As the final days tick away to what most of us view as summer, we offer the concept of the weeklong weekend. This means extending your weekend out as far as next Thursday to take in every last sliver of summer.

To fortify this suggestion, here is a lineup of seven concert events taking place over the next seven nights. Most are local. A few require trips to Louisville or Cincinnati.

Here's the rundown.

Friday: Black Stone Cherry at Buster's Billiards & Backroom, 899 Manchester Street: Mix the vintage swamp soul sounds of Tony Joe White, the Southern arena rock drive of 1973-era Black Oak Arkansas and a sense of guitar-saturated, blues-blasted fun that seems to run in the family (drummer John Fred Young is the son of Kentucky HeadHunters guitarist Richard Young). What you wind up with is the pile-driving but still rustically rootsy music of Black Stone Cherry. (8 p.m. $20. (859) 368-8871. Bustersbb.com.)

Saturday: Punch Brothers at Madison Theater, 730 Madison Avenue, Covington: This young lion quintet of progressive bluegrass and string players must love performing in Kentucky. This weekend marks its third stop in the state in nine months — actually its fourth if you include an opening set for Paul Simon at Northern Kentucky University in November. Capable of shifting gears from modern string originals to Radiohead and Beck covers, the Punch Brothers more than justify a late summer road trip. (8 p.m. $22. (859) 491-2444. Madisontheateronline.com.)

Sunday: David Sanborn and Brian Culbertson at Jim Porter's, 2345 Lexington Road, Louisville: Saxophonist Sanborn and keyboardist/trombonist Culbertson are viewed as two veteran stylists of the contemporary "smooth jazz" scene, even though the former has strong roots in Hank Crawford-style R&B. Their Louisville shows are part of what they call the Dream Tour. Dreams is the name of Culbertson's newest album, and The Dream was a massive 1987 Sanborn hit reprised on his new anthology release Then Again. (7 and 9:30 p.m. $35, $55. (502) 452-9531. Ticketweb.com.)

Monday: WoodSongs Old-Time Radio Hour with Ben Miller Band and Martha Redbone at The Kentucky Theatre, 214 East Main Street: Monday's WoodSongs taping features the Delta blues-informed bluegrass of the Ben Miller Band, a trio that colors blues and Appalachian- inspired music on guitar, percussion and washtub bass. Completing the bill will be Martha Redbone, who teamed with producer/banjo great John McEuen for Garden of Love, her newest album of Native American and Appalachian-inspired acoustic roots music. (6:45 p.m. $10, $5 students. (859) 252-8888. Woodsongs.com.)

Tuesday: Kenny Wayne Shepherd at Buster's: More than 15 years have passed since a then-teenage Kenny Wayne Shepherd was hailed as guitar-slinger successor to the late Stevie Ray Vaughan. Shepherd, now 35, still emulates heroes like Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix and Albert King on his new album How I Go, and the SRV comparisons abound. But Shepherd isn't shying away from them. In fact, longtime Vaughan co-hort Chris Layton currently serves as Shepherd's drummer. (8 p.m. $25 advance, $28 day of show. (859) 368-8871. Bustersbb.com.)

Wednesday: John Hiatt and Steve Earle at Lexington Opera House, 430 West Vine Street: Americana activist and songsmith Earle, still touring behind last year's album I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive, has pretty much become a summertime regular in Lexington, having playing here four of the past five years. Not so with Hiatt. Known for songs that mix dark folkish sagas with themes of domestic bliss, Hiatt — whose newest album is the fine Dirty Jeans and Mudslide Hymns — frequents the region on his one-on-one tours with Lyle Lovett but hasn't played in Lexington in nearly 15 years. (7:30 p.m. $55.50-$95.50. Ticketmaster, 1-800-745-3000 or Ticketmaster.com.)

Aug. 23: Happy Together Tour at Cardinal Stadium, Kentucky State Fair in Louisville: Two performers make me curious about this state fair pop oldies parade. The first is Micky Dolenz, who just announced a fall reunion tour with the surviving Monkees. The second is the team of headliners/emcees/Frank Zappa alumni Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan. They are also cornerstone members of The Turtles, whose 1967 hit Happy Together gives this tour its name, and have performed over the decades as the pop vaudeville duo Flo & Eddie. (8 p.m. Free with fair admission, $6-$10. (502) 367-5001. Kystatefair.org.)