So much music happening in Philly, you might want to clone yourself

What makes Philadelphia a great music city? Partly that there can be so much happening on any given weekend that it would require cloning oneself several times over to take it all in.

This week, the big FOMO night is Friday. Let’s start with Camden County native Ben Vaughn, the singer and radio host of the syndicated show The Many Moods of Ben Vaughn.

The California-based bandleader is doing two Ben Vaughn Quintet shows at World Cafe Live. The first is a Free at Noon, and then he’s back at night with another South Jersey rocker/radio host in Little Steven’s Underground Garage’s Palmyra Delran & the Doppelgang.

Meanwhile, at Union Transfer, Caroline Rose plays in support of The Art of Forgetting, their 2023 album that’s a return to self-reflective, emotionally forthright songwriting.

Richard Thompson, the British guitar wizard and songsmith whose album Ship to Shore is due May 31, plays the Scottish Rite Auditorium in Collingswood. And Texas bandleader Alejandro Escovedo has a new album, Echo Dancing, in which he reinterprets his own work. He’s at the Sellersville Theater.

The last days of the Living Room in Ardmore are nigh. Laura Mann’s BYO closes April 27. This week, Living Colour’s Vernon Reid plays a solo “Verntonics” gig Thursday, then teams with virtuoso Philly bassist Jamaaladeen Tacuma and drummer Calvin Weston in Free Form Funky Freqs on Friday.

But wait, there’s more. Cuban mambo big band Orquestra Akokán is at the Zellerbach Theatre. Dan Reed and Jesse Lundy’s new outfit, the 700 Level, rocks Dawson Street Pub in Manayunk. And for classical music fans, cellist Yo Yo Ma and pianist Kathryn Stott are playing a recital at Verizon Hall.

If something louder is to your liking, Philly music magazine Decibel is throwing a two-day Metal and Beer Fest at the Fillmore. Biohazard tops the bill on Friday, which includes Philly metal core outfit Jesus Piece. Deicide closes out Saturday. Breweries featured include New Jersey’s Tonewood, Philly’s Attic, and Delaware’s Brimming Horde Meadery.

Berks Jazz Fest happens in Reading, but there’s a Philly focus on Friday. A tribute to late sax great Grover Washington Jr. will be directed by Philly bandleader Bill Jolly and features a host of Philly players. Philly’s Grammy-nominated jazz couple the Baylor Project also play, and Gerald Veasley leads the late-night jam session.

And there’s also plenty of action Saturday.

Swans, the long-standing experimental rock band, are at Union Transfer on Saturday. The great Chicano rock and roll band Los Lobos plays the Scottish Rite. Curly Taylor & Zydeco Trouble get dancers moving at the TK Club in Conshohocken. And Rosali, the formerly Philadelphian singer-guitarist whose superb Bite Down is likely to show up on many best-of lists come December, returns to Johnny Brenda’s.

Last Friday, when old school Philly soul band Ron & the Hip-Tones played a Free at Noon at World Cafe Live, the band closed its set with a cover of a song by the Intruders, the vocal quartet that helped lay the foundation for what became known as the Sound of Philadelphia.

It wasn’t either “Cowboys to Girls” or “I’ll Always Love My Mama,” the group’s best-known hits, but “Together,” the 1967 song written by Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff issued on the Gamble label, a precursor to Philadelphia International Records, which was formed in 1971.

With elegant harmonies supporting lead singer Sam “Little Sonny” Brown — the lushly romantic Top 10 R&B hit was on the group’s The Intruders are Together. That album isn’t available on streaming services, but “Together” is on many compilations and can be streamed on YouTube.

Believe it or not, Missy Elliott, who last year became the first female rapper inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, has never toured as a headliner, even when reshaping pop music in the early 00s with hits like “Get Ur Freak On.” That will change with her “Out of This World Tour” with Ciara, Busta Rhymes, and Timbaland, and comes to the Wells Fargo Center on Aug. 5. Tickets go on sale Friday at 10 a.m. at missy-elliott.com/.