Blitzen Trapper. Photo by Jade Harris, from band myspace page.

MONDAY
>> Hope you kids like roots-rock, because this is the week for it. Portland’s Blitzen Trapper — who we caught up with last spring when they hit the Black Cat backstage along with a troop of hirsute harmonizers called the Fleet Foxes — return to the District, this time to the Black Cat Mainstage, ostensibly in support of their consistently enjoyable 2008 LP, Furr. Folk singer and fellow Pac-Northwesterner Alela Diane opens up. Sadly, it’s sold out. Craig has tickets here, and we have it on good authority that the Cat released a few more tickets this morning. Run, don’t walk, to get yours. $13, 8 p.m.

>> The Birchmere is the only venue so far to acknowledge the weather and officially announce that tonight’s show is on. So if you have tickets for the sold-out, white-hot blues of the Robert Cray Band tonight, be sure to put on the galoshes before trekking to Del Ray. Doors at 7:30 p.m.

TUESDAY
>> In the nebulous world of alt-country, they don’t come more venerated and road-tested than Lucinda Williams. Yeah, her voice sounds increasingly like the gravel roads of backcountry Louisiana she made famous a decade ago, but 2008’s Little Honey was living proof that it’s possible to age gracefully and still do ballsy, weird-as-hell covers of AC/DC on your records. Where 2007’s West was like one big, long dirge that sucked all the hopefulness and joy out of the room, her latest has more variety and a considerable amount of actual tunefulness. Williams’ last trip through the area was a summer pit-stop at Wolftrap; this time she returns with her backing band, Buick 6, to hit the 9:30 Club for a two-night stand starting Tuesday. Tickets: $40, still available for both nights. Doors at 7 p.m.