This week in Philly music is busy with acts that will serve as balm for the soul.

“The Last Waltz Tour” comes to town, ex-Philadelphia songwriter Orion Sun returns for a hometown show, Thee Sacred Souls brings a taste of old-school R&B, and Sturgill Simpson unleashes what should be one of the most important moments of the film. this musical season.

Let’s start with Thursday when Sarah Shook & the Disarmers plays MilkBoy Philly. The North Carolina country-punk band headlined Manayunk’s Sing Us Home festival this spring, and they’re back in town in support of their 2024 album, Revelations.

On the same night, an indie folk artist with an almost identical album play Union Transfer: Leif Vollebekk, who opted for a singular rather than plural spelling in the name of his new collection Revelation.

Two fun celebrations of outstanding Philly anniversary albums kick off the weekend. On Thursday, Johnny Showcase & Friends Camp in Prince’s 40th Anniversary Tribute Purple rain at Ardmore Music Hall.

On Friday, the Philadelphia Tom Petty Appreciation Society celebrates the 30th anniversary of Petty’s 1994 album, wild flowers, at Johnny Brenda’s. Members of the War on Drugs, Dr. Dog, Strand of Oaks and more are on the project.

“Pick Up the Pieces,” funk-soul stalwarts Average White Band bring their farewell tour to Scottish Rite Auditorium in Collingswood Friday. The following night, Canadian folk singer Bruce Cockburn will perform there, along with Patty Larkin.

Detroit singer, rapper and producer Dwele performs City Winery Friday and Saturday, and R&B soul man Raheem DeVaughn plays two shows at the Fashion District on Sunday.

Orion Sun – the stage name of singer-songwriter Tiffany Majette – is touring behind her gentle, quiet, soul-searching new album. Orionthe first full-length album of the 2020s Hold space for me. The Mount Laurel-raised musician, who now lives in Los Angeles, is with Union Transfer Saturday.

Thanksgiving is coming, and that means it’s time for the annual commemoration of The Band’s 1976 concert at San Francisco’s Winterland, which Martin Scorsese filmed as The last waltz.

This year’s version, which plays at the Met Philly on Saturday is billed as “Life is a Carnival: The Last Waltz Tour.” The lineup features two ruggedly vocal country singers in Ryan Bingham and Jamey Johnson – whose first album in 14 years, midnight gas, it comes out on friday.

The band for The Band tribute also includes two members of Petty’s Heartbreakers: Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench, plus bassist Don Was, percussionist and singer Cyril Neville and keyboardist John Medeski. However, there seems to be a glaring problem with the star array. It’s all boys. No Women on the Card Who Will Sing Emmylou Harris and Joni Mitchell Songs?

Both bands playing the Fillmore Philly on Saturday night, Thee Sacred Souls and Thee Heart Tons, put an extra “e” in their definite articles. That’s not just to distinguish themselves from other bands that might use the same name.

It’s because both groups are from Southern California—San Diego’s Thee Sacred Souls and Hawthorne’s Thee Heart Tones—and both purport to connect to the Chicano Soul lineage that harkens back to 1960s East Los Angeles bands like would be Thee Midniters. But never mind the nomenclature: what makes this show a winner is the way both groups’ affection for old-school R&B comes through in a delicious soul ballad.

That’s obvious on I have a story to tellthe outstanding sophomore release from Thee Sacred Souls, whose core trio includes Josh Lane, Salvador Sumano and Alejandro Garcia. It’s also a band that’s explored by Thee Heart Tones—a teenage band fronted by the impressive vocalist Jazmine Alvarado, who shines on the band’s lowrider soul debut. Forever and ever.

Monday’s highlight is Orla Gartland, the Irish singer-songwriter who got her start as a YouTuber more than a decade ago in her early teens and has increasingly made music with emotional and musical complexity bigger. Her new one Everyone needs a hero it’s a stunner. She plays Johnny Brenda is on Monday.

Unpredictability is part of the Sturgill Simpson brand. The Kentucky-born man with the raspy voice of Waylon Jennings who broke through Metamodern sounds in country music in 2014, it was nominated for a Grammy Album of the Year for A Sailor’s Guide to Earth in 2016. In 2019, he followed up with a techno-rock assault called Sound and fury which featured the soundtrack of a dystopian Japanese anime film. Then came a wave of bluegrass records.

Simpson’s new album, Passage Du Desireis credited to his alter ego, Johnny Blue Skies, for inexplicable reasons. But his concert is under his own name and carries the label “Why not? Tour.” With a top-notch band, his shows have stretched to three hours and more, and the reviews have been glowing. He is at the Met on Tuesday and Wednesday.