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Steve Smith and The Nakeds have more than earned their reputation as a goodtime blues sensation in 35 years of touring throughout the U.S. and Canada and collaborating with a wide variety of world-class music superstars.

SSN will be bringing its A game to Steve's Backstage Pass, 15 School St., Taunton Friday. Cover is $10 for the 9 p.m. event. Doors open at 7.

Acclaimed artists Clarence Clemons, Nils Lofgren, Gary U.S. Bonds, and John Cafferty of the Beaver Brown Band are among those who have performed with SSN. "Never Say Never," the band's latest CD release, includes original tunes as well as songs by Nils Lofgren and Clarence Clemons, whose unmistakably evocative tenor sax is the featured solo instrument on several tracks.

Steve's features the Rose Wharf Band on Saturday and the Little Mahrud Jazz Orchestra featuring Plainville trumpeter Ernie Baraiolo at 7 p.m. Sunday as part of Sunday Night Jazz, the Attleboro-Taunton area's only weekly jazz performance. Cover is $5 at each show.

For more information visit www.stevesbackstagepass.com. Other places, other faces:

Blues performer Martin Grosswendt will be appearing with John Thibodeau and Barry Brown at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Blackstone River Theatre, 549 Broad St., Cumberland.

Grosswendt is equally at home playing the old-time music of the southern Appalachians or the Cajun and Creole music of southwest Louisiana. He plays six- and 12-string guitar, five-string banjo, mandolin and fiddle. In late 2004, he released his first solo recording in 24 years, "Call and Response," featuring solo performances of songs from the Golden Age of blues - the late 1920s and '30s. Tickets are $12.

Here's an advance notice for those who never thought they'd see funny gal and singer-songwriter Cheryl Wheeler at a local coffeehouse: She's on her way.

The Rose Garden Coffeehouse has scored a gig from the durable folk star on May 17 at the Orthodox Congregational Church in Mansfield. She'll be performing on a double bill that also features the finalists of the Rose Garden's annual songwriting competition.

"We've been waiting for this one for years," crowed Rose Garden major domo Mac McLanahan. Well, the wait is over.

Tickets are $25, and they'll be moving faster than a bluegrass banjo player's fingers. For tickets and information, visit www.rosegardenfolk.com.

All that jazz

Brassy horn band Soul Ambition launches its brass attack with two area shows in the next week, beginning with a 10 p.m. date Saturday at the Twin River Casino in Lincoln. The band, which has ties to the Attleboro area, also performs Thursday, March 27 at Chan's in Woonsocket.

A Dixieland band, ample helpings of New Orleans jazz and a delicious brunch are all on the bill from 11:30-1:30 p.m. Easter Sunday at the Taunton Holiday Inn. Foxboro's Dixie Diehards Jazz Band, with yours truly singing early jazz chestnuts from W.C. Handy, Fats Waller and Hoagy Carmichael, will be on hand to welcome you in the foyer. For Easter Brunch reservations and prices, contact the Taunton Holiday Inn.

Rick Foster blogs on jazz in Southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island at http://grassrootsjazz.blogspot.com.