Shoulders champions tradition

Nick Shoulders was all happy to hitting the Boston area for the second time. The word must have gotten out because the Arkansas traditional country singer drew a healthy crowd of maybe 300 even without any sort of hit to his name. So maybe the fans provided a modicum of motivation for the mustachioed, friendly singer.

Shoulders (and the crowd) had good reason to be upbeat with how it went down.

Shoulders recalls Jimmie Dale Gilmore vocally although a bit less idiosyncratic. In other words, it's a voice that makes you take notice. He sure did starting with "Lonely Like Me," inserting a bit of yodeling for good measure.

Shoulders was seated for most of the 90-minute gig, playing acoustic guitar and also kick drum.

Fiddle player Olivia McGraw was on her last night of the tour, and she made her presence felt from start to finish with her playing sometimes taking over and often filling in the gaps. McGraw also kicked in on backing vocals. Apparently, she had the ear of Shoulders because he often looked in her direction as he sang.

Nikolai Shvister was a quiet, but muscular presence on pedal steel further underscoring the traditional country bent of Shoulders. So did Jack Shuder's electric guitar with lots of steely sounds and short, twangy runs.

The son of the South also was a champion of the South, saying that the ills associated of the south were something that could be seen around the U.S. He grew political at times including taking a swipe at ICE and the rich.

He had a lighter touch elsewhere. In his humorous style, Shoulders proclaimed, "I'm an unabashed, annoyingly proud Southerner, but I'm not really proud of the South in the way that is classically considered to be South." That meant, he was no fan of the Confederacy or the flag, more like what he described as the "hybrid culture" mixing indigenous American, West African and Celtic melodies.

Ultimately, it was the music that would carry Shoulders through.

At one point, Shoulders and his backing mates came out front gathered around a single old school mic to play three songs, delving into Old Time music. Shoulders showed off his banjo skills during this segment, including "Rise When Rooster Crows," with Shvister now on Dobro and a lot more fiddle from McGraw. It was a welcome twist on the evening and showcased that Shoulders was not only able to play traditional country.

For some reason, Shoulders unfortunately almost totally ignored his week-old record, "Refugia Blues." He only played "Dixie Be Damned" from the release. It contains more good music. Too bad Shoulders didn't play a lot more of it.

Not that the rest of his catalogue is lacking. Leaning heavily into his love of traditional country, Shoulders provided one more reason to champion this (and his) brand of music.

Jackson and The Janks got the night rolling with a musically diverse outing that was markedly different from Shoulders' country, but made its mark. Like Shoulders, Jackson Lynch, the brains behind the outfit, was seated with guitar in hand and accompanied only by a bass sax man (now, that's a true rarity!) and drummer.

Sounds odd no doubt, but in the context of playing New Orleans-styled music, blues and gospel, this all worked out. Lynch's playing gave the songs a bit of bite, but the bass sax added an underbelly. Jackson and The Janks were different. That was a good thing.