The leaves are falling from the trees, and chilly nights are ahead. But don't fret, music fan. For our very own variation on 50 Cent's "21 Questions," we've got 21 reasons to look forward to autumn, with a song in your heart.
Actually, we can think of a whole lot more than 21 - from the Sept. 20 show by ambient hip-hop collective 13 & God at the First Unitarian Church, to Blackalicious' new album, The Craft, due Sept. 27, to the Foo Fighters/Weezer double bill at the Wachovia Center Oct. 13.
But we have to limit ourselves somehow. So here's your lucky 21.
Pop
1 King Britt Presents Sister Gertrude Morgan, Let's Make a Record. Britt, the internationally renowned Philadelphia DJ and tastemaker, finds a subject he can put his conceptualist skills to work on. Morgan was a New Orleans street preacher, folk artist, and tambourine-shak-
ing musician who died in 1980. For this Ropeadope Records release, Britt has remixed Morgan's raw, spirited vocal incantations with down-home slide guitar, harmonica, and modern beats. In stores Tuesday. He'll bring those sounds to life in a multimedia performance with the help of local players Doc Gibbs and Chuck Treece at the Painted Bride Art Center on Oct. 8.
2 The Roots Just around the way from the South Street corners where they got their start busking for passers-by, Philadelphia's world-traveling hip-hop band moves on up to the high-culture confines of the Kimmel Center. For the first of the Kimmel's World Mix Pop series, rapper Black Thought, drummer ?uestlove, and their musically omnivorous crew will do what's billed as a "special acoustic performance" as they bring along a pair of challenging, experimental rock bands in Brooklyn's TV on the Radio and San Francisco's Deerhoof. (The series includes shows with Los Lobos and Alejandro Escovedo on Oct. 2, and Portuguese fado singer Mariza on Oct. 9.) At Verizon Hall Friday.
3 Paul McCartney / Rolling Stones Is this 1965 or 2005? The British Invasion never ends, it seems. Each with new albums, the two leading lights of Swinging London four decades ago will be rocking South Philadelphia at least one more time. The Stones' new disc is the Don Was-produced A Bigger Bang; McCartney's collaboration with Radiohead knob-twiddler Nigel Godrich is Chaos and Creation in the Backyard. You may or may not care about the new songs, but you know all the old ones. At the Wachovia Center: McCartney, Sept. 22-23. Stones, Oct. 10 and 12.
