Robert Earl Keen.

Giving you the music a day early:

For more than 30 years, Robert Earl Keen has recorded and toured, and the Americana singer/songwriter is on the road again this fall, touring in support of his 16th and newest album Ready For Confetti. The tour includes a stop at Rev Room. The opening act is former Cross Canadian Ragweed frontman Cody Canada & The Departed with their rock ‘n’ roll with a touch of country. The show starts at 9 p.m. with tickets $20 in advance and $25 day of for the 18-and-up show. Keen arrives in town about once a year from Texas, unveils his tunes that combine folk, country, blues and rock, creates a boisterous live show to rival any act, and packs up, leaving behind smiling faces and good memories.

Conway alternative rock band The Alexei has finished recording their five-track EP The March and is holding an EP release party at Vino’s with the doors opening at 7:30 p.m. Cover is $5, and every person through the door will receive a free copy of The March. The headliner is Orlando, Fla., swamp rock act Confused Little Girl, and joining the band will be tourmates Swamp Sitters with their rootsy, rockabilly-based Americana. Blevins heavy metal group Every Knee Shall Bow and Magnolia alternative rock outfit belair. round out the bill. Confused Little Girl is on the road promoting the band’s new album for Rotten Records, Southern Gentlemen.

It’s good seeing The Good Time Ramblers playing more local shows recently; the Little Rock music scene needs the high-octane country and rock ‘n’ roll band. And so, The Good Time Ramblers return for a show at The Afterthought, bringing their rock-fueled country sprinkled with Texas swing, blues, folk and rock ‘n’ roll influences, and not re-heated classic rock hooks and slick pop choruses like today’s country. The music starts around 9 p.m. with a $7 cover. As The Afterthought said, “We love these guys,” and you should, too.

Free of former Led Zeppelin lead singer and her Raising Sand partner Robert Plant, Alison Krauss is back to work with her backing band Union Station (including master dobro player Jerry Douglas), and it’s Alison Krauss & Union Station that come to Harding University. The group released their first collection of new bluegrass since 2004 with April’s Paper Airplane, which became Krauss’ first No. 1 album on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart, and the group is nominated for seven International Bluegrass Music Awards. The show starts at 8 p.m. in the Benson Auditorium, and tickets are $40 and $50 for the general public, and $20 and $30 for the Harding community.

With a recording career that stretches back to the 1980s, Najee is a renowned jazz saxophonist. Joining him for a special show in the historic auditorium of the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center will be openers and local jazz favorites Rodney Block and The Real Music Lovers. The night of music titled An Evening with Najee begins at 7 p.m. with tickets $50 to $100 with proceeds benefiting the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center.

Want a good laugh? Listen to Rickey Smiley‘s prank call where he calls a Church’s Chicken, acting like an old woman who has mistaken the fast-food chicken restaurant for an actual church. It’s nothing groundbreaking but just good, wholesome fun. The “clean” comedian, TV host and nationally syndicated radio personality of the Rickey Smiley Morning Show will bring his “Bernice Jenkins” to Robinson Center Music Hall for a night of laughs along with other characters such as “Lil’ Daryl,” “Rusty Dale” and “Beauford” and possibly a live band with Smiley singing and playing. The laughs starts at 8 p.m. Tickets are $34 for balcony, and $39 for mezzanine and orchestra. Don’t forget to add all those nasty little Ticketmaster charges to the tickets.

Here’s Robert Earl Keen with his “Amarillo Highway”:

Amarillo Highway