With a grunge-Dylan singer-songwriter fronting a particularly adept roots-rock band, Rhode Island’s Deer Tick might be one of the most promising new entities to hit the indie scene’s bar-band circuit over the past few years. On the band’s breakthrough second album, 2009’s Born on Flag Day, the mix of roots elements — country, folk, blues, ’50s rock, lazy, front-porch-style classic rock — are so thorough and yet so easily integrated into a seamless personal sound that the band evokes ’80s roots-rock heroes the Blasters more than any of their less-accomplished, more theoretical contemporaries. The band’s new album, The Black Dirt Sessions, is a somewhat softer record, with the roots influences toned down to highlight the croaky singing and sharp songwriting of bandleader John McCauley. I don’t know if that’s exactly an equally fruitful path, but it still works. Deer Tick plays the Hi-Tone Café Wednesday, August 4th, with Georgia rockers Dead Confederate opening. Showtime is 10 p.m. Admission is $10.
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