Music News & Reviews

This time, the show really will go on for former Georgia Satellite.

Warner E. Hodges, Mauro Magellan, Dan Baird and Sean Savacool ar Dan Baird & Homemade Sin.
Warner E. Hodges, Mauro Magellan, Dan Baird and Sean Savacool ar Dan Baird & Homemade Sin.

Dan Baird and Homemade Sin

9:30 pm October 5 at Willie’s Locally Known, 286 Southland Dr. $10. 859-281-1116 . willieslocallyknown.com, danbairdandhomemadesin.net .

Okay. Take two. It was a Friday evening in mid-July when the news surrounding Dan Baird’s return to Lexington was supposed to center around beating chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) enough to return to the road and do what the California-born, Georgia-reared rocker does best: create loud, giddy, electric music where guitars borrow just enough pop accessibility to make the music feel relentlessly celebratory.

That was the plan, anyway, until Mother Nature crashed the party. By 4 p.m., storm clouds rolled in to make the Western sky resemble a scene out of “Independence Day.” By 5 p.m., the winds and rains roared with a rage that was frightening even by Lexington summer storm standards. By 6 p.m., the power was out over much of the city, including the Southland Drive digs of Willie’s Locally Known, which was to be the evening’s performance home for Baird and his band, Homemade Sin.

Alas, the power stayed off, Willie’s remained dark and Baird’s show was postponed.

But tonight, with fall finally settling in, the show will go on. There is a slight, unintentional perk to the delay. Since the postponed July date, Baird’s newest Homemade Sin album, “Screamer,” has emerged. It’s aptly named, of course, as the guitars of Baird and bandmate Warner E. Hodges (the longstanding guitar voice of Jason and the Scorchers) create a cherry mayhem born out of rock ‘n’ roll tradition. You hear it in the opening blast of the “Screamer” lead off tune “Bust Your Heart” as well as in the AC/DC-on-a-summer-strut vibe of the album-closing “Good Problem to Have.”

Tonight, expect the storm to be raging inside Willie’s instead of outdoors.

Noah Preminger Quartet

7 and 9:15 p.m. Oct. 5 at Tee Dee’s Bluegrass Progressive Club, 266 E. 2nd. $17.50 each show, $30 evening pass. originsjazz.org .

Brandon Seabrook Trio/Quin Kirchner Quintet

7 p.m. Oct. 7 at the University of Kentucky Niles Gallery, 160 Patterson Dr.,. Free.

It’s a great time to be a jazz fan in Lexington as two of the city’s more prominent jazz series are offering shows this weekend.

First up is the return of Brooklyn saxophonist Noah Preminger. In October 2017, Preminger became the first artist to perform in the inaugural season of the Origins Jazz Series. Tonight, he serves as the second artist to play as part of the series’ sophomore schedule. Preminger has released three new albums in 2018, including “Ingenuity.” It features the same players — trumpeter Jason Palmer, bassist Kim Cass and drummer Dan Weiss — that will serve as his band tonight.

Then on Sunday, we have a double bill from the Outside the Spotlight series, which leans more to free jazz and improvised music. Taking to the very comfortable environments of the UK Niles Gallery, will be guitarist Brandon Seabrook with his trio and drummer Quin Kirchner and his quartet. While these groups are largely new to local audiences, there will be one notable returnee instrumentalist. The Kirchner Quartet includes bassist Matt Ulery, who played an Origins show with Lexington-born violinist Zack Brock in May and served as composer-in-residence for the 2017 Chamber Music Festival of Lexington.

Tom Petty’s ‘Treasure’

We lost Tom Petty one year ago this week. Underscoring that anniversary is a mammoth parting shot, a new four-disc set of unreleased outtakes and alternate versions of familiar works that further enforce Petty’s strength as a song stylist and writer, along with concert recordings that cement his reputation as an epic live act.

The package is titled, perhaps a little sentimentally, “An American Treasure.” (It is also available in a distilled two-disc edition.)

The first impression left by such an expansive compilation is how strong Petty’s music remained with and without the Heartbreakers during what became his final years. The set’s fourth disc heads to the finish line with a version of “Good Enough” that doesn’t differ severely from the original found on 2010’s underrated “Mojo” album. But it’s a kick to hear Petty roll with a blues riff that eventually broods under the playing the same way that classic groove did under The Beatles’ “I Want You (She’s So Heavy).” The killer guitar solo from Mike Campbell frames all the fury.

The last word goes not to a Heartbreakers tune, but to “Hungry No More,” a requiem from the second Mudcrutch album cut live in 2016. The song’s anthemic feel is full of fire and grace until you hit its final verse, which now reads as a sobering farewell: “Nobody cry for me. Ain’t nothin’ to it now. The world will turn somehow.”

“Thank you so much for giving us your ears tonight,” Tom Petty says as the performance, and the album, comes to a close. “I hope it was musical for you.”

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