Country music’s been exported all over the globe since the early days of Armed Forces Radio at least, and sometimes we get the chance to hear it reflected back to us from a vivid outside perspective. In the hands of Henry Wagons — leader of the Australian band Wagons — country is full-blown theater, with larger-than-life characters and full immersion in the role onstage. On the band’s 2011 album
Rumble, Shake and Tumble, there’s a song named for Willie Nelson that puts its subject in tall-tale, John Henry-type territory, and Wagons himself possesses a dramatic, knowing and almost certainly Nick Cave-inspired baritone. Add in the rest of this show’s lineup — Kindling Stone, an acoustic trio that revives Shaker sensibilities; Chatham County Line, a youthful, ’60s rock-tweaking string band; the bluegrass-inspired Mosier Brothers; and Lilly Winwood, blues-singing daughter of Steve — and you've got plenty of musical territory covered, familiar and foreign.
— Jewly Hight