharton Center for the third time on Thursday. The high-energy group has consistently toured since its genesis in 2001, nabbing three Grammy nominations along the way.

These days, if you're talking about country music, you usually think about superstars like Kenny Chesney or the glossy pop styling of Taylor Swift – a manufactured contemporary sound that strays so far from true twang that it should be barred from claiming the genre.

A pair of Michigan-based duos share a twin bill at the Ten Pound Fiddle concert series Friday at the Unitarian Universalist Church. Taking the stage will be Jan Krist & Jim Bizer and Siusan O'Rourke & Zig Zeitler — both accomplished area folk outfits. Krist and Bizer recently released its first album as a duo, "Influence."

For those who still dig neon clothes and poppy synthesizers, the Starfarm show tonight at the Green Door may be the pre-Turkey Day spot to be.

Sparky and Rhonda Rucker perform across the country and around the world, singing songs and telling stories from the American folk tradition. Friday the married couple makes a stop at the Ten Pound Fiddle concert series.

The Detroit-based band Electric Six gained some national attention in early 2003 with the "Danger! High Voltage" single, a high-energy, disco-rock song that featured backing vocals from Jack White. It made it up to No. 2 on the British charts.

Mac's Bar hosts a Halloween Costume Carnival Sideshow tonight. The event includes a costume contest, live music, sideshow acts and a prize raffle. Performing live is the increasingly busy local gypsy-roots band Lansing Unionized Vaudeville Spectacle.

The Travelers Club International Restaurant and Tuba Museum in Okemos has been an oddball, off-the-beaten-path spot for food and brews since 1982, sitting quaintly by while the big box stores and chain restaurants moved in and transformed the area into a shopping mecca.

A chat with local author Steve Miller about his new true-crime book "Nobody’s Women" can take some disturbingly dark turns. He knows this genre isn't everyone’s bag.

Clear Soul Forces has been gaining serious momentum since the four Detroit rappers joined up in 2009. This Friday, the group performs at Mac’s Bar.