Season highlights: Folk music

Dervish, Oct. 1, Somerville Theatre, 617-876-4275, worldmusic.org. One of the hottest and most rollicking of the young Celtic bands on the rise, this Sligo septet combines tender traditional savvy with state-of-the-art compositional chops, led by breathtaking vocalist Cathy Jordan.

Bill Staines, Nov. 6, at the Linden Tree Coffeehouse, Wakefield, 781-246-2836, lindentreecoffeehouse.org. You should count a folk venue's life at least in dog years, and by that measure, Linden Tree's 20th anniversary is a remarkable yardstick. It is among the friendliest of the area's community coffeehouses and should be even more convivial when Staines performs there. To many, he is the quintessential New England coffeehouse entertainer, an irresistibly melodic songwriter and droll raconteur who's just released his loveliest CD in years, "Journey Home" (Red House).

Dan Zanes and Friends, Nov. 13-14, Somerville Theatre, 617-876-4275, www.worldmusic.org. Lots of activities promise they're for the whole family, but few deliver as much for both kids and adults as ex-rocker turned children's entertainer Zanes. On this tour, the mischievous folkie-hipster celebrates a buoyant new Festival Five CD, "Parades and Panoramas," which pays homage to Carl Sandburg's enormously influential 1927 folk song collection, "The American Songbag."

Tony Trischka Trio and Bruce Molsky, Nov. 21, Club Passim, 617-492-7679, www.clubpassim.org. Trischka and Molsky are each guiding lights to the current wave of young bluegrass and old-time musicians such as Ollabelle and Nickel Creek. Molsky plays as if he was born with a fiddle bow for an arm, and no one has done more than Trischka to expand the modern frontiers of the banjo.

Dar Williams, Dec. 2, Somerville Theatre, 617-661-1252, multistage.org. Onetime Boston open miker turned national songwriting star, Williams recently became a mom and published her first novel, "Amalee," a lively, closely observed, and often hilarious coming-of-age tale aimed at teens. Fans will be eager to see if she explores young motherhood with the same intimate nerve and revealing humor with which she's always charted her life in song. She appears solo, an added treat for her longtime fans.