ALT-ROCK | Mat Kearney
w/ Justin King, Joshua Radin
Wed. June 14
The Windjammer
$5
For an artist who calls Nashville home, Mat Kearney lacks any of the city’s telltale twang. His newly-released second album, Nothing Left to Lose (Aware/Columbia), is a series of gentle rock, peppered at moments by hip-hop. Before releasing his first album, Bullet, the 27-year-old Oregonian studied poetry and the literature of Southern authors such as William Faulkner. He landed in Nashville only after helping a friend move there during a summer break from college. “When I started writing, I picked up a guitar and started blending in my poetry with the music I was writing,” he says. This literary influence resonates through the 13 new tracks, many of which deal with the challenge of the in-between, moments dangling on the edge of something — or nothing. Similar uncertainty seems to define Kearney, who at moments strays too far into rap mode and loses the tender acoustics that make the second half of the album particularly powerful. —Lynsy Smithson Stanley WEDNESDAY
AMERICANA/POP | Tres Chicas
w/ GiGi Dover & The Big Love
Fri. June 16
The Village Playhouse
$20 ($15 adv.)
Big, bold, beautiful vocal harmonies: that’s what Tres Chicas are all about. The group features three veteran singers at the stage front. Singer/fildder Caitlin Cary is known best, perhaps, among Americana fans for her work with N.C. band Whiskeytown. Singer/guitarist Tonya Lamm spent time in Athens, Ga. singing with the Fairport Convention-esque group Put the Strange Damsel to Work before relocating to New Mexico and kicking up desert-pop band Hazeldine. Singer/guitarist Lynn Blakey is also an Athens/N.C. indie scene veteran, having spent time playing with Oh OK, Let’s Active, Whiskeytown, and Glory Fountain. The band’s sultry new collection is titled Bloom, Red & The Ordinary (Yep Roc). Accompanied by bassist and “musical co-conspirator” Chris Stamey (ex-The dBs) and a full band, Tres Chicas perform with Charlotte-based soul/rock act Gigi Dover & The Big Love. —TBL FRIDAY
ROCKABILLY/PUNK | The Defilers
w/ The Straight 8’s, The Bo-Stevens
Fri. June 16
The Map Room
$5
Hillsborough, N.C. rockabilly trio The Straight 8’s and Winston-Salem “blue collar honky-tonkers” The Bo-Stevens share the bill with Charleston’s own Defilers on Friday. Comprised of singer/guitarist Robert Striegler, bassist Daniel Mebane, and standin’-up drummer Lucky Elbel, The Straight 8’s specialize in a classic clickety, rockabilly sound and look. The Defilers — guitarist Arleigh Hertzler, bassist Michael Dumas, and drummer Duck Reynolds — regularly deliver hard-hitting “rockabilly/greaser-punk” rave-ups and knee-slappers. “The show will be special because it’s being recorded for release as a three-band split live album featuring selections from each band’s set,” says Hertzler. —TBL FRIDAY
JAM-ROCK | The Subdudes
w/ Jamie McLean
Tues. June 20
The Pour House
$15
In the spirit of R&B-infused road bands like the Grateful Dead and NRBQ, New Orleans’ Subdudes do a little bit of everything and most always with a whole lot of soul. Vocalist/guitarist Tommy Malone, bassist/vocalist Tim “Mr. Rutherford” Cook, multi-instrumentalist Jimmy Messa, tambourine player/drummer Steve Amedee, and keyboardist/accordionist John Magnie have been trading their brand of Cajun-flavored good-time rock up and down the highways for the past 20 years. Their latest is called Behind the Levee and bluesman Keb Mo’ produced it. The Subdudes do a mighty fine four part harmony and accordion combo at that. Jamie McLean, longtime guitarist of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band opens. —Michael Andrews TUESDAY
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