Fast friends: Local musician Matthew O’Donnell treats every performance like it’s a gathering of close friends. His band, Blue Ridge Bards, plays traditional Celtic folk with a modern energy, infusing it with rock, pop, country, and jazz. The group’s live show mixes things up between accordion, kick drum, bouzouki, and tin whistle, and includes a raucous mix of drinking songs, sea shanties, Irish jigs, and original music with easy-to-pick-up choruses that will have audience members singing along in no time.
Friday 1/7. Free, 8pm. The Stage at WTJU, 2244 Ivy Rd. wtju.net