We all know by now that mid-19th-century Buffalo played a pivotal role in the Underground Railroad. Thousands of fugitive slaves made their way across the Niagara River to freedom in Canada, aided along the way by local conductors in Buffalo safe-houses. Perhaps that’s why this weekend’s upcoming choral program, Music of the Heart & Soul, is such a fitting choice for the Buffalo Choral Arts Society’s spring performance. The show, which happens on Saturday and will be repeated on Sunday, is a celebration of African-American spirituals and folk songs whose messages were ones of hope, faith, and freedom to an entire people living in the dark chains of slavery. Guest conducting will be acclaimed composer and arranger of choral music, André J. Thomas (pictured). Besides conducting choirs around the world in Asia, Europe, and North America, Thomas has composed several spirituals, including “The Drinking Gourd,” “I Dream a World,” and “Keep Your Lamps,” some of which will be a part of the show. In addition, Thomas has selected works by Moses Hogan and John Rutter. The concert will feature an appearance by Alemaedae Theatre Productions, who will perform an introduction to “Follow the Drinking Gourd,” a song that was supposedly used by an Underground Railroad operative to provide escape instructions. “The Drinking Gourd” itself is thought to be a code name for the Big Dipper star cluster, directing fleeing slaves north from Mobile, Alabama to the Ohio River and freedom.

This weekend Buffalo ReUse launches ReSource, its new headquarters and warehouse space for retailing building materials salvaged from demolished houses. Located at 298 Northampton Street, ReSource offers lumber, sinks, bathtubs, doors, windows, spindles—really just about anything that goes into (or can come out of) a house, at beyond reasonable prices. It will also serve as a de facto community and education center. On Friday evening at 7pm, Paul T. Hogan, vice president of the John R. Oishei Foundation, will offer a toast to ReSource, after which they’ll knock the door in. Entertainment is provided by Emcee Sick, and there will be a a screening of the Sundance Channel’s Big Ideas for a Small Planet episode featuring Buffalo ReUse, plus refreshments catered by Baker Victory Services WAY Program. All day Saturday there will be tours of the new facility and exhibits on sustainable themes: worm farming, sun-baked cookies, green roofs, a bike clinic, and more. Plus live music by Red and Roxy and Flatbed, and—weather be damned—a barbecue.

A veteran of Chicago’s vibrant new and improvised music scene, bassist Josh Abrams is perhaps best known for making classical minimalism hip for indie rock kids, as a member of so-called “post-rock” mainstay Town and Country. His other collaborations are equally intriguing, beginning with an early incarnation of pioneering alt.hiphop group the Roots. After settling in the Windy City, he played with a veritable “Who’s Who” of Chicago improvisers, as well as recording and performing with the likes of Sam Prekop, Godspeed You Black Emperor!, Prefuse 73, Savath & Savalas, and Sticks and Stones. Also prolific as a solo artist and bandleader, his own work (sometimes as his alter-ego Reminder) varies from textured investigations of world music and improv to experimentation with bedroom beats and samples. Abrams visits Buffalo this week en route to Williamsport, Pennsylvania, where his bass playing will be part of the American debut of experimental composer Rhys Chatham’s new composition for 100 guitarists, Les 100 Guitares: G100. Joining Abrams for an intriguing set utilizing indigenous African instruments, multiple tape loops, and guitar is G100 “section leader” David Daniell. Known for swelling blues-drones and computer-generated layers of ambient electronic sound, Daniell will open the show with a solo set. —greg gannon

Brooklyn’s O’Death is one of a very small set of bands that can ably play on a bill with either bluegrass or punk acts. But to be honest, their rattling, chaotic and offbeat performances of their skewered take on Appalachian music would probably put a lot of Bill Monroe fans into cardiac arrest, so bluegrass purists beware. For the rest of you, imagine Modest Mouse covering the Blue Sky Boys and you might begin to be ready for the places that O’Death goes. With growing notoriety and regard, O’Death has been steadily garnering praise in underground music circles, particularly online at tastemaking sites like Pitchfork and Daytrotter. Lead singer Greg Jamie’s voice has that spookiness that pervades the most chilling corners of the Anthology of American Folk Music, but as a whole band O’Death’s conjuring of a backwoods past goes hand in hand with a sensibility and fervor that suggests a breeding ground strewn with hardcore bands and Tom Waits records. This summer, following their string of US dates, they head to Europe. But first O’Death will bring what they call “part southern gothic spiritual, part moonshine fueled hoedown”—fittingly on a Sunday—to Buffalo. Support comes from Tracy Morrow and his Magi Chippie, and A Hotel Nourishing.