There aren’t actually 17 of them, but Berlin’s 17 Hippies top off at a still-respectable 13 members, specializing in instruments ranging from accordions, banjos, bagpipes, clarinets, violins and bouzoukis (a lute-like tool that’s far less nefarious than its name sounds). All those instruments and players suggest a cluttered slog of sound, yet these Germans mercifully resist the over-boiling melting pot approach now favored by so many acts in the world-music circuit. Instead, theirs is a blithe, graceful sound, drawing mainly from classic acoustic folk while welcoming soft, tasteful accents of Cajun and Balkan music. 17 Hippies play an 8 p.m. show tonight at Alverno College.
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