FRIDAY

Singer-songwriter and fiddle player Sara Watkins has spent nearly two decades as a part of the superb acoustic trio Nickel Creek. Now she's on her own, having just released her self-titled debut CD, which is produced by John Paul Jones, the bass player for a little band called Led Zeppelin. Watkins will play at The ArtsCenter, 300-G E. Main St., Carrboro, Friday night. Showtime is 8:30 p.m., and admission is $20, $18 for ArtsCenter Friends. 929-2787, www.artscenterlive.org.

TUESDAY

Hokum's Heroes, they're called, and they take an unselfconscious, eclectic approach to early 20th-century pop music, twining together the roots of stringband, jug band, early jazz, country blues, rags and gospel while rendering the result with modern sensibilities and a big backbeat. They'll do all that and more at the Nightlight, 405 1/2 Rosemary St., Tuesday night in a double bill with The Alcazar Hotel, featuring former Squirrel Nut Zipper Will Dawson. Music will be preceded by a free screening of the PBS Point of View documentary film 'Sweet Old Song,' and get this -- the whole show is free. 933-5550, www.nightlightclub.com.