Jack Emerson Memorial Concert

An introverted, laid-back man who loved extroverted, larger-than-life artists, Emerson was one of the central figures in the rise of rock ’n’ roll in Nashville during the 1980s. The co-founder of Praxis International with longtime business partners Andy McLenon and Kay Clary, Emerson died unexpectedly of a heart attack on Nov. 22. Although he’d recently battled respiratory ailments, including a lung-wrecking bout of double pneumonia, his death at age 43 came as a shock even to his closest friends and associates. At a recent memorial service at the Belcourt Theatre, several hundred mourners gathered to toast a man who all agreed had a rare integrity and a well-developed vision of the future of American roots rock. The performances that night were powerful, with each artist performing a favorite Emerson track that, in one way or another, dealt with fate, spirituality and finding one’s place in the world. The stories had as much impact. McLenon spoke of his friend’s generous spirit, his fan-centered way of dealing with artists and his unusually honest way of handling business. McLenon and others also spun tales about Emerson’s relationship with each of the long list of major artists with whom they’d worked. Many of those artists performed that night, including Steve Forbert, Dan Baird of The Georgia Satellites, Scott Miller of The V-Roys, Webb Wilder, Bill Lloyd and Steve Earle, as well as Jason Ringenberg and Warner Hodges of Jason & The Scorchers—the band that Emerson co-founded and that inspired him to form Praxis. This week’s monumental event underscores just how powerful Emerson’s musical legacy is. The lineup includes John Hiatt & The Goners (including ace guitarist Sonny Landreth), Billy Joe Shaver, Jason & The Scorchers, Steve Earle (backed by The Scorchers), Steve Forbert, Webb Wilder, Tim Krekel & The Sluggers, Jake Brennan and Bill Lloyd. It’ll be a historic night celebrating a man whose work testifies to the enormous force an individual can have on his community—indeed, on his generation. Tickets are available at www.mercylounge.com or by calling (800) 594-8499. Proceeds from the show will help defray the medical costs that Emerson and his family incurred during the months before his death. Mercy Lounge

—Michael McCall

Music

Thursday, 11th

Caroline Herring With all the emphasis on songwriting in today’s folk/Americana world, it feels like cheating to credit a musician for something she didn’t entirely create—her voice. But Herring’s womanly voice sets her apart. Warm and low, with a Mississippi accent and a thrill in her throat, it simultaneously coddles and energizes the listener. Herring’s second album, Wellspring, combines personal tales (“Magnolias”) with stylishly goofy country-swing fare like “Texas Two-Step.” On “Mortified,” she makes humiliation downright danceable. On the rich, catchy “Colorado Woman,” she colors the place where strength and interdependence meet: “Tonight, I want to be your strong Colorado woman / I don’t want to be your Mississippi girl.” A former Southern studies scholar, Herring also writes searching stories from the region’s past. What you’ll keep coming back to, though, is that voice. Radio Cafe

—Danielle Dreilinger

Shiner Massive One of the first acts on the newly revived Slash Records, Brooklyn eclecticists Shiner Massive aim to save the world (or at least your soul) with a politically informed amalgam of rap, punk, reggae, funk and jazz. On their self-titled debut, this concept manifests itself as dizzying maelstrom, like a slacker Rage Against the Machine, more Hendrix than Public Enemy. Onstage—at least judging by the DVD that accompanies their CD—Shiner Massive come across as energized young noisemakers desperate to communicate. Though their chosen medium opens the band up to accusations of self-righteousness (not to mention derivativeness), committed pop activists are still rare enough to be exciting, and maybe even essential. Exit/In

—Noel Murray

Friday, 12th

The Vulgar Boatmen The story of the Vulgar Boatmen is the tale of two bands—or, at least, of the hearts of two bands beating as one. The first, formed in 1981 by future Silos frontman Walter Salas-Humara, was a Florida unit that became the vehicle for Robert Ray, a professor of literature and film. The second, a group from Indiana, is the brainchild of erstwhile punk Dale Lawrence, who once took a class taught by Ray. Together, the two men wrote songs and quilted records long-distance, both of them singing and playing guitar parts that didn’t qualify merely as rhythm but certainly weren’t leads. The three albums they released—highlights of which were recently reissued on Wide Awake—were mesmerizing revelations in the spirit of The Velvet Underground’s third LP and The Feelies’ Good Earth, but were beholden to neither. Tuneful yet droning, quiet yet roiling, quotidian yet transcendental, the Vulgar Boatmen’s deceptively simple, incomparably subtle records plumb the heart’s secret recesses without pretense or ambition, as if that’s all there is to do, which of course is plenty. This gig pairs Lawrence and his unit with fellow Hoosier, former punk and Nashville favorite Tim Carroll. The End