The Roots
This genre-bending, Grammy-winning hip-hop group combines jazzy arrangements with an eclectic approach, blending live instrumentals with lyrical rapping. Currently the house band for NBC’s “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon.”  “One of the twenty greatest live acts in the world.” —Rolling Stone. Sunday July 5, Waterfront Stage, 7:30 p.m. Tickets $30 advance, $35 day of show.  >> Purchase Tickets

Dan Zanes & Friends
Part Pied Piper, part Mad Hatter, exuberant guitar-and-ukulele strummer Dan Zanes makes kids’ music that grown-ups dig, too. Zanes won a Grammy for his 2006 album Catch That Train! But Zanes wasn’t always rockin’ for the tots: His 1980s background with Boston’s Del Fuegos gave him the tools necessary to make unique, motivating music for munchkins that transcends standard genre fare. Zanes and his crackerjack backup band deliver two lighthearted, all-ages shows: Monday July  6 & Tuesday July 7, Waterfront Stage, 3 p.m. Tickets $15 ($17 day of show), families (up to 4) $40.   >> Purchase Tickets

 Steve Earle & Aimee Mann
Rolling Stone sums up Steve Earle as “one of the finest songwriters working in any genre.” The veteran country-rock guitarist and political activist spins personal experience into stories of gritty outlaws, addicts and rabble-rousers that match his “hardcore troubadour” moniker. Grammy winner Aimee Mann was already firmly established as a leading indie rock guitarist, singer, and songwriter before she composed and performed eight tunes, including her Oscar-nominated “Save Me,” for the  soundtrack to Paul Thomas Anderson’s 1999 film Magnolia. Earle and Mann join forces for a tour de force of contemporary American indie songwriting. Wednesday July 8, Waterfront Stage, 7 p.m. Tickets $30 advance, $35 day of show. >> Purchase Tickets

Buddy Guy & Bettye LaVette
Five-time Grammy-winning blues legend Buddy Guy has honed his musical skills and showmanship over a five-decade career that influenced musical raconteurs and rock stars of all stripes. (An inspiration to Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, and Stevie Ray Vaughan, he starred in Martin Scorsese’s 2008 Rolling Stones rockumentary Shine a Light.) Guy shares a stage with Detroit soul pioneer Bettye LaVette, a stunning vocalist who recently thrilled listeners at a pre-Inauguration concert for President Barack Obama. Thursday, July 9, Waterfront Stage, 7 p.m. Tickets $35 advance, $40 day of show. >> Purchase Tickets

Le Vent du Nord & Les Cowboys Fringants
A special Québec All-Stars Concert pairs two dynamic musical phenomena.  Le Vent du Nord, a traditional quartet, has taken the folk world by storm with its high-energy mixture of instrumentalism, joie de vivre step-dancing and four-part a cappella harmonies. Members play at least nine instruments, including the bodhran, bones, jaw harp and hurdy-gurdy. Montréal-based “néo-trad” band Les Cowboys Fringants (The Frisky Cowboys), is a feisty foursome combining Québecois tunes with rock-infused country music and pro-environmental lyrics.  Friday, July 10, Waterfront Stage, 7:30 p.m. FREE. >> Purchase Tickets

Québec Blues Cruise with Bob Walsh, Gilles Sioui, & Guy Bélanger
Three stellar musicians band together for a north-of-the-border Blues Cruise featuring food, ice wine, and performances by Québec blues master Bob Walsh, Huron Indian guitar virtuoso Gilles Sioui, and harmonica ace Guy Bélanger.  Bob Walsh has been busily bringing blues to all corners of Canada’s largest province for three decades as a consummate guitarist-composer. Friday, July 10; departs at 5:30  p.m. from the Lake Champlain Ferries King Street Ferry Dock. Tickets $40 advance, $45 day of event. >> Purchase Tickets

Joanne Shenandoah & Gary Farmer and the Troublemakers
Native American musicians evaporate political boundaries in the “No Border” Concert. Grammy-winning Iroquois singer-songwriter Joanne Shenandoah offers hypnotic vocals in two languages, fulfilling the promise of her Native American name, Tekaliwah-kwa (She Sings). Actor-musician Gary Farmer, a member of the Cauyga nation of the Iroquois Confederacy, has appeared in more than a dozen feature films in Canada and the United States, including Dead Man, Smoke Signals, and Disappearances. With his band the Troublemakers, Farmer raises rockabilly blues to a new level of awesomeness. An international choral group of Québec, French, and Vermont kids, rounds out the lineup. Saturday, July 11, Waterfront Stage, noon. Free.

Ween & Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra
Multiethnic and experimental, Antibalas delivers irresistibly funky dance rhythms direct from Brooklyn —and Ween’s the ultimate cosmic goof of the alternative rock era, a prodigiously talented and deliriously odd duo whose eclectic, anarchic work goes far beyond the constraints of parody and novelty.  Get your groove on à la “Afropop Worldwide,” then hear Dean and Gene Ween make a Queen City scene at one of only three New England summer tour stops. Saturday, July 11, Waterfront Stage, 6:30 p.m. Tickets $33 advance, $35 day of show. >> Purchase Tickets

Grace Potter and The Nocturnals, The Jennifer Hartswick Band, & Pine Island
Vermont’s sweetheart rock ‘n’ roll singer-songwriter Potter and her band headline a release party and concert celebrating Big Heavy World’s new CD Thrufters & Throughstones: The Music of Vermont’s First 400 Years. Jazz diva Jennifer Hartswick returns to the Green Mountain State for the occasion, and Vermont’s 70’s bluegrass supergroup Pine Island reunites especially for this Quadricentennial blowout. Sunday, July 12, Waterfront Stage, 6 p.m. Tickets $30 advance, $35  >> Purchase Tickets