We’ve finally arrived at the second of our Fall New Music cover boys’ CD releases. Calgary’s most soulful bedroom genius, Jay Crocker, will be celebrating the release of Below the Ocean Over with a show at Broken City on Thursday, November 6. Hopefully, he’ll have his full band along to reproduce the album’s lush arrangements — his stripped-down shows are excellent, but nothing compares to seeing Crocker with a full, brassy backing band. Ghostkeeper will handle the opening duties — oddly appropriate, as they also opened for Crocker’s cover co-star, Chad VanGaalen, at his CD release last month.

That same night, bluegrass legend Earl Scruggs will be at the Jack Singer Concert Hall. Scruggs changed the way that bluegrass banjo is played with his three-finger technique, and to this day, nobody does it better. It’s not often you get to watch someone who defined a genre, but bluegrass wouldn’t be bluegrass without the 84-year-old Scruggs’s contributions.

Things get significantly creepier on Friday, November 7, when everyone’s favourite demon lords of Antarctica, the mighty Gwar, take to the MacEwan Ballroom. This would’ve been the perfect show for last Friday, but there’s no harm in pretending it’s still Halloween and getting doused in blood by the band’s elaborate stage productions. Thrash-heavy openers Toxic Holocaust are equally ridiculous, but for entirely different reasons.

For those who like their music a little more traditional, the Crescent Heights Community Club has you covered on Saturday, November 8. That’s when guitarist Matt Andersen will demonstrate why he’s been catching audience’s eyes at blues festivals around the country. Though his size is a big part of his stage presence (he weighs in at over 300 pounds), he matches it with some impressive chops and a powerful voice. Not to mention a sense of humour — his debut album is called One Size Never Fits All.

Saturday also features a one-two punch of power-pop glory, with Hey Rosetta and Two Hours Traffic at the University of Calgary’s campus bar, The Den. Newcomers The Danks are also along for the ride — it’s a perfect trifecta of East Coast rock.