A musical convergence on the local scene.

Byline: Serena Markstrom The Register-Guard

Those of you disoriented by the festive ritual time slot left vacant by the last Thirsty Thursday at Civic Stadium can distract yourself this week with more good music than a city our size ought to have on a single night.

The WOW Hall is dark that night, so perhaps its staff will take the chance to cruise around downtown, the Whit and CD World in search of tunes.

Until then, here's a preview of Thursday shows sure to quench your thirst for music, listed in order of start times.

Begin at CD World, 3215 W. 11th Ave., for a free concert by Brandi Shearer. The headliner on the first-ever tour sponsored by the group of independent record stores that invented Record Store Day, Shearer is traveling across the United States and stopping at record stores for free shows.

This one starts at 7 p.m., and she will do a full set.

Shearer has a new album, "Love Don't Make You Juliet," and a four-song EP, "Live at the Soiled Dove," that are only sold through independent music stores, a news release says.

"The more impersonal buying music digitally becomes, the more I crave talking to an actual human," Shearer says in the release. "There is no replacement for someone sizing you up and putting a record in your hands that they know you'll love."

A video blog entry explaining Shearer's motivation for doing the tour is posted on Ticket Files, at www.registerguard.com /ticketfiles, along with a link that will allow you to hear her music for free.

If you stay for Shearer's full set, you won't be able to make it to The Shedd, 285 E. Broadway, at 7:30 p.m. to hear the Gretchen Parlato Quartet.

Parlato's song "Weak" was a National Public Radio "song of the day" earlier this summer. There is a link to the song posted on the Ticket blog, along with a review of a live performance that appeared in The New York Times.

If you were a pre-teen or teenager in the early 1990s, the R&B girl group SWV's version of "Weak" probably is embedded permanently into your hormones. But Parlato's tasteful and sexy performance of Robert Glasper's jazz arrangement may just bring the song out of decorated high school gyms and into elegant dinner parties.

Tickets are $24 to $34.

At the same time as Parlato's concert gets under way, the UO's Cultural Forum kicks off its fall season at 7:30 p.m. at the Erb Memorial Union amphitheater, 1222 E. 13th Ave.

The free show features Mount Eerie, No Kids, Karl Blau and Tara Jane O'Neil.

Material from each of those acts is posted on the Ticket blog.

Now, let's scoot over to the singer-songwriter world.

Mason Jennings returns to the McDonald Theatre, touring behind "Blood of Man." His seventh studio CD was distributed by Jack Johnson's label, Brushfire Records.

If you don't know Jennings' voice from college radio, you might recognize it for performing two Bob Dylan songs in the film "I'm Not There."

The Crash Kings open. "Scrubs" star Zach Braff has a reputation for choosing music that is about to be trendy, and he blogged about the Crash Kings in May: "Mark my words, these guys are going to be huge."

Budweiser has plans to use the group's single, "Mountain Man," in an upcoming ad campaign, a news release says.

The concert begins at 8 p.m. at the McDonald, 1010 Willamette St. Tickets are $17 in advance and $20 at the door.

Blue Turtle Seduction plays a 9 p.m. show at Sam Bond's Garage, 407 Blair Blvd. There is no opening act.

A news release describes the Lake Tahoe, Calif., band as a blend of bluegrass, Gypsy, folk, hip-hop and rock. The band features vocals, guitar, harmonica, Pan flute, violin, mandolin, bass and drums - all played by five guys.

Free songs are posted on the Ticket Files blog for you to sample. The show costs $7 if you like what you hear and want to experience it live.

Finally, over in the world of improvisational jam, local trio Ruins of Ooah has a gig that starts at 10 p.m. at Joe's Bar and Grill.

The diverse lineup includes Raquy and the Cavemen, plus the Tribalation belly dance troupe and Mood Area 52.

Ruins of Ooah formed from members of Reeble Jar, although we can't say the "ruins of Reeble Jar" because that broken jar puts itself back together more than Humpty Dumpty ever did.

The Ruins of Ooah trio features didgeridoo, harmonica and drums, and like Crash Kings it has a song called "Mountain Man." But you might believe the growl in the Ruins' version a bit more than the Los Angeles band's classic rock track.

"I want you to know," the Ruins song begins after a driving introduction performed on drums and didgeridoo (yes, it's possible), "that I'm a mountain man. .. I stay away from civilization as long as I can."

The Ruins will play (and possibly eat) at Joe's, 23 W. Sixth Ave. Admission is on a sliding scale from $5 to $10.