What do klezmer music and bluegress have in common? More than you might think, say Natalya Weinstein and John Cloyd Miller.

Weinstein and Miller, a married couple from Asheville, North Carolina, are better known musically as Zoe & Cloyd (based on their middle names), an Americana/bluegrass duo that’s a fixture on the Asheville music scene, with five albums to their credit and a reputation for fine musicianship and tight harmonies.

The couple, who play tonight (Friday, July 14) at 7 p.m. at the Wesley United Methodist Church in Hadley, are having a homecoming of sorts, one they’ve made over the last several summers. Weinstein, who grew up in Leverett, studied classical violin at the University of Massachusetts Amherst before becoming immersed in old-time fiddle music and decamping to Asheville in 2004.

And on their newest record, “Songs of Our Grandfathers,” Weinstein, who’s also a vocalist, and Miller, a multi-instrumentalist and vocalist, have explored their families’ musical legacies, both to honor that heritage and to find ways to fuse them.

Weinstein’s grandfather, David Weinstein, was a professional klezmer musician who was born in Ukraine and ended up in New York City. Miller’s grandfather, Jim Shumate, was a pioneering bluegrass fiddler from North Carolina. (His grandson in turn is an award-winning songwriter who plays guitar, mandolin and banjo.)

Both those styles of music are melting pots, born in working class communities, Weinstein and Miller say, and so “it’s fitting and natural for us to combine them in our music.”

One key cut on the new album, for instance, is “Bei Mir Bistu Sheyn,” a song from a 1932 Yiddish musical comedy that was later translated into English and became a big hit for The Andrews Sisters (the title means “To Me You’re Beautiful”).

In Zoe & Cloyd’s hands, the song becomes a jaunty synthesis of klezmer and bluegrass, built around minor chords, Weinstein’s lead vocals, and solos on fiddle, mandolin, guitar and bass.

Cuts like “Bulgar Sigansky,” and “klezmer Clave Medley” also weave the two musical strains together, while the instrumental “Up and At ’Em,” written by Shumate, is a classic bluegrass hoedown.

Weinstein and Miller say “Songs of Our Grandfathers” was also inspired by the 1995 album “Songs of Our Fathers” by David Grisman and Andy Statman, a collection of historic Jewish and klezmer songs — and Statman, a mandolinist and clarinetist, extends the connection by playing on several cuts of the Zoe & Cloyd album.

Tonight’s show, where Weinstein and Miller will be joined by banjo/guitar player and composer Ben Krakauer, has a suggested donation of $20 at the door.

 

Another musician who’s soaked up varied influences is ukulele maestro Jake Shimabukuro, who’s turned the popular but humble uke to jazz, rock, blues, flamenco and points in between.

A native of Hawaii, Shimabukuro, who comes to the Bombyx Center for Arts & Equity in Florence Friday at 7 p.m., became an international sensation in 2006 not long after someone posted a video to YouTube of him playing a stirring version of George Harrison’s “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.”

He’s long since moved beyond YouTube to headline major concert venues including the Hollywood Bowl, Lincoln Center and the Sydney Opera House. President Joe Biden also nominated him to serve as a member of the National Council on the Arts, and he once performed for Queen Elizabeth II.

Shimabukuro offers a combination of intricate fingerstyle playing and taut strumming on ukulele, and his imaginative arrangements of sometimes sprawling rock and roll songs showcase how well he turns the physical limitations of a uke — its short neck and narrow frets that limit tonal range and impede fingerwork — into a creative challenge.

As one critic said, “What Béla Fleck is to the banjo, Jake Shimabukuro is to the ukulele.”

 

The Dustbowl Revival, which has made regular visits to the Valley over the years, has gone through a number of lineup changes more recently, in part because of the shutdown of live music during the pandemic.

But the California-based roots music band soldiers on, with core members such as vocalist/guitarist/songwriter Zach Lupetin still part of a group that has explored a wide range of sounds — old-time blues and folk, swing, Dixieland jazz, soul and gospel — in its roughly 11-year career.

Dustbowl Revival, which plays the Shea Theater in Montague on July 22 at 8 p.m., continued those patterns on its most recent release, last year’s EP “Set Me Free.” The title song is a soul-based, good-time number with beefy horns, as is “Best Day.”

The piano-based ballad “Be (For July),” on the other hand, is an intensely personal song Lupetin wrote for his wife and baby daughter when a medical crisis followed the girl’s birth.

More music on tap

The long-running Valley indie folk band Fancy Trash will be at The Divine Theater at Gateway City Arts in Holyoke tonight at 8 p.m. Also on the bill are Robin Lane and The Grip Weeds.

Folk/Americana specialists The Green Sisters play Hawks & Reed Performing Arts Center in Greenfield on July 15 at a 7:30 p.m. show that will also feature singer-songwriters Pete Bernhard and Eli Elkus.

Billy Keane, one of the founding members of Americana favorites The Whiskey Treaty Roadshow, will be backed by his own band The Waking Dream at The Parlor Room in Northampton on July 15 at 7:30 p.m. Arden Lloyd opens.

Valley stringband favorites Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem come to Black Birch Vineyard in Hatfield July 16 at 6:30 p.m. (it’s an outdoor show, so check the forecast).

Veteran country singer-songwriter Rodney Crowell, who has a new album out produced by Jeff Tweedy that’s gotten good reviews, will be at the Bombyx Center on July 18 at 7 p.m.

A second generation Kingston Trio, the famed folk group of the late 1950s/early 1960s, comes to Northampton’s Academy of Music on July 19 at 7 p.m. The three current members all have family or musical connections to the original members.

Roots rocker Dennis Crommett plays a full-band show at the Marigold Theater in Easthampton on July 22 at 8:30 p.m. to showcase songs from his newest album, “Get Gone.” Following him will be The Lucky Shots and The Brass.

If you’re willing to travel a bit, you can catch Vermont singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Sam Amidon at Antenna Cloud Farm in Gill on July 23 at 7 p.m.

The talented singer-songwriter and melodic rocker Aimee Mann will play at Tree House Brewing in Deerfield on July 25 at 7 p.m.

Steve Pfarrer can be reached at spfarrer@gazettenet.com.

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