The Flyer's music writers tell you where you can go.

Bands travel from far and wide to jam with the natives this week. To wit, and in order of occurrence:

“Folk singer” Odetta

Thursday, Bloomington, Indiana’s Old Pike bring their vaguely Anglo, vaguely rootsy, but plenty-plaintive pop to Barristers. They’re touring in support of their major-label debut, Ten Thousand Nights, which boasts at least one anthemic lament in “I Should Never Have Left,” a track that works itself to a piano-driven crescendo that could shame Ben Folds Five (whom the group once toured with). Local rising stars Lucero open the show with their own special brand of melancholy.

On Friday, Nashville psych-pop group Duraluxe, touring in support of their debut album, Dolorosa, headline an otherwise local show at the Map Room with Bicycle Thief and the presumed-dead sonic-abuse unit Delorean. And finally, next Wednesday, San Diego instrumentalists Tristeza come to Barristers. Kicking that one off will be the Satyrs, fresh off their recent appearance at South By Southwest. Fame to follow. — Jim Hanas

Okay. Odetta, the husky- voiced singer who will be at the Buckman Performing Arts Center (Perkins Extended at Walnut Grove) Saturday at 8 p.m. as part of the World Class Jazz Series, is technically a folkie, but don’t ask her where have all the flowers gone. A folk icon since the ’50s, Odetta culls her material from the complete canon of traditional music — blues, spirituals, work songs, as well as what is more conventionally thought of as folk. But what really sets her apart is her voice. Inspired by classic female blues singers such as Bessie Smith, she sings with a deep, full-bodied timbre that reviewers have described as overpowering in concert but never fully realized on tape.

Classically trained — an experience that lends her more clarity and control than your average folk singer — Odetta began performing in California coffeehouses in 1949. She slowly built her reputation and in 1959 found herself on stage at the Newport Folk Festival. True to her genre-defying instincts, Odetta has worked with such varied collaborators as blues harmonica player Sonny Terry, Count Basie, Bob Dylan, the Rochester Philharmonic, and poet Langston Hughes. She has also appeared in numerous films, including the TV movie The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. But infrequent touring and recording have kept Odetta from achieving the popularity of, say, Peter, Paul & Mary or Pete Seeger, another collaborator. But among serious fans of folk, her status is unparalleled. — Mark Jordan