Andrew Bird, Tift Merritt

Andrew Bird’s lilting, fragile folk music embodies an operatic tension that makes you feel as if the world could fall apart or be remade in an instant. I heard him perform at NCMA once before, years ago, on a sweaty summer evening with an overcast sky that quickly corkscrewed into a downpour, soaking the crowd. He kept playing, though, and the indelible combination of whistling and rain had so thoroughly worked the crowd into a spiritual fervor that during the last song, a stranger grasped my hand—a gesture either totally misguided or totally in keeping with the kind of rapture that Bird’s soulful, classically crafted songs inspire. He splits this NCMA bill with a special guest, Raleigh’s Tift Merritt, whose raw, eager vocals stake the rare emotional ground of an artist who is at once rooted and searching. —Sarah Edwards