Top shows this week: The Head & the Heart, more

THE HEAD AND THE HEART

Style: Sweeping Americana that practically requires hootenanny-ready handclaps and singalongs fit for a campfire. 

Backstory: In early 2011, the Head and the Heart, on the heels of its debut album, was getting a fair amount of hype. It lived up to its promise at Turner Hall Ballroom later that year, upstaging veteran headlining act Iron & Wine with eager-to-please energy and hearty harmonies. By 2014, the Head and the Heart was at the head of the flourishing folk revival scene, evident by a sold-out headlining show at the Riverside Theater. 

Why you should go?: Its Milwaukee return Friday follows September’s major-label debut “Sign of Light,” which sees the Seattle act up the grandeur while maintaining its signature folksy intimacy. And then there’s the impressive undercard, assembled by alternative-rock station WLUM-FM (102.1) for its 11th annual, two-night Big Snow Show bash.  

The openers: Fitz and the Tantrums may have gotten mixed reviews for its most recent album, but snappy singles like “Handclap” will fit in nicely with longtime live-show favorites. Jimmy Eat World is now 15 years removed from its arena-propelling breakout “Bleed American,” but the emo act’s October album “Integrity Blues” is its best-reviewed in years. Alternative pop artist Bishop Briggs has released only singles so far, but the native Londoner’s achieved enough one-to-watch mentions to land a slot on a Coldplay tour. 

Time and place: 7:30 p.m. Friday, Eagles Ballroom, the Rave, 2401 W. Wisconsin Ave.

Price: $40 to $50 at the box office, (414) 342-7283 and therave.com.

—    Piet Levy
plevy@journalsentinel.com

AMANDA SHIRES

Style: Americana filled with love, hope, honesty and fiddle.

Backstory: As Kacey Musgraves and Brandy Clark are outdoing many mainstream-country boys, so, too, is Amanda Shires outdoing many alt-country chaps. For more than a decade, the fiddler, singer and songwriter has felt like an open secret waiting to be told to everyone.

Why you should go: Motherhood and marriage — in the latter case, to Jason Isbell, whose career and life she’s noticeably bettered — are part of the latest Shires solo disc, this year’s delicate and determined “My Piece of Land.” As there is sass in her bow, so, too, is there steel in her sweetness.

Opener:Andrew Leahy & the Homestead, Southern rockers who, like the headliner, live in Nashville.

Time and place: 8 p.m. Saturday, the Back Room at Colectivo Coffee, 2211 N. Prospect Ave.

Price:$15 at the door and in advance at the Pabst Theater box office (144 E. Wells St.), the Riverside Theater box office (116 W. Wisconsin Ave.), (414) 286-3663 and pabsttheater.org.

— Jon M. Gilbertson,

Special to the Journal Sentinel

COLE SWINDELL

Style: Pop-country manliness that can party hearty or get aw-shucks romantic.

Backstory:Swindell got a hand up from Luke Bryan, an alumnus of the Georgia college Swindell went to and a “brother” at the same fraternity. Once Swindell’s first big single, “Chillin’ It,” began rising to prominence in 2013, he was evidently also a “brother” in the “bro-country” club.

Why you should go: With his second album, 2016’s “You Should Be Here,” sporting two Top 10 singles and a genially calculated shift away from high-fivin’ anthems, Swindell intends to be a long-haul artiste. And his semi-famous grin should light up his part of a local radio station’s “Country Christmas Triple Play.”

Opener:Jon Langston, another Georgia dude hoping to make it big.

Time and place:8 p.m. Saturday, the Rave, 2401 W. Wisconsin Ave.

Price:$37 to $42 at the box office, (414) 342-7283 and therave.com.

— Jon M. Gilbertson

CROWDER

Style: Worship music for iPods and Beats Pill speakers rather than for altars.

Backstory: From the mid-1990s until 2012, David Crowder led David Crowder*Band, a Contemporary Christian Music group that fit pieces of electronica, punk, bluegrass and more into its pop sound. On his own, Crowder hasn’t stopped using those pieces.

Why you should go: In September, Crowder issued his second solo LP, “American Prodigal,” which further develops his version of “folktronica” — a combination of folk and electronic styles — and, if he hasn’t touched the subgenre peaks scaled by Beth Orton, he has slightly widened the 21st-century scope of CCM. His Milwaukee appearance is for K-Love Christmas 2016, a yearend bash presented by Christian station WLVE-FM (105.3).

Openers:Mac Powell, lead singer of the Christian-rock band Third Day, and Unspoken, a Christian pop-rock group.

Time and place:7 p.m. Wednesday, Riverside Theater.

Price:$24.99 to $299.99.

— Jon M. Gilbertson

BASTILLE

Style: British pop-rock and synth-pop music that aims for the highest rafters.

Backstory: Three years ago, “Pompeii,” the fourth single from Bastille’s first album, “Bad Blood,” was a gigantic global hit for the London band. Since then, the band has toured steadily and issued a few EPs and mixtapes, priming fans the way a rapper with underground cred might.

Why you should go:Bastille’s second album, September 2016’s “Wild World,” mostly improves on and boosts the straight-up Coldplay-touched pop glories of “Pompeii.” Headlining the second and final night of Big Snow Show 11, Bastille will give the people what they want.

Opener: L.A. electronic-rock assemblage Awolnation, forceful piano-pop act Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness and English-rock singer-songwriter Barns Courtney.

Time and place:7:30 p.m. Thursday, the Rave.

Price: $40 to $50.

— Jon M. Gilbertson

LOCAL SHOW SPOTLIGHT

DIG DEEPER
3 p.m. Sunday, Studio 200, 200 E. Washington St. Local electronic musician Colin-Michel Demge, shot and killed this month, will be remembered at this benefit for his family.

— Piet Levy