Fischer's Fab 10

1. Few pieces of symphonic work capture The Beat’s fancy like Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5.

Sure, it’s the Russian composer’s most-performed symphony, so we’re hardly alone, but the finale … like power chords from before there were electric guitars.

The piece is paired with Rachmaninoff’s lush Symphonic Dances on the Columbus Symphony Orchestra’s “Russian Soul” program Friday and Saturday, Nov. 11-12, at the Ohio Theatre. It’s an appropriate examination, as both Shostako-vich and Rachmaninoff were unabashedly Russian while neither composer was as definitively nationalistic as some of their contemporaries.

Music director Jean-Marie Zeitouni conducts.

Tickets are $68-$24.75. Visit www.columbussymphony.com.

2. A 21st-century one-man band, Keller Williams throws down some mean folk-inflected pop-rock with the help of a digital looping device — the resultant tunes evoking a childlike goofiness lyrically and a virtuoso-like rhythmic inventiveness musically.

Alone on stage and armed with as many as eight guitars, a bass, a variety of percussion instruments and a multi-track sequencer, Williams lays down groove after groove, while his foot clicks each into the sequencer, which repeats it until he turns it off, then moves on to yet another instrument. Add in his voice, which he uses to great effect not only on his offbeat lyrics, but also in replicating the sound of a muted trumpet or trombone, and the result has sent many a music writer to the thesaurus.

Williams will play the Newport Music Hall Friday, Nov. 11. Tickets are $18.50/$20. Visit www.promowestlive.com.

3. Have you ever imagined that famous pieces of art could talk? And have you imagined the voice of those pieces of art as being produced by the magnificent soprano Othalie Graham?

Apparently so has Eric Jacobsen, who will guest conduct ProMusica Chamber Orchestra as it presents “Voices From the Gallery” Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 12-13, at the Southern Theatre. The title composition by Stephen Paulus and Joan Vail Thorne features impressions of 11 masterpieces.

The program also includes Respighi’s art-inspired Botticelli Triptych and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2.

Tickets are $49-$10. Visit www.promusicacolumbus.org.

4. Facebook Critic Crony Pick of the Week:
It didn’t seem likely to find an acoustic duo taking the world by storm in the midst of the clash between ’80s metal and ’90s grunge, but the Indigo Girls proved that there’s always room for clean harmonies, memorable tunes and seasoned strumming.

Amy Ray and Emily Saliers have a new record out, Beauty Queen Sister, which boasts more of the above — things on which hang their collective hat.

And they’ll stop at Lifestyle Communities Pavilion Sunday, Nov. 13. Tickets are $29/$32. Visit www.promowestlive.com.

5. To call Chicago-land sextet Ideamen experimental is to call Ohio weather inconsistent.

The group seems like it just can’t help itself — but in a good way — what with incorporating everything from metal to ’70s pop to world music. Dig its latest record, May You Live in Interesting Times.

Ideamen play Bernie’s Distillery Sunday, Nov. 13. Tickets are $10. Visit www.cringe.com/bs/ distillery.

6. Not content with being simply a latter-day Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Canadian chamber-folk outfit The Wilderness of Manitoba peppers its songs, brimming with four-part harmonies, with additional tonal surprises, from unusual instrumentation to the sound (faint in the background) of the furnace running at the Toronto-area home the band shares.

Although, upon further reflection, in order to be a “latter-day” CSNY, you’d have to have a more modern take, which could very well include these kinds of musical quirks.

TWoM will play Woodland Tavern Tuesday, Nov. 15. Musikanto opens. Cover is $5. Visit www.woodlandstavern.com.

7. If a rock band and the residents of a West African town got together to make music, it might look — if not quite sound — like Toubab Krewe.

Because Toubab is on purpose, fusing the musical instruments and styles of Mali with American forms. The instrumental quintet includes traditional (i.e. homemade-looking) fiddles, lutes and bass/harps. The result is as beautiful as it is compelling.

Toubab Krewe plays The Basement Tuesday, Nov. 15. Tickets are $15.50. Visit www.promowestlive.com.

8. Hard Believer is perhaps an ironic title to blues guitarist Tommy Castro’s new album.One spin and it was easy for The Beat to believe.

The record, made in Castro’s hometown of San Rafael, Calif., shows the veteran bluesman at the height of his powers. A two-time winner of the coveted B.B. King Entertainer of the Year award from the Blues Music Awards, Castro is a classic big city-soul-blues bandleader. He sings, he shreds — and his band had some seriously hot chops.

Castro will play Von Jazz & Blues Tuesday, Nov. 15. Admission is $25. Visit www.vonn jazz.com.

9. Ocean Grove started out as the backing band for the Jonas Brothers.

On their own, this four-piece is a roosty, comfy, classic American-style pop-rock outfit. Think Hootie-meets-Zac Brown.

Touring in support of this summer’s Another Place to Stay, Ocean Grove plays The Basement Wednesday, Nov. 16. Voxhaul Broadcast and Robert Schwartzman open.
Tickets are $12. Visit www.promowestlive.com.

10. A pair of musical men’s-men hit town Thursday, Nov. 17, so you’re going to have to choose if that sort of thing appeals to you.

Start with country singer/songwriter Jamey Johnson, a real hillbilly with a heart, at The Bluestone. Tickets are $29.50. Visit www.liveatthebluestone.com.

Your alternative is rocker Will Hoge.

We’ve written before that if there were justice in the music business, Hoge would be a star, but the benefit to this injustice is getting to see and hear his show in a more intimate setting — for example, The Basement. Tickets are $12. Visit www.promowestlive.com.