Don’t assume that, because nedvango.com currently looks like a corporate Japanese website, that indicates some drastic change in ethnic direction for Ned Van Go the band. Generally speaking, their latest, Heartbreak City, still works a rough-around-the-edges, roots-rock bar-band sound like their first three albums. Only this time there’s a tad less power-pop spring in their steps (thankfully, there’s still plenty) and noticeably more Appalachian folk influence by way of ballads, fiddle, clawhammer banjo and mountain references. Ned Hill—founder, front man, primary songwriter and the possessor of a wiry everyman yelp—also took a break from tongue-in-cheek hillbilly novelty songs like “Death By Polygamy,” turning instead to slightly more sober assessments of environmental destruction (“Mountain Top Removal”) and hometown respect (“Oh, Nashville, you never liked us much / Oh Nashville, we’re your bastard sons”). They recorded an amped-up rockabilly version of a great Tom T. Hall song. What’s not to like?
Fri., Nov. 20, 9 p.m., 2009
Fri., Nov. 20, 9 p.m., 2009
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