A downsized Travis Tritt brings his guitar - and 30 years of country music - to Lexington

Travis Tritt

7:30 p.m. March 3 at the Lexington Opera House, 401 W. Short. SOLD OUT. (859) 233-3535, (800) 745-3000. lexingtonoperahouse.com, travistritt.com.

It was perhaps fitting that the first song performed last week at Rupp Arena on a four act bill headlined by Dierks Bentley was a Travis Tritt favorite.

The song was “T-R-O-U-B-L-E,” a Jerry Chesnutt composition that previously served as a relatively minor Elvis Presley hit in 1975. But Tritt’s 1992 version, which doubled as the title tune to a double-platinum selling album by the singer, pumped up an inherent sense of roadhouse vigor within the song and modestly Southern-ized its lyrical sentiment.

In the hands of Bentley, who performed the tune at Rupp with his incognito pals as the ‘90s cover band Hot Country Knights, the song became a whimsical but still devout tribute.

Tritt, of course, played “T-R-O-U-B-L-E” at Rupp back in the day, along with other traditionally spiked honky tonk rockers like “Here’s a Quarter (Call Someone Who Cares),” “Sometimes She Forgets,” “Ten Feet Tall and Bulletproof” and “Anymore.” He also headlined an outdoor concert at the then-named Applebee’s Park.

These days, Tritt has downsized. He popped up in living rooms last fall as a celebrity judge on the USA Network country music reality/talent search show “Real Country” while his own concert stages shifted from arenas to theatres.

His popularity, though, has not waned. As of this writing, no seats remain for Tritt’s show this weekend at the Lexington Opera House. Similarly, the March 3 concert places the electric drive of his band performances on hold in favor of a solo acoustic setting.

Loudon Wainwright III

8:30 p.m. March 2 at Ludlow Garage, 342 Ludlow Ave. in Cincinnati. 513-221-4111. $25-$45. ludlowgaragecincinnati.com, lw3.com.

Here’s a show worth making a weekend road trip for — a return outing with master songsmith Loudon Wainwright III.

For nearly a half-century, Wainwright has operated as a folk-style commentator, creating songs of accessible whimsy and devastatingly stark (and often very personal) reflection. He has also been highly visible as an actor, from a recurring cameo role in “MASH” during the early ‘70s to increasingly prominent characterizations for films by Tim Burton (“Big Fish”), Martin Scorsese (“The Aviator”) and Cameron Crowe (“Elizabethtown”).

It was the latter that made the artist something of a regional favorite. “Elizabethtown” brought him to Versailles for filming in 2004. On one memorable Saturday night during his stay, Wainwright performed a kind-of public cast party concert at the long-since-demolished Dame with the film’s co-stars, Orlando Bloom and Kirsten Dunst, in attendance.

The remarkably emotive and stylistic range of Wainwright’s music is chronicled on a 2018 double disc set titled “Year in the Making.” It summarizes 48 years of songs mostly through unreleased concert and demo recordings.

Need more incentive to head to Cincy on Saturday? Then catch “Loudon Wainwright III: Surviving Twin,” a filmed account of a solo Wainwright performance now showing on Netflix.

Amythyst Kiah/Joe Robinson

6:45 p.m. March 4 at the Lyric Theatre and Cultural Arts Center, 300 E. Third, for the WoodSongs Old-Time Radio Hour. $10. 859-280-2218. lexingtonlyric.tix.com.

Amythyst Kiah was essentially an unknown last summer when she played a set of stark blues, folk and spiritual staples (“Death Don’t Have No Mercy,” “Darlin’ Cory” and “Will the Circle Be Unbroken,” to be exact) at the Grand Theatre in Frankfort as a warm up for Rhiannon Giddens. Then you got to see how much the headliner took to the young Johnson City, Tenn.-based songsmith when she was invited back onstage for a collaborative cover of “Jolene.”

The partnership didn’t end there. Last week Smithsonian Folkways issued an album titled “Songs of Our Native Daughters.” Spearheaded by Giddens and produced by veteran Americana stylist Dirk Powell, the recording centers on a quartet of female African-American banjoists — Giddens, Kiah, Leyla McCalla and Allison Russell — performing a mix of slave-era narratives centered on survival in the face of sexual abuse, discrimination and sheer cultural horror.

“Somebody passed me a video of her singing,” Giddens said of Kiah in a Folkways promotional video. “I was immediately struck by the old soul quality of her voice and her commitment to the song and everything. I was like, ‘Who the hell is this?”

Kiah will perform in Lexington on March 4 for the weekly taping of the WoodSongs Old-Time Radio Hour at the Lyric Theatre and Cultural Arts Center. Also on the bill will be Australian guitarist Joe Robinson who, ironically, also played at the Grand last year. He served as part of Rodney Crowell’s trio for a November concert. He will showcase music from “Undertones,” a new album due out March 15.