LEDISI The multiple-Grammy nominee is making Charlotte a routine stop during her travels. This time, though, there’s no splitting the bill, as it’s her show, her night, her stage. Since her last visit, she’s released her fifth studio album, Pieces of Me, which debuted at No. 8 on the Billboard charts behind the strength of the title track. Soul doesn’t get much better right now. (Mike McCray)

TIMOTHY BLOOM If there’s a heaven out there, it looks like Jeff Buckley’s already tracked down Curtis Mayfield and cowritten a handful of songs that are a bit more ethereal than what either did before shuffling off this mortal coil. And they transferred the fruits of their collaboration to Fayetteville singer Timothy Bloom, whose sublime ballad “‘Til the End of Time” easily could be a lost track from Grace. On Bloom’s debut EP, April's The Budding Rose, he shows great potential as an adventurous soul singer/songwriter in the vein of Van Hunt. Aside from the EP, Bloom wrote a pair of Mayfield-inspired tracks for the soundtrack to Becoming Barack: The Evolution of a Leader, including the lightly funky “We’re a Winner.” Bloom comes to Knight Theater on Oct. 25, opening for feminist New Orleans soul singer Ledisi, whose Grammy-nominated 2009 album, Turn Me Loose, combined the sass of Aretha with the cool of Erykah. A night of contemporary Southern soul not to be missed. (Mark Kemp)

Price: $25-45