Shakey Graves Brings Lone-Star Sound to New Orleans

Shakey Graves brings his Austin-bred sound to New Orleans, mixing blues, folk, country, and rock and roll into a single restless set. The musician and actor — seen in Friday Night Lights and the Spy Kids franchise — first turned heads with a homemade one-man band rig: a modified suitcase used as both kick drum and tambourine stand. That stripped-down setup defined his early records and still anchors his live shows.

His catalogue stretches from the self-released Roll the Bones through the band-backed And the War Came and into his fifth studio album, Fondness, Etc. Fans of the fuller sound may catch songs co-written with Esmé Patterson, including "Dearly Departed," while the solo material recaptures the intimacy of his time as official busker for the Railroad Revival Tour. However the set leans, the night should feel like a tour through a singular, hard-to-pin-down American songbook.