Best 9: Top events for the week ahead in Santa Cruz County arts & entertainment, March 20-27

Here they are, nine necessary know-abouts for the week ahead. It’s the spring equinoxious B9:

➤ Brothers Jamie and Kellen Coffis are musicians, proud sons of the San Lorenzo Valley and, now, culture creators. That’s the mission of their annual two-day mini-festival called “Coffis Space,” at Moe’s Alley. For the third straight year, right after the spring equinox, the Coffis Brothers are hosting a weekend of music, comedy, food and fun. This year, the Coffis boys welcome their friend and mentor, the talented singer-songwriter Tim Bluhm of Mother Hips, as well as their stand-up comic pal DNA, country singer Jackson Emmer and the Americana duo Coyote Moon. It’s a big old down-home bacchanalia, with one show Saturday night bleeding into another Sunday afternoon. 

➤ The quintessential dramatic interpretation of the relationships of Southern women remains Robert Harling’s “Steel Magnolias,” of course, vaulted to immortality by the movie version starring Dolly Parton and Sally Field. Director Peter Gelblum brings the Mags and Truvy’s beauty parlor to the stage at Mountain Community Theater with a sassy new production, opening with an after-play reception Friday, a community night discount Saturday and a matinee Sunday, through April 13. 

➤ Who woulda thunk that the old sea shanty was due for a revival? But here it is, thanks largely to The Wellermen, a (mostly) British quartet providing a millennial’s interpretation of the kind of traditional folk favored by sailors and pirates. The group swings through the Felton Music Hall to promote their new album, “Northern Sky.” Raise a tankard with them Saturday night.

➤ The heartbeat of Santa Cruz stand-up comedy is embodied in two people: DNA and Karin Babbitt. On Friday, both will be recording comedy albums live at the Kuumbwa Jazz Center. With the recording light on, you know they’ll both be at the top of their games, and your laughter will be immortalized forever on tape (so to speak). Think of posterity!

➤ Maybe you know her as the heart and soul of the Pixies (despite what Black Francis fans might say) or the featured attraction of the Breeders, but Kim Deal is a force of nature in her own right. And she’s out to prove it with her very first solo album, “Nobody Loves You More.” Local ’90s indie-rock fans can get a full blast of Kim energy Friday at the Rio.

➤ The music and performance art at Santa Cruz’s Indexical exists way out beyond the mainstream. If you have a sense of adventure, dip a toe into its schedule, which includes a show Saturday, featuring the UK art rock trio Still House Plants and Bay Area ambient artist Kathryn Mohr. At least you know there won’t be any Jimmy Buffett covers.

➤ It’s a genuine Santa Cruz poetry tradition, going back decades now. “In Celebration of The Muse,” honoring women poets, comes ‘round again, this time at the Resource Center for Nonviolence on Friday, with a wide array of writers, thinkers and dreamers including newly christened county Poet Laureate Nancy Miller Gomez, among many others. 

➤ Need a little space and/or distance from all this constitutional crisis talk? How’s this for space and distance: Famed astronomer Bob Williams talks galaxies and the universe Tuesday at the Rio in a 30-year retrospective of the discoveries made by the Hubble Space Telescope. Bring a curious mind and an active imagination, but expect both to be stretched. 

➤ The Museum of Art & History honors Santa Cruz County’s special relationship with its animal family with a new exhibit, “HOWL: The Art & History of Pets,” opening Friday. The MAH opens up its vault of historical photos to explore Santa Cruz’s love for dogs, cats, donkeys, goats, maybe even the odd parrot.