Concert Previews

Buddy Guy/

James Hunter

Since Buddy Guy reemerged in the early '90s with a series of high-profile albums that earned him three Grammys, he has assumed his rightful place as the leading torchbearer of Chicago blues. That reputation was cemented with last year's excellent four-CD boxed set, Can't Quit the Blues. At 70, the Windy City-based Louisiana native remains a devastating singer and guitarist, when he doesn't let over-the-top showmanship dilute his power.

James Hunter is a torchbearer of a different kind. The English singer-guitarist and onetime Van Morrison accompanist, in his mid-40s, has smartly revived the sounds of late-'50s/early-'60s R&B with original songs that evoke the earthiness of Ray Charles and the silkiness of Sam Cooke.

- Nick Cristiano

Christina Aguilera/ Pussycat Dolls

Christina Aguilera is no kid; she's no longer the temptress behind "Dirrty" or the pouty babygirl from "Genie in a Bottle," which is good. Instead, soul-pop's finest singer is now someone older and finer who hasn't lost her sexy snarl or cool clarity while making the transition to adulthood. Well, she hasn't lost all of it at least. For while her most recent two-CD package, Back to Basics, shows off her vocal range at its most powerful, there is something missing. It's not from a lack of a breadth of material as Aguilera jumps from the jitter bop of "Candyman" and "Ain't No Other Man" to the blessed blues of "I Got Trouble" to the forlorn Fiona Apple-like sounds of "Mercy on Me." Maybe live, Back to Basics slick funky stuff ("Back in the Day") will bring back the boogie in a live setting. And the Pussycat Dolls take a break from being reality-show fodder to open for Christina. Don't you wish your girlfriend was a contestant like that?

- A.D. Amorosi

The Roots

The hardest working band in hip-hop roll will play a hometown show tonight, on stage for the first time at Upper Darby's Tower Theater. And the Roots - still on tour for last year's darkly obsessive Game Theory - can be counted on to rise to a special occasion, as the band's performance of U2's "Pride (In the Name of Love)" at the NAACP Image Awards telecast attested to earlier this month. Rapper Black Thought sang as well as spoke, and guitarist Capt. Kirk Douglas and well-dressed drummer Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson had Bono shaking his fist as the song segued into Edwin Starr's defiant "War." Watch it on YouTube, and go see the Roots tonight.

- Dan DeLuca