If you had a dollar for every year it's been since John Prine has played in Houston - OK, maybe $2 or $3; the point is it's been a long time - you could easily afford a ticket to see the wise, sardonic master singer-songwriter at 8 p.m. tonight at U of H's Cullen Performance Hall (4800 Calhoun), so we'll count that as "cheap." Since Texas' own Alejandro Escovedo is bound to put on a songwriting clinic of its own, it definitely counts as "cool." Find tickets at Ticketmaster.

Just a reminder that tonight's visit by NYC rockers the Walkmen, who always put on a great live show, has been moved over to Fitzgerald's with Milo Greene. The band is now signed to Mississippi's Fat Possum Records, and have injected a dose of sunshine into well-reviewed new album Heaven, which came out in May. Does anyone else remember Jonathan Fire*eater?

This week talked to Houston rapper Nosaprise, probably one of the nicest local musicians we know, about We Give a Jam, the event he's helping put on 1 p.m. Saturday at the Break Free Community Center (9191 Winkler). Now in its seventh year, We Give a Jam aims to highlight the more family-friendly side of hip-hop, featuring graffiti artists, a B-boy battle and music by HPMA winners Free Radicals, Hollywood FLOSS's new crew T.H.E.M. (Houston's Elite MCs), and DJs the Krackernuttz and Comp1. It's free, but please bring $10 in school supplies for some local kids you know will put to good use. "Last year, actually Dead Prez came to check it out, because one of the guys in Dead Prez lives in Houston," says Nosa, whose next album Book of the Dead is scheduled to drop on Day of the Dead (November 1).