Antje Duvekot
For someone with an image as a dark-hued, whispery wallflower, Antje Duvekot sure has a high profile. Her provocative, keenly observed chamber folk has been championed by legendary rock crit Dave Marsh, and Duvekot's highly detailed, tongue-twisting, Ani DiFranco-meets-Tracy Chapman ballad "Merry-Go-Round" was tapped for a Bank of America ad campaign that kicked off on Super Bowl XLI. Most telling, when the Irish-American band Solas decided to expand beyond the folk and Celtic canon, it picked five tunes by Duvekot. Not bad for a German-born girl transplanted at adolescence into the cold new world of America with no English and a profound sense of alienation. Duvekot says at an early age she learned to live "in the space between home and school," listening to the music of folk master John Gorka. A sense of dislocation, along with the keen eye of the outsider, still permeates her music. Material on her latest CD New Siberia shades to lighter hues, looking back from a wiser vantage point to a troubled younger self. But by owning her darkness, Duvekot transforms the quietly disturbing confessional into something life-affirming. With Michael McDermott. $12. Jan. 18, 8 p.m. Evening Muse, 3227 N. Davidson St. 704-376-3737. .

Darlings of the Underground
A new band emerges. The Charlotte trio Darlings of the Underground - Jason Anderson (ex-Bridge, guitar, vox), Neel Jadeja (ex-Sunny Ledfurd, drums), and veteran bassist Ryan Joffe - debuts its moody alterna-rock this evening. The gents already have a couple of developed tracks recorded (with apropos videos out) and are working on their first full-length album for release by late spring. The sound? Grooving rock, stirred with hard guitars (a bit Smashing Pumpkinsish, channeling Jerry Cantrell) and a grunge backbeat. Catch em, they're up first in the multi-band lineup, so you can say you were at their first gig. Also on the bill are Luna's Lament, Blu Avenue, Falling through April and Culprit Strain. $7/$10. Jan. 15, 6 p.m.Chop Shop, 399 E. 35th St. 704-765-2466.

BLOC PARTY
When the great post-punk revival hit radar screens in the early aughts, who would've thought that Bloc Party would prove more durable than telegenic peers The Strokes and Franz Ferdinand? But Bloc Party's longevity hasn't always been secure. The band's lengthy hiatus since its 2008 LP, Intimacy, has led to rumors of their demise. Said rumors weren't helped by the band members' rather permanent looking extracurricular activities, including front man Kele Okereke's acclaimed electro-dance album, The Boxer. Now touring in support of its new LP, Four, Bloc Party won't say whether the album's title stands for the four year duration of its hiatus. For the most part, Four is a return to the angular Gang-of-Four-inspired art-rock and heartfelt Boy-era-U2 big guitars which made Bloc Party's 2005 Silent Alarm LP so bracing. That signature sound is key to Bloc Party's staying power. True, they could be as addictively dancey as class of 2005 peers The Rapture or as fractured and wiry as Maximo Park, but Bloc Party have always been a straight ahead commercial rock band, as heart-on-sleeve as Simple Minds but minus the pomposity. As the jittery, gooey pop of current single "Octopus" proves, Bloc Party hasn't lost its touch. With IO Echo. $25. Jan. 15, 8 p.m. The Fillmore, 1000 N.C. Music Factory Blvd. 704-916-8970.

POOR OLD SHINE
Like Tarheel contemporaries the Carolina Chocolate Drops, Poor Old Shine revitalizes, rather than simply revives, the stomping, galloping country swing of an old-time string band. While the Chocolate Drops draw from Blue Ridge Mountain styles, much of it rooted in African-American string-band music, Connecticut's Poor Old Shine sticks closer to the strip-mined hollers of West Virginia. Differences in geography don't mean much for this music. Poor Old Shine still draws from the same ancestral well as the Drops, as a fiery but respectful cover of "Can the Circle be Unbroken" - a tune popularized by the Carter Family - attests. A young band, Poor Old Shine has the audacity to show just how weird "tradition" can be, particularly when it whips a singing saw into a pretty good imitation of a theremin. When the band goes off script, as when it uses the feedback of two cell phones to lay down a spectral drone on "Ghosts Next Door," the result fits right in with its more authentic arsenal of fiddle, banjo, washboard, pump organ and drum kit cobbled together from scrap metal. Poor Old Shine charts a course between imitation and innovation, and the tension between those two poles gives its invigorated mountain music a sense of urgency. $8-$10. Jan. 12, 8 p.m. Evening Muse, 3227 N. Davidson St. 704-376-3737.

LUCY KAPLANSKY
The story of Kaplansky's life journey is so compelling, it would overshadow the work of a lesser performer. Just out of high school, the precocious daughter of a piano-playing mathematician ditched the future mapped out for her to instead join a revived Greenwich Village folk scene where she sang with Suzanne Vega and Shawn Colvin. A talented lead and in-demand harmony singer, Kaplansky was perched on the brink of stardom, but gave it up for a career in psychology. A decade on, another left turn took Dr. Kaplansky out of the clinical field and back into folk singing. Like her career arc, Kaplansky's music strikes a balance between practical and left-field. With a warm, conversational voice that recalls the raw and open emotion of Judy Collins, Kaplansky's biggest payday probably came when she shilled for Chevrolet's "Heartbeat of America" campaign. A traditionalist who's covered June Carter Cash and Gram Parsons with folk supergroups Red Horse and Cry Cry Cry, Kaplansky has also taken a stab at drum 'n bass and collaborated with her father on 1940s-style swing tunes about mathematics. It's clear that despite the unexpected turns in Kaplansky's career, she's always known exactly where she wants to be. $17-$19. Jan. 11, 8 p.m. Evening Muse, 3227 N. Davidson St. 704-376-3737.

THE OLD CEREMONY
We shorthand "classic songwriting" to imply music which sounds like it could've been penned in any era - so strong are the songs in the fundamentals of melody and lyrics-writing. Classic songwriters also seem to use whatever literary conceit is at hand to hit on the deeper truths in our lives. For Django Haskins, the polymath who fronts Durham's Old Ceremony, that's saying something, too. Haskins is writing two nonfiction books and has previously penned songs with subject matter ranging from plate tectonics to New York City development czar Robert Moses. Now, on a Yep Roc debut and fifth release, Fairytales and Other Forms of Suicide, we find Haskins and his band equally adept at capturing Big Star's long shadow as they are channelling the bittersweet love tales of their namesake, Leonard Cohen. In songs which deal with everything from modern-day plagues ("Beebe, Arkansas"), the poisonous political landscape ("Sink or Swim"), scientific progress ("Star by Star") and a slew of love-gone-sideways ditties, the Old Ceremony cuts to the crux of the theme that runs throughout the record: Learning to cope with the world as it is, not as we want it to be. With adult fare like that couched in elegant songs where patience rewards repeat listens, "classic songwriting" seems an entirely apt description. $12. Jan. 11, 10 p.m. Double Door Inn, 1218 Charlottetowne Road. 704-376-1446.

TYLER HILTON
With smoky good looks and a soulful stare tailor-made for a CW teen drama, it's no surprise that Tyler Hilton is best known for his recurring role on One Tree Hill. Despite this high-profile heartthrob gig, along with an appearance as Elvis Presley in the Johnny Cash bio-pic Walk the Line, Hilton's dreamboat status hasn't derailed his music career. (Hell, looks plus a knack for heartfelt, alt-country-tinged MOR music hasn't hurt John Mayer!) Though Hilton penned Top 40 hits while still in high school, he is less a teen idol than a man caught out of time. Growing up with a love of Presley, Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters, he delivers mature, middle-of-the-road pop in an appealing, slightly husky voice. His pleasing, Americana-tinged tunes suggest a freshly scrubbed Ryan Adams ultra-lite, and they'd be Billboard gold if the market had been trapped in amber in the early '90s. Unfortunately for Hilton, the days when Richard Marx ruled the roost are long past. Long-delayed new material is edgier in tone, reflecting Hilton's screwing at the hands of his former label, but it's still comfortably familiar. Hilton is good at what he does, but he's crafting perfect pop in a style that doesn't mean much in 2013. With Teddy Geiger, Ryan Cabrera. $12-$15. Jan. 8, 8 p.m. Visulite Theatre, 1615 Elizabeth Ave. 704-358-9200.