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More About

• Nathan Hamilton
• Steve Earle
• Robert Earl Keen
• Lyle Lovett
• Kerrville Folk Festival

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Nathan Hamilton, Tuesday, August 15, at Quixote’s True Blue and Wednesday, August 16, at the Dark Horse Saloon in Boulder, is on a roll these days. The Austin-based singer-songwriter (and former leader of the late Sharecroppers) has just won the revered New Folk award at this year’s Kerrville Folk Festival. It’s a serious honor, one that in the past has launched the careers of such heavies as Steve Earle, Lyle Lovett and Robert Earl Keen. Hamilton is building on this major dose of Americana credibility with the release of Tuscola, a collection of banged-up country tunes he hammers into shape with his group, No Deal. The disc features Hamilton’s rugged, ranch-hand voice, as well as a gravel-road feel and themes that include bar fights, gunfire, vengeance and other wholesome affairs. It’s the kind of meaty folk that insurgent country folks can find satisfying, with its blending of acoustic guitars, banjos and fiddles into spooky sketches. Tuscola’s characters drink in some tough places: In Devil’s Full Moon,: for example, closing time at the local joint leaves someone in the corner, spittin’ out a tooth: and a bartender wiping blood off the bar. Granted, this isn’t the kind of entertainment the Cheersclientele would go for. But fans of Hamilton’s award-winning predecessors just might.