As his guitar gently weeps

Grant Lee Phillips, the singer and guitarist who got his start in the '90s with the uplifting power of his band Grant Lee Buffalo, has since settled into a prolific songwriter role, releasing a charming series of hushed finger-picked compositions characterized by his fragile vocal divinity like 2004's "Virginia Creeper." But it was on his 2006 album "Nineteeneighties" - a covers collection of basically every good song from the decade from the Pixies, R.E.M., the Smiths, et al. - that cemented Phillips's place in our own personal weepy canon forever. He performs two shows tonight. 7 and 10 p.m. $23- $25. Club Passim, 47 Palmer St., Cambridge. 617-492-7679. clubpassim.org