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Tarbox Ramblers

Gritty practitioners of American roots music, the Tarbox Ramblers hail from Cambridge, Massachusetts but make the kind of music you’d expect to hear echoing out of a Southern church or juke joint from about the middle of the last century. Led by the dark slide guitar work and haunting vocals of Michael Tarbox, the band has been building a national following on the strength of their transcendent live shows and two critically praised releases on Rounder records. Greil Marcus had this to say of “Country Blues,” from the band’s most recent release A Fix Back East: “Tarbox is so growly he might as well be a bear, and when he applies himself to Dock Boggs’s 1927 testament to a wasted life, the startling boogie arrangement makes his voice feel like a put-up job. But his slide guitar makes another voice—and when Tarbox comes back singing in an almost delirious mode, he takes the song out of his head and into some ugly bar, where new people keep turning up even if no one’s left for years.” As an added bonus, come check out fabulous openers the Alison Pipitone Band.

Wednesday, April 11 at 9pm. Sportsmen’s Tavern, 326 Amherst Street (874-7734). Free.