• Nashville cat Craig Morgan checks into the Verona venue’s Showroom
on Thursday, Dec. 3, 8 p.m. Tickets run $40, $45 and $55. The
charismatic country star is touring in support of his fifth album, That’s Why (BNA Records), 10 tracks brimming with heartland values and romantic virtues.
• The Showroom offers its final edition of Top Talent USA
on Friday, Dec. 4, 8 p.m. The rotating vaudeville offers a veritable
smorgasbord of aerialists, dancers and musicians, with burlesque troupe
The Love Kittens serving as hubba-hubba hostesses. Table admission is $20, while booth seating is $25.
• Roasted chicken kingpin Kenny Rogers
brings his 20-city Christmas show to the Showroom on Monday, Dec. 7, 8
p.m. The venerable crooner has skewed country for decades, and since it
would be a miracle if he revives his psychedelic First Edition hit “I
Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In),” expect
lots of musical chestnuts dressed up with his still-vigorous vocals.
Country cutie Rebecca Lynn Howard is also part of the program. Seats for this show, which marks Rogers’ 28th consecutive holiday tour, are $80, $85 and $95.
• And Matchbox Twenty mainstay Rob Thomas continues his lucrative solo career with a stop at the Turning Stone’s 5,000-seat Event Center on Tuesday, Dec. 8, 8 p.m. Thomas is pushing his new CD Cradlesong
(Emblem/Atlantic), a hook-laden batch filled with persuasive pop
craftsmanship. Tickets are $51, $76 and $91; the buck extra is set
aside as a contribution for Thomas’ Sidewalk Angels Foundation, a charitable endeavor that aids the homeless. For details on Thomas and the aforementioned performances, call 361-SHOW.
