Scenic City Roots tonight - May 1

photo Suzy Bogguss is touring in support of "Lucky," an album of all Merle Haggard songs.

Like John Hall of Hall & Oates did last month, another entertainer from a famous duo will showcase her solo work in the Scenic City Roots concert set for tonight, May 1, at Track 29. The two-hour musical variety show will start at 7 p.m.

Amy Ray, the brunette half of the Indigo Girls, will show her country side as part of a five-artist evening that also features Suzy Bogguss, Jim Lauderdale, The Rigneys and Uncle Lightnin'.

Bogguss began her career in country music in the early 1980s. She charted one platinum and three gold albums and had six Top 10 singles, including "Outbound Plane," "Aces" and "Letting Go." Her new album of all Merle Haggard songs, "Lucky," brings Bogguss full circle. It was a Haggard song, "Somewhere Between," that gave Bogguss her first hit 25 years ago.

Ray says early Nashville studio sounds informed her new solo project, a pure country "Goodnight Tender." PopMatters called it "a set of dusty, brutally and beautifully honest tunes that break your heart before healing it again."

Veteran musician and host Lauderdale serves as the musical emcee of the evening. He'll appear with a full band to preview a new double album coming in June called "I'm a Song."

The Rigneys are a family bluegrass band from the Nashville area. Their contemporary sound features the award-winning guitar and fiddle playing of brothers Andrew and Grant Rigney, backed by their mom and dad, Melissa and Mark Rigney, on upright bass and banjo.

Chattanooga-based Uncle Lightnin', founded in 1995, specializes in American music but also incorporate influences from the British invasion, punk and folk music from around the world.

Scenic City Roots shows are broadcast live on the Internet at www.sceniccityroots.com and on the radio at WPLZ-FM 106.9. They are taped and edited into four segments, which are shown consecutively each Thursday at 9 p.m. on WTCI-TV 45.

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