17 March 27 - april 2, 2025 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents Nitty Gritty Dirt Band 7:30 P.M. FRIDAY, MARCH 28, TEXAS TRUST CU THEATRE, 1001 PERFORMANCE PLACE, GRAND PRAIRIE. $39+ AT AXS.COM Lest you doubt the durability of jug band music, consider the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. Sixty years ago, the sextet got its start in California as a practitioner of the craft (Jackson Browne was a founding member!), before pivoting in the direction of folk and Americana. The group’s breakthrough came in 1972, with the release of the seminal Will the Circle Be Unbroken, which functioned as something of a bridge from the clean-cut country music emanating from Nashville to the long-haired, drug-tinged country-rock taking hold out West. Unbroken featured a staggering number of country greats — Roy Acuff and “Mother” Maybelle Carter, among many others — and would spawn a pair of sequels. All good things must come to an end, however, as the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band has reached the terminus of its metaphorical road, touring broadly one final time on its “All the Good Times” farewell tour. Rodney Crowell will open. PRESTON JONES Sy Smith 8 P.M. FRIDAY, MARCH 28, KESSLER THEATER, 1230 W. DAVIS. $28+ AT PREKINDLE.COM The woman born Syretha Smith has quite the re- sume: Usher, Me’Shell NdegeOcello, Ginuwine and the late Whitney Houston all availed them- selves of her formidable singing abilities as a backing vocalist; Smith boasts a five-octave range. Sy Smith eventually embarked upon a solo career as a singer, songwriter and producer. Over the last 25 years, Smith has turned out six studio albums, including her latest, 2024’s Until We Meet Again, the tour for which will bring her to an intimate, acoustically inviting space in North Texas to unfurl her gorgeous, soul-infused songs. “I think I’m trying to enter a space in my life where, as I get older, I don’t become fearful,” Smith told Albumism.com in 2024. “I’ve seen people do that as they get older. They become more afraid of whatever, and it starts showing in their work, and I didn’t want to be like that.” DJ Pharoah will open. PJ Drew and Ellie Holcomb 8 P.M. SATURDAY, MARCH 29, MAJESTIC THEATRE, 1925 ELM ST. $21+ AT PREKINDLE.COM It may come as something of a mild surprise to learn Memory Bank is the first, official full-length studio effort credited equally to Drew and Ellie Holcomb — a surprise only in that the husband- and-wife team has made music together in some form over much of the last two decades. Ellie spent eight years as a member of Drew’s band, the Neighbors, before going it alone in 2014, with her solo debut As Sure As the Sun. “One of my favorite things about us doing music both together and separately is that there’s a massive amount of respect for each other,” Ellie told thebluegrasssituation.com in February. “... I think that mutual respect and space that we’ve given each other made space for us to make what we’ve released into the world now — and I love it.” PJ Shordie Shordie 8 P.M. SUNDAY, MARCH 30, CAMBRIDGE ROOM AT HOUSE OF BLUES, 2200 N. LAMAR ST. $41.75+ AT LIVENATION.COM Baltimore rapper Shordie Shordie (born RaQuan Hudson) has rocketed to the forefront of hip- hop in record time. Indifferent to rap until he formed the duo Peso da Mafia with PDM Purp in 2015, the pair dropped an acclaimed debut, Never a Drought, three years later. Shordie Shor- die also struck out on his own in 2018 and dropped his debut solo mixtape, Captain Hook. Celebrated for his idiosyncratic style — a be- witching fusion of singing and rapping — Shor- die Shordie has collaborated with a range of rap talents, including Offset, Rich Homie Quan and Murda Beatz. His relentless pace yielded a siz- able catalog in short order: Shordie Shordie is currently touring behind his most recent LP, last year’s Breath of Fresh Air. With Gritty Lex and Deuce Uno. PJ JD McPherson 8 P.M. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 2, TULIPS, 112 ST. LOUIS AVE., FORT WORTH. $28+ AT SEETICKETS.US Broken Arrow, Oklahoma-bred singer-song- writer and guitarist JD McPherson has leveraged the sonic sensibilities of yesteryear — the dawn of rock ‘n’ roll, when it was still deeply tangled in the roots of rockabilly and R&B — into a career that has seen him flourish as a solo artist and as a highly valued collaborator. He’s produced ev- eryone from the Cactus Blossoms to, most re- cently, Jessica Simpson, and even logged time as guitarist for Robert Plant and Alison Krauss’s side project. (Krauss savvily repays the favor, covering McPherson’s “North Side Gal” on her forthcoming Union Station LP Arcadia.) McPher- son is currently touring behind his fifth and most recent studio album, last year’s Nite Owls. “It’s good to finally have it out,” he told The Line of Best Fit last year. “It’s good to be planning to play these songs and trying something really new for me, to break the ice again, reintroduce myself to old friends and get out of the house alittle more.” J. Isaiah Evans & the Boss Tweed will provide support. PJ | LET’S DO THIS | t Music Jeff Fasano The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band is calling it quits after 60 years.
