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Recent Articles By Roy Kasten

  • The Campbell Brothers
    8 p.m. Friday, February 15 and 11 a.m. Saturday, February 16. Edison Theatre, 6445 Forsyth Boulevard
  • Nina Nastasia
    8:30 p.m. Saturday, February 9. The Bluebird, 2706 Olive Street.
  • Richard Thompson
    8 p.m. Monday, February 11. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Boulevard
  • Parachute Musical
    9 p.m. Friday, February 1. The Bluebird, 2706 Olive Street.
  • Giant Bear
    9 p.m. Wednesday, February 6. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Avenue.

National Features

Though they make their home on heavy-roots label Fat Possum, the Heartless Bastards follow the same end-run around the blues as PJ Harvey, Patti Smith and, to a lesser extent, their Ohio compatriots the Pretenders. Their overlooked 2006 album, All This Time, churns through chunky Les Paul riffs and some punk tempos for a dark look at the working-class Midwest; the Bastards choose to submerge their hooks and singer/guitarist Erika Wennerstrom's sex appeal in electric squalls and Kevin Vaughn's pile-driver drumming. But when Wennerstrom's lyrics cut through the din, they almost always make her blues ring true: "It's always those little things that eat at your soul," she sings on the closer, "Came a Long Way." "And I'm not going to worry about them no more."

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