Amy Black knows how to reach down to the soul and change course to what feels right. She didn’t really try her luck as a singer/songwriter until the start of this decade in her mid-30s. Now Black’s putting aside her career in marketing, leaving Boston for Nashville, and hitting the road this summer. And she’s touring behind The Muscle Shoals Sessions, a third album that trades her country-folk style for the kind of earthy soul made back in the day at Muscle Shoals’ FAME Studios. That’s where Aretha Franklin and Wilson Pickett recorded (right near Black’s own family stomping grounds) and she did the same with legendary keyboardist Spooner Oldman. She mixed classics like Sam Cooke’s “Bring it Back Home,” Bob Dylan’s “Gotta Serve Somebody” and the spiritual “You Gotta Move” (which the Rolling Stones cut for Sticky Fingers) with a few kindred originals, and she’ll perform them all in a going-away party of sorts at Johnny D’s Uptown on both Friday and Saturday nights, backed by Sarah Borges and a Berklee-rooted band.

Friday’s also busy at the Paradise Rock Club with Best Coast, the LA pop duo of singer Beth Cosentino and guitarist Bobb Bruno, who add a psychedelic glaze to their garage/surf/girl group grounding on third album California Nights. And the Avett Brothers bring their rootsy roadshow to Bank of New Hampshire Pavilion on Lake Winnipesaukee in Guilford, N.H., before hitting Boston Calling in September.

Saturday’s the really big night though. The Dave Matthews Band plays an acoustic opening as part of the two-set format that DMB launched last summer when the group hits Mansfield’s Xfinity Center, possibly with a special guest (Warren Haynes and Branford Marsalis respectively made recent dates).  And while Boyd Tinsley fiddles with DMB, dancing violinist Lindsey Stirling mixes classical and dubstep (you can jump here to my recent interview) when she grabs the spotlight at the Blue Hills Bank Pavilion with Boston pop duo Karmin. British rock veteran Paul Weller also continues to shake expectations on his sonically diverse new album Saturns Patterns, though he’s liable to pull out a chestnut from his past bands the Jam or the Style Council as well at the Paradise. And Ex Hex, the power trio led by Mary Timony (Wild Flag, Helium), returns to play the Sinclair on Saturday, while Boston’s treasured soul shouter Barrence Whitfield celebrates his 60th birthday at Arlington’s Regent Theatre with a bunch of friends including James Montgomery and Charlie Farren.

Sunday offers two different options in post-Britpop rockers Starsailor, returning from a long hiatus to perform at the Sinclair, while the Vermont folk collagist and multi-instrumentalist Sam Amidon plays Somerville’s Arts at the Armory with Berklee-bred Celtic harp player Maeve Gilchrist (Amidon then appears with Bill Frisell at the Solid Sound Festival in North Adams on June 27).